Still the most internationally successful Czechoslovak film of all time, Zeman’s work is a brilliant mix of live-action, animation and special effects as a kidnapped scientist naively creates a super-bomb for an evil millionaire. 

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My first ever Karel Zeman happens to be the Jules Verne-inspired Invention for Destruction, the middle instalment of a trilogy of films (the other two are Journey to the Beginning of Time (1955) and The Fabulous Baron Munchausen (1962)) presented in that beautiful boxset from the Criterion Collection. 

Shot in black-and-white, Invention sees Simon Hart, an assistant to a renowned if naïve scientist whose research on energy has led a conniving millionaire to kidnap both of them. 

The rich, evil man has ambitions of world domination.  So the best way is to have everyone cower at his feet with a new super-bomb. 

At some level, it does sound like the basic plot of a James Bond movie, but Zeman’s work is more Wes Anderson than 007—in fact, Mr. Anderson owes his artistic influence to Zeman, who likewise owes his masterful craft to the groundwork laid by the silent era legend Georges Méliès. 

“The miracles of yesterday are now common everyday occurrences, and our frontiers, underwater, outer space are limitless.”

With a brilliant mix of live-action, animation and special effects, including some stunning underwater scenes, Invention is not only formally audacious in its production design but also briskly-paced with its storytelling. 

Yet despite working with artificial constructs, Zeman never for once asked us to suspend our disbelief.  He assumed we would unreservedly accept the magic of imagination and trickery, and he was right. 

Still the most internationally successful Czechoslovak film of all time, Invention was also made during the height of the Cold War, a few years before tensions became unbearably existential with the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. 

Like Oppenheimer (2023), Zeman’s work is a cautionary tale against the development of weapons of mass destruction.  The latter is far less complex and much more kid-friendly, but just as effective at only half of its runtime. 

Grade: A-

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