That fine institution which is the Edinburgh Filmhouse has a short retrospective season on the work of the ‘Prague alchemist of film’, Jan Svankmajer, over the next week or so. Svankmajer has to be one of the most unusual animators around – I’ve admired his work for years, where he showcases a vivid – and often disturbing – imagination which can sometime feel very dreamlike, frequently mixing stop-motion with live action. The Filmhouse will be showing a collection of his short works as well as features such as Alice (a very unusual take on Lewis Carroll), Faust and in July his new movie (well, new to the English-language circuit, it actually dates from 2005) Lunacy, which is based on short stories by Edgar Allan Poe (not the first time he has dabbled in Poe) and the writings of the Marquis de Sade (you see what I mean about dream-like and disturbing).
(scene from Svankmajer’s disturbing and yet compelling Alice, 1988)
Full details are available on the Filmhouse site – he’s been influential on other animators (such as the excellent Brothers Quay who did Street of Crocodiles which still has imagery that haunts me) and movie-makers like Tim Burton; I’m certainly taking advantage of this chance to see some of Svankmajer’s work on the big screen. Kinoeye has an interesting older article on the work of Svankmajer online here and a related article on the Brothers Quay here.
(scene from Street of Crocodiles by the Brothers Quay)
June 27th, 2007 at 7:10 pm
I suspect you know about the BFI’s new DVD release of all 26 short films (plus a bonus 27th and tons of extras), but in case you don’t, I thought I’d mention it…
http://www.bfi.org.uk/booksvid.....vankmajer/
June 28th, 2007 at 10:02 am
Ohh, no, I didn’t know about that, Michael, thank you very much, will need to have a look at that – more than likely the Filmhouse will have some on sale at the cinema, thus tempting my poor and ever-put-upon wallet once more. Pleased to see Jan getting that sort of recognition from the BFI, he deserves it
June 28th, 2007 at 10:10 am
If the Filmhouse doesn’t have any on sale, let me know – they certainly should do, as a selection of DVDs is supposed to accompany the touring programme (for obvious reasons).