Týrlová Hermína was born in 1900 in the village of Brezova Hory, near the mining town of Pribram, Central Bohemia. As a teenager her artistic vocation took her to Prague. She acted, danced and sang in a theater in suburban Havana. She also began to draw and write poems for children’s magazines. At 26 she met Karel Dodal, later husband. He initiated into her the secrets of advertising animated film. Before the Second World War they filmed together five animated advertising films. In 1939 Karel Dodal went into exile, while Hermína Týrlová stayed in the country. And there again fate intervened. The then director of film studies Bata Zlín city in eastern Moravia, Ladislav Kolda, offered him the chance to shoot feature-length cartoons. Týrlová accepted the offer, in 1941 moved to Moravia and remained there until the end of her life.
In 1944 her film Ferda Mravenec aka Ant Fernando (based on the children’s book of the same name, written by writer and illustrator Ondrek Sekora) was… read more
Týrlová Hermína was born in 1900 in the village of Brezova Hory, near the mining town of Pribram, Central Bohemia. As a teenager her artistic vocation took her to Prague. She acted, danced and sang in a theater in suburban Havana. She also began to draw and write poems for children’s magazines. At 26 she met Karel Dodal, later husband. He initiated into her the secrets of advertising animated film. Before the Second World War they filmed together five animated advertising films. In 1939 Karel Dodal went into exile, while Hermína Týrlová stayed in the country. And there again fate intervened. The then director of film studies Bata Zlín city in eastern Moravia, Ladislav Kolda, offered him the chance to shoot feature-length cartoons. Týrlová accepted the offer, in 1941 moved to Moravia and remained there until the end of her life.
In 1944 her film Ferda Mravenec aka Ant Fernando (based on the children’s book of the same name, written by writer and illustrator Ondrek Sekora) was released. She built all the puppets, she decorated the sets, and moved the puppet’s herself. The film was a success. The puppet of Ant Fernando can be found on the museum of Toys and Figures in Spain, next to creations from Salvador Dali’s sister.
In 1947 Hermina worked with Karel Zeman on " The Revolt of the Toys". Along with the toys was a live actor. The film tells the tale of toys who rose up against a Nazi because he wanted to destroy them. The film won the award for best children’s film in the Venice International FIlm Festival. The director found the protagonist of the next film, “Lullaby”, in a pram shop front. A baby with big blue eyes curiously observing the world. In the movie “Lullaby” Týrlová encouraged to entertain the baby doll until he fell asleep.
In the hands of Hermína Týrlová began to live bits of glass, wool, tin foil, the most diverse objects, marbles, a ball, an apron, a letter or a knot in your handkerchief. “The knot in the scarf”, symbol of the lack of human memory, was shot in 1958. Týrlová Hermína had no children of their own. But as she pointed out, her children were all children of the world, white, black, yellow. She won awards in the Locarno, Montevideo, Mar del Plata, and San Sebastian film festivals. —Radio Praha
