Articulations between screenplay and production design: Ester Krumbachová

• Grant number: 24/00235-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: August 01, 2024
• End date: July 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Arts - Cinema
• Principal Investigator: Esther Império Hamburger
• Grantee: Luiza Wollinger Delfino
• Host Institution: Escola de Comunicações e Artes (ECA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 25/01896-5 - Ester Krumbachová: the obscured lady of Czech cinema, BE.EP.MS

Abstract

This project aims to investigate the links between the fields of screenwriting and production design in cinema, based on a case in which both functions are performed by the same professional: Czech costume designer, art director and screenwriter, Ester Krumbachová. The objects of analysis are her four original screenplays and films, collected at the Czech National Film Archive during a FAPESP research internship in 2022. The hypothesis refers to the visual-aesthetic valorisation from the genesis of cinematographic creation and how Krumbachová's creative processes suggest alternative audiovisual production logics, since her filmography is marked by recurring collaborations and all her scripts are co-written. The films are highly stylised, with inspiration from "Belle Époque" visuals for the costumes and set decoration, and fragmented narratives that value a surreal rather than causal logic between events. These are also films in which sensory appeal is latent. Krumbachová's films retain a certain element of free-flowing creative thought and, in a preliminary analysis to be deepened in the research, her scripts already express this freedom of narrative flow.