Dimensions of Dialogue
No matter if it is men talking or wheter this dialogue takes place between a man and a woman, without using a single word Švankmajer proves with three examples that our communication is infested with aggression, fight for dominance, selfishness, unwillingness or disability to listen to the other. Destruction is shown in breathtaking animation art metaphores.
- Czechoslovakia
- 1982, 12 min
- Director: Jan Švankmajer
- Director of photography: Juraj Galvánek
- Editor: Marie Zemanová
- Screenplay: Jan Švankmajer
- Art Director: Jan Švankmajer, Eva Švankmajerová, Veronika Hrubá
- Producer: Jaromír Kallista
- Production: Athanor s.r.o.
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.