Jan Svankmajer has a well-earned reputation as an innovator in the world of animation, utilizing a dizzying array of sources and techniques, including stop-motion, puppets, humans, and liveaction. Svankmajer, a deeply revered master of the Czech cinema, uses surrealist imagery to conjure a world that emerges from the deepest recesses of the subconscious. As Milos Forman (ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST, AMADEUS, THE PEOPLE VS. LARRY FLYNT) put it, Svankmajer is "Disney plus Buñuel."
But there is also a political slant to Svankmajer's work, which may help explain why Communist leaders put a stop to his production in 1972. There is something dissonant in all of his creations, something akin to the dissonance in a suffocating political regime.
Collected here are a variety of short films from the master craftsman, providing the perfect introduction to his warped, dreamlike world. THE DEATH OF STALINISM IN BOHEMIA unleashes a scorching critique of Communist oppression, making for one of Svankmajer's most direct assaults on political wrongdoing. But Svankmajer never loses sight of complexity, brooding darkly upon what worser evil might rise to take communism's place. FOOD also makes allusion to a putrid political system, albeit through more symbolic means. Here, it is the refusal of food that stands in for a kind of political suicide. But there are also more playful moments in Svankmajer's work. In MEAT LOVE two slabs of beef share a whirlwind romance before being tossed onto the fire for supper. DOWN TO THE CELLAR returns to more familiar terrain with a haunting account of furniture in rebellion. Here, Svankmajer demonstrates his uncanny talent for the material world and the windows it can often open onto man's darkest nightmares.
Amongst the titles, THE PENDULUM, THE PIT AND HOPE, DIMENSIONS OF DIALOGUE and FLORA also stand out with Svankmajer's usual surfeit of wit and imagination. A BBC documentary gives an illuminating account of Czechoslovakia's most celebrated animator with informative commentary from film writer Michael O'Pray as well as the subject's own reflections. Various Svankmajer poems complete this thoroughly comprehensive DVD, which pays tribute to an equally comprehensive artist.
Jan Svankmajer has animated some of the most haunting images ever composed for the silver screen. He represents an essential touchstone in the history of animation and a towering figure of the Surrealist movement. The work included on this DVD demonstrates many of his most astonishing accomplishments. But serious art buffs beware, there are also plenty of laughs.
