known for dark reimaginings of well-known fairy tales with avant-garde use of 3D stop motion coupled with live action
Lots of experimentation in puppetry and film techniques
Alice, 1988, based on Alice in Wonderland 1865
Lekce Faust, 1993
Wooden Baby
Lunacy, 2005
His reputation grew after fall of the Soviet Union
www.britannica.com/biography jan svankmajer?
provide synopsis of given movie and answer the following:
Faust: based on Christopher Marlowe's play Dr. Faustus. Mephistopheles comes to Faust and offers him love, wealth and fame if he renounces Christ. An Angel comes to Faust and offers him the chance to repent at each turn. The filmmaker
Lunch: A wealthy man and a poor man fail to catch the waiter's attention at a restaurant and eat everything on the table, then their clothes, then the table. Finally, the wealthy man turns on the poor man.
Alice: A bored little girl sits throwing rocks into a brook while her adult attendant reads. When she moves inside, she re-enacts the previous scene with one of her dolls. A taxidermied rabbit pulls the nails from its feet and dresses itself in hidden ornate garb.
what is artist communicating?
Faust: What does anyone want to communicate with that play? That man is free to follow good or bad, that he will be held accountable for his choices, that bad seeks to deceive, that forgiveness is offered many times until death when it's too late. It's definitely the most interesting interpretation of the play that I've seen. I wanted to see more, and I certainly never felt that when I read it.
Lunch: The Rich and powerful will consume everything in sight and encourage everyone else to do the same. In the end, they will then fall on the poor and consume them, as well. Made in 1992, I'd say it's a commentary on life in the disintegrating Soviet Union and it's satellite countries.
Alice: I didn't see enough of the movie to be able to tell if there was anything else going on past a darker take on the source material. Maybe the nonsensical and contradictory nature of Lewis Carroll's words are used to secretly point to the nonsensical and contradictory nature of communism and State dominance over people's lives.
how is this achieved?
Faust: there's a mix between scales- small puppets, human actor, larger than life size puppets. Human face, stop-motion clay faces speaking, static puppet faces. At times, the puppeteers hands can be seen and Faust looks up and sees them. Even the Angel is controlled by the faceless puppeteer and faust imagines that he himself is without strings. Until he runs after Helen, then he, too, has a control mechanism.
Lunch: the costumes show the difference between rich and poor and in the end, the actor's bodies do, as well. The rich man is older and has a slight paunch. He's been well-fed. The poor man is younger and bony. He's just scraping by. The absurdity of their consumption is emphasized when their heads switch to clay heads that eat giant chunks of fabric, plate and table.
Alice: The stop-motion Rabbit carefully adjusts his gloves by flexing and running a finger between each finger. The coat goes on quickly, which is a nice way to further set off the carefulness of the glove dressing.
what methods used?
stop motion and live action, very little sound or dialogue, except in Faust which uses dialogue from the play. Alice does some speaking, which emphasizes the non-sensical nature of Lewis Carroll's writing and thoughts.
is comunication successful?
Yes.
Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner shorts
Faust conjures Mephistopheles
Faust, the Angel and Helen of Troy
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