Jan Svankmajer is a Czech surrealist artist who has made several films (including short films and full-length). I’m no expert on Czech filmmakers or surrealism – I’m one of those “I just know what I likes” type of people – so I won’t try and talk about him, ha. I will say that I find his films totally mesmerizing, and it seems that he’s captured the feeling of dreams in film (or maybe just my dreams). Everything and nothing makes sense; everything and nothing is important. I particularly like his careful attention to details (the camera tends to pan over every little thing) and there is also a lot of repetition (particularly in the short films) which is both maddening and hypnotizing. Plus there is that awesome stop animation. Alice (based on Alice in Wonderland, if you hadn’t already guessed) and Little Otik are available for instant viewing on Netflix (for the time being) and many of the short films are available in their entirety on youtube.

If I had to say something about them, I would say his films reflect a sense of confusion and bewilderment; we can try to ascribe meaning to events or things but every thing is really just as random as the next thing. This would all be totally depressing, if not for the (albeit cynical) sense of play. The feeling I get is that everything is so absurd anyway, we may as well try to enjoy the ride (I am drawing this from my combined reaction to his films, not any one in particular). Maybe I will re-watch the films and write a more complete ‘essay’ about them, but for now I just recommend that you watch them yourself!

“My weapons are sarcasm, objective humor and black humor.” – Jan Svankmajer

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June 17th, 2009 |