Michaela Pavlatova

Early Czech animators were faced with the misfortune of Soviet censors scrutinizing their work. Michaela Pavlatova was fortunate enough to miss these times in Czech history, but they are evident in her work in other ways. Absurdity and sexuality seem to be a response to the "sphere of personal relationships rather than the Communist State" in her work. Michaele Pavlatova has claimed that real life can be more interesting than the imaginary and as a result, she works with themes of relationships and libido driven situations that she observes from life and recreates with her own interpretation. Taken from the autobiographical documentary This Could Be Me (1996) Pavlatova admits ‘I like the world of ordinary things. Reality can be more interesting than fiction." Carnival of Animals as well as The Crossword Puzzle focus on sexually driven characters. In the first, absurdity is evident in the craze of women, men, and animals, who interact and frolic sexually to no end. In The Crossword Puzzle, a woman with one thing on her mind waits for her husband to get in bed with her. Preferring to work on his crossword puzzle, the husband only equals her excitement when her distractions help him to solve a clue. Both animations deal with human sexuality and poke fun at our own obsessions and fascinations with sex. The Crossword Puzzle makes a more direct comment on a frustration she voices from a woman's point of view in a humorous and light manner.



Melanie