Tag Archives: Leoš Janáček

Remembering The Queen’s Monastery (Part 4)

The main theme of The Queen’s Monastery is love and war. Focusing on how war can change people beyond recognition.

Soldiers running through battlefield. Original film still, The Queen’s Monastery

Soldier searches for his wife’s lover. original still, The Queen’s Monastery

Touching upon the idea of how killing and power are deep rooted sexual instincts. The original music by Leoš Janáček, The Sinfonetta (subtitled “Military Sinfonietta” or “Sokol Festival”) was written just after the end of World War One and the film is inspired by this and incorporates imagery from the battlefields.

The Queen’s Monastery. Conceived, animated and directed by EMMA CALDER. Music by Leoš Janáček. Produced by Pearly Oyster Productions 1998 © Pearly Oyster Productions/ BBC Bristol.

Short Synopsis: The film is about a woman whose lover, a former acrobat, has returned to her from war a changed man. Using a highly individual watercolour technique the narrative explores themes of love, escapist fantasy, obsession and guilt.

Background Detail: The woman cannot come to terms with her soldier lover who has changed so much due to the horrors of war. So she fantasises about the man he used to be. The soldier imagines that the woman loves someone else and that she has been unfaithful to him. Scenes of 1st world war battle scenes end with a tormented battle aggravated by the experiences of war, between the soldier and the acrobat on the spiral staircase to the monastery. The battle is not just a fight between two parts of self but, of a nation. (This links to the patriotic feeling in the music and to Czechoslovak history past and future).

Solder close up on stairs, Emma Calder 1998

Solder chases the acrobat up the stairs. Original film still, The Queen’s Monastery

Although much of the film is depicted through the actions of the male character it is the woman’s vision of the man she loves that we see, and it her feelings, traumas, and fight for happiness that we feel.

Woman looks through curtains. Original film Still, The Queen’s Monastery

Festivals: The film had a very successful festival, cinema and TV outing for at least fours years after it was completed, I still get regular requests for screenings. For more info on festivals and prizes please look on the film page.

Future Plans: I am now planning to have an exhibition featuring artwork, scripts, notebooks from the film, alongside the film, to tie in with events planned around the centenary of World War One. Approx 15,000 pieces of artwork and animation drawings exist.

Woman and Acrobat at the bottom of the stairs. Original film still, The Queen’s Monastery

In addition it would be fantastic to have a live orchestra perform the piece. I had wanted Sir Charles Mackerras to conduct but, sadly he died. I wish I had tried to sort this out sooner but, I got so busy with other things.

To read about my latest commissioned film, please click here.

Remembering The Queen’s Monastery (Part 3)

Back to Part 2. S4C The Welsh Broadcaster, invited me to enter a competition for animators, to create film ideas for an animation, set to and inspired by a piece of out of copyright classical music.

Early design idea for The Queen’s Monastery. First ideas for trumpeters

I had always been interested in the relationship between sound and visual ideas and all my previous work had strong original music which I had sound scripted. This was a new challenge as I was not a classical music expert and had no experience with working with a pre-composed piece of music.

I went to the library and borrowed dozens of LP’s yet, they all seemed too popular and overly romantic, I simply wasn’t inspired. Then in the pile, was a then relatively unknown Czech composer, called Leoš Janáček, the music was The Sinfonietta. I was blown away. Just like Haruki Murakami was to be later, when he used the piece as central to his plot for his 2009 trilogy 1Q84.

Immediately I listened to the music, very clear images entered my head. I started to see the relationship between the film I had already been thinking about, the style of the dribbly watercolours I had been developing and the narrative ideas within the musical composition. I knew nothing about Janáček, the story behind the music, the name of the section that I wanted to use, all my ideas were derived purely from listening to this highly emotional, patriotic and passionate score.

Fanfares of the Sinfonietta Janáček’s autographed score. (Taken from Wikipedia)

I started to write down images that the instrumentation conjured up. Military bands, with soldiers, a town square, a woman looking out of a window with blowing curtains in a Monastery, staircases, running and more. Then piccolo sounds, like monkey noises made me think of an acrobat and there in front of me was the outline story. Which I wrote in a morning.

Emma’s notes response to music

Original Acrobat Pyramid Design rough for The Queen’s Monastery

I borrowed or bought every recording and chose what I considered to be the best. Sir Charles Mackerras/Vienna Philharmonic: London 410138-2. Sir Charles was the worlds leading Janáček expert although I had no idea at the time.

Then I started to research Janáček’s life and The Sinfonietta. My findings were remarkable. The title of the movement I had chosen to script. Was in fact The Queen’s Monastery, Janáček had grown up in a monastery in Brno. All my other ideas fitted too. Janáček had been commissioned at the end of the first world war, to write the music for a festival of gymnastics, to be held in Brno town square. The work was dedicated to the Czech armed forces and was a tribute to the town of Brno, now free from the yoke of German authority. Janáček’s best music was written in the last twenty years of his life after he fell obsessively in Love with a Kamila Stösslová 40 years his junior, whom it appears did not succumb to his passions. He also wrote the music while sitting with her in Brno Town Square and used monkey noises for inspiration for some elements of his very complex composition. Which was played by a 101 piece orchestra.

The combination of Janáček’s obsessive fantasies and my central characters own fantasies. The fact that my imaginings of all the locations were so accurate in relationship to the music, helped me develop my story even further. It was so exciting to have been able to see so clearly what Janáček had in his mind when writing the music and how it had led to my own story’s creation.

I used dribly watercolours of soldiers and acrobats to present the design ideas. Developed the themes about love and war. Researched Czechoslovakia’s involvement in the first world war, went to the Imperial War Museum to study footage of soldiers etc.

rough designs for the arobat from The Queen's Monastery

Original rough designs for the acrobat from The Queen’s Monastery

Finally in 1996, I got the money from London Production fund, BBC Bristol and The National Lottery but, not from S4C as at one point because of the change in copy right laws the music had gone back into copyright, but then it came back out again so I was able to use it. But by that time it was to late for S4C.

Read part 4

Remembering The Queen’s Monastery (Part 2)

Continued from Part 1.

Around 1992, I was helping Ged Haney, my former business partner finish off his film The Kings of Siam. We were at the artwork stage and I was in charge of mixing all the inks and supervising a team of painters to colour in Ged’s drawings. His was a very neat style, I was getting bored doing it and dying for the film to be finished, we had been working on it seven years! Around the same time our producer Lee Stork had given us a big pile of old unused sketch books from the 1950’s, they were very dusty and yellow with old fashioned covers. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on them.

Very First page from my Favorite Sketch Book

Emma Calder’s Favorite Sketch Book

One evening when all our staff had gone home, I was alone sorting out inks and work for the next day, when I suddenly had an idea. Opening one of the little watercolour pads I started cleaning the dirty paint brushes out on the pages, I continued until I had filled the whole book. Then I took a pencil and turned the blobs into characters and there in front of me was a brand new style. Over the next few weeks I continued with the blobs added splashes and dribbles but, I had no idea where it was going, I was also working on ideas for a film about infidelity and loving two men and then an opportunity to use both turned up.

Favourite Sketch Books, given by Lee Stork

Watercolour of Emma by Emma in 1992

To be continued…