The Hand

Duration: 19

Year Published: 1965

Creator: McGraw-Hill

Format: 16mm

Color: Color

Sound: sound

Description: Puppet animation is used to present an allegory about a solitary man whose only pleasure is a flower to which he devotes his love. As he lovingly fashions a clay pot for it, a giant hand intrudes and uses a variety of means to persuade the man to sculpt its image. When the potter refuses, he is transformed into a marionette, caged and forced to chisel a giant hand out of stone. Although the prisoner finally escapes, he meets a tragic and ironic end. In the words of the filmmaker: The hand is a force which compels each individual to do what he does not wish to do. Like a thread there runs through history something one might define as an institution, convinced that its truth is universal truth..., Using the art of puppetry in which Jiri Trnka excels, a human hand in many costumes, movements and postures, attempts to force a man (or everyman) to do its will through all manner of persuasion. Animated.

Complete Record: Puppet animation is used to present an allegory about a solitary man whose only pleasure is a flower to which he devotes his love. As he lovingly fashions a clay pot for it, a giant hand intrudes and uses a variety of means to persuade the man to sculpt its image. When the potter refuses, he is transformed into a marionette, caged and forced to chisel a giant hand out of stone. Although the prisoner finally escapes, he meets a tragic and ironic end. In the words of the filmmaker: The hand is a force which compels each individual to do what he does not wish to do. Like a thread there runs through history something one might define as an institution, convinced that its truth is universal truth... , Using the art of puppetry in which Jiri Trnka excels, a human hand in many costumes, movements and postures, attempts to force a man (or everyman) to do its will through all manner of persuasion. Animated., NOTE: Two (or more) records have been merged together to create this data.