Jan Švankmajer

Is anyone here a fan of the works of Jan Svankmajer, the Czech surrealist film maker, who was a great influence on Tim Burton, Monty Python amongst others? I only regret that I wasn't into psyches yet when i had the chance to watch his DVD collection.

Meat Love
Dimensions of Dialogue
Darkness/Light/Darkness
Poe's Fall of the House of Usher

I love him. He's the best "texturalist" artist I know of (that is, in the way he uses the audio-visual medium to evoke sensations in other senses, especially tactile ones, to create holistic textures of memory and mood). He's also great at horror, as in "Fall of the House of Usher" or "Lunacy". I've seen most of his work. I suppose I still think "Alice" is the best of his feature films, and I personally most identify with Down to the Cellar, of his shorts. The latter really captures the endlessly branching novelty and dark mystery of a childhood journey into subterranean spaces (both literal and in the context of dreams). "Darkness/Light/Darkness," which appears on the "Alice" DVD, is another favorite, which, as an intellectual statement, is far more unambiguous than "Down to the Cellar".

Others and myself have posted links to his works here and there around F&T over the years... Anyone interested in the synaesthetic potential of film should check him out.

I've never seen any of his work but have his "Alice" in my flix queue.

Yes, i've been a fan of his since my teenage years. His work always seems so otherworldly but somehow familiar to me. There is something about his film that is real magic, its like it is about areas of the psyche that the mainstream culture can not even admit the existence of. I don't remember the exact words, but there was a quote of his that I believe captures the feeling of his work pretty well, "If we dont start writing down our dreams when we wake up and telling fairy tales to our young again, we cannot hope to accomplish anything as a society."

i also have had Alice in my netflix queue. for a while now. this thread motivated me to watch it.

didn't take long before i pressed pause to see how far into it i was and how much more i had to go. has the qualities of something you walk by at a modern art exhibit. not something to sit through. doesn't even feel that unique. transience and stop animation animal bones--isn't that all modern art? though maybe svankmajer was the first and the concept was worn on me before i had a chance to see the original.

the audio for the only speaker, the narrator, is horribly jarring. and dubbed british-english. i hope that means the Czechs got a dubbed version too. all the audio is unpleasant. i think i understand a little of and noticed what psood0nym is saying concerning an attempt to use sound to help evoke tactile sensations, but i certainly did not find anything special in it. again, reminds me of something you'd hear passing a screen at an art exhibit. grating and strange.

all that criticism given, i don't hate it either. i like the little girl's demeanor and lack of dialogue. i like her, reconquering her socks. some of the stop motion and sets are interesting. but the film makes no attempt at a captivating plot. and there is not enough excellence in any other area to make up for that hole. so i am glad i saw it, but i wouldn't describe it as a good movie.


i can see how his style might work well with horror.

I love his shorts, still havnt got round to seeing a full film of his yet but hes an amazing talent. Šílení looks like it will be worth checking out, which I plan to watch soon. I did have Alice played to me once but I wasn't it any state to comprehend what was going on, the post-credits short is great though. "Darkness/Light/Darkness"

For first time viewers: watching on psychedelics can help you warm up to Svankmajer.

I just found this quote from Svankmajer, which describes some of the surrealist philosophy at work behind his own audio-visual tactile experiments:

“touch, freed from its practical contexts and constantly realised as an experience, at certain moments passes through the barrier of its merely identifying existence and without noticing, begins to speak with the voice of a poet”

Click to expand...

I think this sort of description of sensory experience as a melodious integrated flow weaving together feeling and meaning through different levels of awareness probably resonates with many psychedelic users. Psychedelics enhance many films of course, though in my experience they are an especially well matched for accentuating the qualities of Svankmejer's.