Jan Svankmajer is a Czech filmmaker and video artist. His
work includes stop-motion, live action, animation, and claymation. He was born
in Prague in 1934. As a child, he was given a puppet theater as a gift, an
object that proved crucial in his development as an artist. This is apparent in
his extensive use of puppets and stop-motion in his films. One of the more
important things to understand about Svankmajer is that he grew up during a
time of creative oppression. Even more significantly, this stifling of
creativity was reasserted with the establishment of communism in 1948.
Communist rule in the former Czechoslovakia persisted until 1989. His unique,
and often disturbing style has now gained international acclaim both in the
west, as well as in the Czech Republic. However, the communist authorities
banned him from making films in 1972, making it possible for him to remain
almost entirely unknown in the west until around 1980. While it is not
necessarily apparent that Svankmajer’s work revolves around the issue of
communism, some films of his, such as Jidlo
(Food) and Byt (The Flat), are believed by some
to be hinting at such issues. In this particular film, the emphasis on food and
the act of eating might be a commentary on the ironic starvation of the Czech
people during a communist rule, for communism is meant to take care of all
people equally.
As mentioned above, Svankmajer developed an early interest in
puppetry. In fact, before working with film, he studied at the Department of
Puppetry at the Prague Academy of Performing Arts, and founded the Theater of
Masks. He then participated in the Laterna Magika Theater, which specialized in
multimedia productions. His films, particularly his early ones, such as The Last Trick (1964), contain a great deal of puppetry work, demonstrating the influence his education and work in the puppetry field has had on his cinematic art.
While Svankmajer certainly explores a variety of topics in
his work, two themes stand out to me: food and childhood. Much of his work,
such as his feature length Alice (1988)
and his short film Down to the Cellar (1983),
are from the perspective of a child. However, while these films incorporate
elements of childhood, they are also nightmarish and jarring.
Another notable element of much of his work is his unique and
extensive use of sound. Conspirators of Pleasure (1996), for instance, is a full-length film with no dialogue, but instead, employs exaggerated noise in order to communicate with the viewer. The unrealistically loud noises work to make the viewer uncomfortable and adds to the otherworldly feeling that characterizes much of his work. Down to the Cellar is another example of a Svankmajer film that uses sounds in an interesting way. It is from the perspective of a child who adventures downstairs to her cellar, adn the amplified sounds allow the viewer to really get into the head of the young girl, making the film and her experience more visceral and frightening because it demonstrates how on each and alert the girl is. The viewer then, is under the impression that they too should be paying close attention to what might happen next. I may have used
In terms of his progression as an artist, I chose to discuss his first short film, The
Last Trick (1964) and his most recent short film, Food (1992). The Last Trick reflects his theatrical background. The opening shots depict men with tall masks and head pieces on that appear to be made of wood, and so they look like puppets or marionettes. Further, they appear to be on some sort of partially lit stage. The shots of gears and of the puppet heads being wound also lend themselves to the concept that these are not real people but some sort of machine or toy.
Food, while still exhibiting certain aspects of puppetry, such as the way the characters move, show real actors without masks or anything like that. It appears that his interest in using children and childhood did not really emerge until some of his later pieces, while the issues of food products and consumption have been present since the beginning. In general, when one looks at his work from older to newer, that there is a clear shift from using images more strongly rooted in puppetry and claymation to images that depart from this. This can at least be said about his short pieces, which brings me to my next point about what kind of work he is doing now. Since 1988, Svankmajer's work has been mostly feature length, while his past work is
exclusively short pieces. However, even with this change of length and this
shift of materials and subject matter, Svankmajer has managed to maintain the same animated
feel to his work, as well as his surrealist tendencies, which has characterized
him from the beginning.
Jidlo (1992)--this pieces is broken up into three parts, here are two of them:
Food--Lunch
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