This film is currently unavailable
Invention for Destruction
Karel Zeman's wildly inventive take on the stories of Jules Verne, told with a ground-breaking, pre-'steampunk' combination of live-action, animation and design.
Director: Karel Zeman
Overview
Karel Zeman's heartfelt homage to Jules Verne's wonderful tales of science and adventure, and a valiant cry against man's propensity for self-destruction by the ‘Czech Méliès’, who has been a profound influence on generations of filmmakers.
Originally released to huge success in 1960 as The Fabulous World of Jules Verne, it tells the story of the brilliant but naïve scientist Roch, whose inventions are coveted by the power-hungry Count Artigas wanting to take over the world. When pirates in a submarine kidnap Roch, taking him to Artigas’s laboratory to develop a superweapon, it is up to Roch’s assistant Hart to warn an unsuspecting world to rally and defend itself. Wildly inventive, and breaking new ground in its combination of live-action, animation and design, Invention for Destruction created a 'steampunk' aesthetic decades ahead of its time with Zdeněk Liška being responsible for the innovative music, from elegant harpsichord to foursquare fairground waltz and beyond.
very mild threat, violence
Related
Edit Edit
Animation & Artists Moving Image 2014 30 mins Director: Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard
Short film by musician Joe McAlinden (BMX Bandits) and artists Iain & Jane (20,000 Days on Earth) about loss, truth and the emotional power of the sea
Memoir of a Snail Memoir of a Snail
Animation & Artists Moving Image 2024 95 mins Director: Adam Elliot
Nick Cave and Sarah Snook voice an Oscar-nominated stop-motion classic of divided twins, told with adult candour and uncanny warmth.
Ghost in the Shell Ghost in the Shell
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1995 83 mins Director: Mamoru Oshii
Mamoru Oshii's beautifully animated and disturbingly prophetic anime classic about the hunt for a supreme hacker in a transhumanist dystopia.
Watership Down Watership Down
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1978 92 mins Director: Martin Rosen
An apocalyptic vision pushes a group of rabbits to abandon their warren in search of a new home, in this landmark British animation.
Requiem for a Village Requiem for a Village
Documentary 1975 68 mins Director: David Gladwell
The idyllic, pastoral past of a Suffolk village is reborn through memory in this extraordinary, little-known film from director David Gladwell.
Un Chien Andalou Un Chien Andalou
Animation & Artists Moving Image 1928 16 mins Silent Director: Luis Buñuel
A scabrous study of desire, the subconscious and anti-clericalism - Buñuel and Dalí’s provocative first film is a classic of Surrealist cinema.
The Marching Band The Marching Band
Drama 2023 103 mins Director: Emmanuel Courcol
An acclaimed conductor strikes up a relationship with a brother he never knew he had in this touching French drama with echoes of Brassed Off.
Eclipse Eclipse
Drama 1976 85 mins Director: Simon Perry
Unsettling, little-seen 1970s psychological thriller – a story of sibling rivalry set on the lonely Scottish coast, with Tom Conti and Gay Hamilton.
Vampyros Lesbos Vampyros Lesbos
Horror 1971 89 mins Director: Jesús Franco
Jesús Franco’s dreamily seductive, sun-kissed take on Dracula is one of his most famous works; famed for its hip, psychedelic-loungecore soundtrack.
84 Charlie MoPic 84 Charlie MoPic
War 1989 91 mins Director: Patrick Duncan
Cult 'found footage' war film following a Vietnam patrol unit from the perspective of an embedded combat cameraman.
War and Peace War and Peace
Documentary 2002 134 mins Director: Anand Patwardhan
The rise of nuclear nationalism in 1990s India is explored in a powerful and personal documentary from Anand Patwardhan.
Traffic Traffic
Crime 2000 147 mins Director: Steven Soderbergh
Steven Soderbergh’s Oscar-winning ensemble drama explores America’s war on drugs at the start of the 21st century.