Czechoslovakia, 1961
Length / The Fabulous Baron Munchausen:
Blu-Ray (24fps): 85 minutes
DVD (25fps): 81 minutes
Special features (Blu-ray): 163 mins
Special features (DVD): 59 mins
Sound /
Blu-Ray:
2.0 Dual Mono LPCM (48k/24-bit)
Sound /
DVD: 2.0 Dolby Mono
Colour
Original aspect ratio:
1.37:1
Language: Czech
Subtitles: English
Blu-Ray: BD50
/ 1080 / 24fps / Region ABC
DVD: PAL / DVD9 / 25 fps / Region 0
Blu-Ray RRP: £19.99
DVD RRP: £12.99
Release Date: 24 July 2017
Second Run DVD 117 / SRBD 006
DVD |
Blu-Ray |
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Often described as the ‘Czech Méliès’, visionary filmmaker Karel Zeman is treasured by generations of filmmakers worldwide, from Jan Švankmajer to Tim Burton, the Quay Brothers to Terry Gilliam, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Wes Anderson. His ground-breaking innovations in the use of live-action and animation mark him as one of the great masters of 20th Century fantasy cinema, ranking alongside his more celebrated Western counterparts Willis O’Brien and Ray Harryhausen. The Fabulous Baron Munchausen is perhaps Zeman’s most beloved achievement.
Zeman’s wildly inventive and comic take on the surreal adventures of the bragging Baron explodes on to the screen in a riot of colour, visual wit and poetic verve. A celebration of human imagination, The Fabulous Baron Munchausen has become widely recognised as a classic - a timeless work that continues to astonish.
Presented from a new 4K restoration of the film, our release includes a new and expansive filmed appreciation by writer, editor and film historian Michael Brooke, a wealth of additional special features and a new essay on the film by journalist and critic Graham Williamson.
The Blu-ray edition also includes Tomáš Hodan's acclaimed
feature-length documentary Film Adventurer Karel Zeman.
• Presented from a new 4K restoration of the film.
• Film Adventurer Karel Zeman (2015, 102 mins): feature length documentary on the life, work and influence of Karel Zeman with contributions from Terry Gilliam, Tim Burton, Koji Yamamura and others (BLU-RAY EXCLUSIVE)
• Baron Munchausen: Facts and Fibs (2017, 36 mins): a new and exclusive filmed appreciation by the writer, editor and film historian Michael Brooke
Featurettes:
• The Birth of a Film Legend
• Karel Zeman and the World
• Why Zeman Made the Film
• The Cast
• Zeman's Special Effects Techniques
• Karel Zeman, the Legend Continues
• Trailer
• Museum Karel Zeman promo
• 16-page booklet featuring a new essay on the film by journalist and critic Graham Williamson.
• New and improved English subtitle translation.
• Available for the first time ever in the UK
Directed by Karel Zeman
Screenplay - Karel Zeman, Josef Kainar, Jiří Brdečka
Adapted from works by Gottfried August Bürger
and Gustave Doré
Director of Photography - Jiří Tarantík
Editor - Věra Kutilová
Sound - František Strangmüller
Music - Zdeněk Liška
Set Construction - Zdeněk Rozkopal
Animators - Arnošt Kupčík, Jindřich Liška, František Krčmár
Cast
Miloš Kopecký - Baron Munchausen
Jana Brejchová - Princess Bianca
Rudolf Jelínek – Tony
Rudolf Hrušínský - The Sultan
Karel Höger - Cyrano de Bergerac
Eduard Kohout - General Ellemerle
Jan Werich - Ship's Captain
František Šlégr - Pirate Captain
Otto Šimánek - Michel Ardan
"Why do I make movies? I'm looking for terra incognita, a land on which no filmmaker has yet set foot, a planet where no director has planted his flag of conquest, a world that exists only in fairy tales" Karel Zeman
"He did what I'm still trying to do, which is to try and combine live action with animation. His Doré-esque backgrounds were wonderful. The film captured the real spirit of the character" Terry Gilliam
"Zeman's films are unique glimpses into forgotten worlds of myth, invention and exploration. One almost needs a telescope to view them" Peter Strickland
“Karel Zeman and Ray Harryhausen were the two big inspirations for me… what Zeman did was amazing”
Tim Burton
"Of all the takes on the oft-filmed debonair teller of outlandish heroic tales [...} Karel Zeman’s remains the most novel, formally and narratively. With its imagery tinted like Victorian postcards and with colour applied with Expressionistic gusto, it’s surely the most beautiful, too, as it melds live-action with cut-out and other forms of animation, rhyming all awhile with a dreamlike Zdeněk Liška score"
Cerise Howard, Senses of Cinema
"This immensely stylized, transfixingly beautiful mix of animation and live-action from the 'Czech Méliès'. A colourful, mind expanding masterpiece" Blue Sunshine
