Jan Švankmajer

Jan Švankmajer (b. 1934, Prague) has built up a remarkably wide-ranging filmography which reflects his former training as a puppeteer and his surrealist way of thinking, where any object is ripe for sarcastic analysis; the result might be shocking and also liberating by virtue of what he discovers beneath the surface of ostensibly familiar, even banal, objects. In fact, he used his quirky puppets only exceptionally (The Coffin House, 1966; Don Juan, 1970), although all his "heroes" behave like them, whether the product of relief animation, as in Et cetera (1966) and Virile Games (1988), or whether represented only by their attributes (Picnic with Weissmann, 1968; Jabberwocky, 1971) or by real actors (The Garden, 1968; Conspirators of Pleasure, 1996). Always the same expression, stereotypical gestures and movements, empty heads, easy to manipulate. And we need stiff reminders of the fact that we're all just like that.

MFF Karlovy Vary