Baron Prasil (Baron Munchausen) - Karel Zeman (1961)

Baron Prasil -- Karel Zeman (1961)



AKA Baron Munchausen.............................................................................



A beautiful high quality rip by trastolillu of the original Czech version

of the movie.



As the reviewers say (below), this is a truly magical film. For some strange

reason there are no English subs, so I have created them based on some Spanish

language subs (both are included, although the Spanish timings are seriously

incorrect for this rip)



Spoken language: Czech

Subtitles: English, Spanish (both external)



Some screenshots:

http://freakyflicks.proboards54.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=6&thread=3088&page=1



.............................................................................

DATA



Writing credits:

Jirí Brdecka dialogue

Gottfried August Bürger book

Josef Kainar dialogue

Rudolph Erich Raspe stories

Karel Zeman screenplay



Music: Zdenek Liska

Camera: Jiri Tarantik

Production design: Karel Zeman



Cast:

Milos Kopecký ... Baron Munchausen

Rudolf Jelínek ... Tonik

Jana Brejchová ... Princess Bianca

Karel Höger ... Cyrano



...........................................................................

IMDB comments



Zeman's magnum opus is every bit as compelling and otherworldly as the legends

indicate. In fact, as I also have FABULOUS WORLD OF JULES VERNE & ON THE COMET

on tape, take my word for it: PRASIL/MUNCHAUSEN is the Zeman to see if your

only seeing one. Given those hallucinatory Gustav Dore-meets- Arthur Rackham

visuals, the wildly disjointed narrative and from-hunger post-synched

soundtrack actually ADD to the out-of-body experience that is this film.

It's like stumbling into somebody else's fever dream. While Zeman's other

films generally succumb to a deadly torpor around halfway through, this one

is just so jampacked with surreal oddities and unforgettable bizarro setpieces

that you're in flabbergasted joy right through to the end. Terry Gilliam

(a major Zeman fan) attempted a lavish remake that missed the whole point of

this film's one-of-a-kind quality: the sense throughout that this is a

handcrafted film, an artisan's project free of studio meddling, brand name

stars or big budget elephantiasis. PRASIL's amateurism is its crowning glory.

Essential viewing...at least once.(Fowler-1, Los Angeles)



I don't see how anyone will ever top Karel Zeman's version of this story.

It's unfortunate that it is so difficult to find. It has a beautiful score

and the execution of the animation and visual effects are flawless. Zeman's

artwork is quite amazing and is the grandfather of the look in films that was

yet to come with the advent of CGI. He combines animation, matte paintings

and stop-motion puppets to create the world of Baron Prasil or Baron Munchausen

if you saw it in the United States. Released to laserdisc back in 1989, it is

now only available on Japanese Region 2 NTSC DVD. I managed to get a copy but

it is not dubbed or subtitled into English but that's okay because in a Karel

Zeman movie, the visuals ARE the story so you can probably figure out what is

happening without understanding the dialogue. Some people consider this to be

Zeman's finest film. I have a hard time deciding if I like this one better than

INVENTION OF DESTRUCTION or JOURNEY TO PRIMEVAL AGES. In any case, it's a

remarkable and unique film so catch it if you can.(LJ27, Canada)"Baron Munchausen" ("Baron Prasil" in Czech) is one of the most charming and

poetic movies among those thousands which I saw ...It is that very rare kind

of movie I love to see for dozen and dozen of times, in virtually any mood

and time ...Old illustrations by Gustave Dore brought to life by an

unforgettable visual imagination of Karel Zeman ...Everything dressed in a

soft melancholy of an enchanting music by great Zdenek Liska, so simple and

sophisticated at the same time...Though Zeman is mostly painting his magic

world by his unique visual creativity, those able to understand the Czech

dialogues get another lovely dimension, inhabited by fine jokes and

never-tiring games with words...And of course, Milos Kopecky as the Baron is

the very symbol and soul of Munchausen ...An essential classic movie for every

true film fan (not recommended for nervous consumers and victims of Hollywood

moneymakers, however). How much those modern versions of Munchausen (and

whatever are their modifications and names) miss the point of this magic

Zeman's version: its fundamental visual craftsmanship, soft melancholy of a

fable, an inspired music, and everything in a perfect union ...How poor and

tedious is 99.99% of that Hollywood stuff in comparison with this Zeman's

masterpiece ...No, they cannot do such a movie any more with all those

naturalistic computer tricks, but a total lack of Karel Zeman's insight and

visual poetry... (Ales, Czechoslovakia)



.............................................................................



SPECS



File Name .............: Baron_Prasil.avi

File Size (in bytes) ..: 1,642,168,320 bytes

Runtime (# of frames) .: 1:20:09 (120201 frames)



Video Codec ...........: XviD 1.0.1

Frame Size ............: 560x408 [=1.373]

FPS ...................: 25.000

Video Bitrate .........: 2530 kb/s

Bits per Pixel ........: 0.443 bpp

B-VOP, N-VOP, QPel, GMC ......: [B-VOP]...[]...[]...[]



Audio Codec ...........: 0x2000 (Dolby AC3) AC3

Sample Rate ...........: 48000 Hz

Audio bitrate .........: 192 kb/s [2 channel(s)] CBR audio

Interleave ............: 40 ms

No. of audio streams ..: 1



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