The Fabulous World of Jules Verne
| The Fabulous World of Jules Verne | |
|---|---|
Original Czech film poster
|
|
| Directed by | Karel Zeman |
| Produced by | Zdeněk Novák |
| Written by |
|
| Based on |
Facing the Flag by Jules Verne |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Zdeněk Liška |
| Cinematography | |
| Edited by | Zdeněk Stehlík |
| Distributed by |
|
|
Release date
|
|
|
Running time
|
83 minutes |
| Country | Czechoslovakia |
| Language | Czech |
The Fabulous World of Jules Verne (Czech: Vynález zkázy, literally The Deadly Invention or An Invention for Destruction) is a 1958 Czechoslovak adventure film directed by Karel Zeman, distributed in the U.S. in 1961. Based on several works by Jules Verne, primarily his 1896 novel Facing the Flag, the film evokes the original illustrations for Verne's works by combining live actors with various forms of animation.
A gang of pirates kidnap a scientist and two others to get the secret of the scientist's futuristic weapon for their piracy.
Karel Zeman, a Czech film director and animator, was deeply influenced by the novels of Jules Verne, making four feature films between 1955 and 1970 drawing extensively on Verne's Voyages Extraordinaires series. The first of these, Journey to the Beginning of Time, was inspired by Journey to the Center of the Earth and featured a scene in which its heroes directly acknowledged their fondness for reading Verne. The second of Zeman's Verne-based films was Vynález zkázy; the later ones were The Stolen Airship, based on Two Years' Vacation, and On the Comet, based on Hector Servadac.
The main literary source material for Vynález zkázy was Verne's 1896 novel Facing the Flag. However, rather than a straightforward literal adaptation of the novel, Zeman conceived the film as if the story were being retold by one of its characters, the young engineer Simon Hart. Moreover, since Facing the Flag included many memorable Vernian motifs—including submarines, volcanoes, mysterious figures in possession of powerful technologies, and other ideas—Zeman also opted to include themes and elements of other Verne novels. For example, the undersea sequences include references to Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, and the aircraft Albatross from Robur the Conqueror also makes an appearance. Another Verne novel, The Mysterious Island, may also have supplied some details.
...
Wikipedia