The Movies of Jan Svankmajer

[Guybrush]

Guten tag, Guest.

You may have heard of Jan Svankmajer, the Czech film maker known for his stop motion short films and later full length feature films. Having made films since the mid 60s, hes regarded as influential and may have inspired animators like Terry Gilliam and Phil Tippett.

His movies often include imagery that feels like it belongs in horror, often using things like real organs and animal skeletons in his animations. However, the tone is usually lighter and he has a comedic bent, although whether or not you find it funny will depend. For someone with a morbid bent (like me) who appreciate the weird and unique, Svankmajer should be very interesting.

I've watched most of his work and what I enjoy most are his short films. I present one for you here:

Darkness, Light, Darkness: https://youtu.be/1THMc9g5SaU

(Embedding disabled for this, unfortunately)

Are you familiar with his films? Which ones are your favorites?

[jadis]

He filmed the video for a 1988 single by Hugh Cornwell, the Stranglers singer. Unfortunately, the music is not a match for Svankmajer's creativity but at least Hugh's face is still pretty remarkable

Watched Darkness, Light, Darkness now, it's great

[Guybrush]

^Not his best work, but still interesting 🙂 I particularly liked the ending of it.

Also glad you liked DLD. My second favorite short film of his might be the soccer one from the 90s.

His movie Punch and Judy looks like it's made for kids, but it's also clearly nightmare fuel. I wonder if Czech children saw this in the 60s.