ABSTRACT
Jiří Trnka’s career as a director lasted 20 years, from his debut hand-drawn short film Grandpa Planted a Beet (1945) to his sour farewell to puppet animation, The Hand (1965). In both cases, Vacláv Trojan was at the director’s side, providing music for his animated images. In between, Trnka authored 23 more short films and five full-length features; Trojan scored 15 of those shorts (including the aforementioned first and last) and all five of his colleague’s features. In the first ten years of Trnka’s directorial activity, Trojan worked with him on at least one film per year: this rhythm was interrupted only by Trnka’s hiatus of 1957–1959, when he dedicated himself to illustration. After the works of 1958–1959 (the short Proč UNESCO [Why UNESCO?], 1958, and the feature A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 1959), Trnka greatly reduced his production; he directed just three more shorts before his retirement. Trojan returned only for the concluding The Hand.
