After watching this animation all the way through in class, I didn't have much of an idea about the context of the piece only that it had an underlying message of political power. However, after some research I figured that the animation was related to the Communist ear in Czechoslovakia, and it began to make a little more sense to me when I watched it a second time round.
From what I gathered from the animation, the main character is a symbolism for society with the hand being the symbolism for political power. The character simply wishes to create pottery, in particular, small clay plant pots in which he can place his most cherished plant. However, the Hand comes along and demands that the character make statues to the Hand's ideals. Right there we have a demonstration of power and it relates to the situations that most artists found themselves in, in Czechoslovakia, 1965 when the political body would demand that artists create work to satisfy the political needs rather than doing it simply because they enjoyed it. In order to get what it wants the Hand uses seduction, money, fear and finally brutal force in order to get the character to do its bidding until in the end that character has been frightened and threatened so much so, that he simply turns into a real life puppet, making the character completely powerless.
This is when the Hand begins to physically manipulate the character, like you would a puppet, in order to do his work. To me this symbolises the powerlessness of the society at the time and the fear that the political body placed among their society. I feel that by turning the character into a real life puppet, Trnka was able to very effectively distill that sense of helplessness and powerlessness into the audience. Not only dose he use this scene to do this, but Trnka also uses a range of low angled shots in order to make the audience feel inferior to the Hand, demonstrating the lack of power society had against the political body.
Overall, I feel that this animation was very good at raising the awareness of the struggles of a society within the Communist era, particularly in Czechoslovakia and of how the political body exploited and manipulated a society in order to gain what they wanted. Having said this, I did find the animation very strange, yet aesthetically pleasing.
The second animation we watched was "Ersatz (Surogat)" by Zagreb Film, 1961.
Unlike, "The Hand", I understood that this animation was about ego, superior gender and, similarly to "The Hand", manipulation, yet in a slightly different way. Instantly this animation came across as less serious and as more of a comedic story with an underlying message that, at the time in the 1960's, would have been a lot less harmful to an audience than "The Hand".
In this animation a male character goes for a day out at the beach, which is his ideal view, as the whole scene is inflated. He then begins to inflate all the objects he desires to suite his needs before moving on to inflate a girlfriend. This is when the true manipulation begins. He decides that the first girl he inflates doesn't have the desired looks he wants in a woman, she has large hips and thighs and small breasts, so he deflates her and chooses another one. The second inflated woman is the complete opposite of the first, having a small waist, being slim and having large breasts. However, he is still not happy with this and he manipulates the size of the woman's assets by increasing their size by a considerable amount. This, to me, symbolises the idea that men were the superior gender in the 1960's and that women believed this to be so. It also demonstrates that women were idealised and objectified in the 1960's.
I feel that this animation also says a great deal about egotistical views back in the 1960's and how ego played a big part in which women men were more likely to want to be seen with. What interests me the most about this animation is that its context is still applicable to today despite the fact that it was made 40+ years ago. there are still women who are being exploited and objectified. However, I feel that if this animation was created today it would be seen, by a large amount of people, as offensive due to the rising equality between the genders and the improvement in views about women.
Overall, I find that, although this animation touches upon an important subject, it still has a high comedic factor, which I also find interesting, as today the subject wouldn't be seen as funny yet it was back in the 1960's. I also found this animation aesthetically pleasing and enjoyed the small tune that the character sang as he went along.
Between the two animations I feel that the underlying messages overlap both directly and indirectly, as they both touch upon similar issues, yet in a different way. I feel that "The Hand" is a much more powerful animation and that the message is a lot more clearer and a lot more forceful in the sense that you remember the animation and that it makes you feel uncomfortable and it makes you think about what is going on within the story. Whereas "Ersatz" has more of a comedic factor, dimming the underlying messages and making them a lot less clear to read. Having said this I preferred the second animation, "Ersatz", simply because of the comedy factor and because it didn't make me feel uncomfortable unlike "The Hand".
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