Balada o zeleném drevu (1983) watch online HD

The former Czechoslovakia has produced noted stop motion animators like Jiří Trnka (known as the Walt Disney of Eastern Europe), Jan Švankmajer (an undeniable influence on Terry Gilliam and Tim Burton) and Jiří Barta. The latter's short films include "Balada o zeleném dřevu" ("A Ballad about Green Wood" in English). It shows what appears to be a series of free-associative images looking at the changing seasons, along with wood getting chopped, and a bird who eats some of the wood and his a mind-bending experience. Lots of the Czech stop motion cartoons were like this, with plots that sometimes gave "Yellow Submarine" a run for its money. And I've liked every one that I've seen, including this one.

This is a strange animated short. To be perfectly honest, I don't really know what the point of all it was, though it was very fun to watch and beautiful to look at; thus, I'll just accept it at that level. It starts with a man chopping some wood, the pieces of which then begin to dance and march, and then a single piece with goes on an adventure and transmogrifies into various other substances such as a bird, ice, and rock.

The movie is slightly circuitous as it ends back in the same place it starts, with a hint that it all happens again. Allusions to seasonal changes and repetitious days add another level of birth-growth-death.

The animation is decent, a little more jagged than a lot of other stop-motion animation out there, but Barta seems to be playing a lot with different ideas in this short, so all told its hard to really say that he's doing anything wrong. If anything, this is a good short of his to see for the purposes of getting a little into his humor and fairytale ideas to prepare for seeing "The Pied Piper of Hamelin".

--PolarisDiB

"Balada o zeleném drevu" or "A Ballad About Green Wood" is a 10-minute movie from Czechoslovakia and it was written and directed by Jirí Barta, one of the Czech Republic's most influential filmmakers in the last 40 years. When he made this one here, he was already a fairly prolific filmmaker, even if he was only in his mid 30s. Green is a very dominant color in here, not only because of the wood, but also because of all the grass and it feels that the camera has a great shade of green during the entire movie. It is one of these film's where I had no idea what was going on exactly, but still found it interesting. This is a goal that all experimental filmmakers should have, but only very few succeed sadly. We see a couple pieces of wood and it seems they are about to praise a creature that is somewhat the mix of a crow with the body of another piece of wood. Maybe they like it so much because it can fly? I am not sure. Go make up your mind for yourself. I recommend this movie here. Nicely executed, good music as well.