Jan Švankmajer

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Jan Švankmajer (born 4 September 1934 in Prague) is a Czech surrealist artist. His work spans several media. He is known for his surreal animations and features, which have greatly influenced other artists such as Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam, The Brothers Quay and many others.

Švankmajer has gained a reputation over several decades for his distinctive use of stop-motion technique, and his ability to make surreal, nightmarish and yet somehow funny pictures. He is still making films in Prague at the time of writing.

Švankmajer's trademarks include very exaggerated sounds, often creating a very strange effect in all eating scenes. He often uses very sped-up sequences when people walk and interact. His movies often involve inanimate objects coming alive and being brought to life through stop-motion. Food is a favourite subject and medium. Stop-motion features in most of his work, though his feature films also include live action to varying degrees.

A lot of his movies, like the short film Down to the Cellar, are made from a child's perspective, while at the same time often having a truly disturbing and even aggressive nature.

Today he is one of the most celebrated animators in the world. His best known works are probably the feature films Alice (1988), Faust (1994), Conspirators of Pleasure (1996), Otesánek (2000) and Šílení/Lunacy (2005), a surreal comic horror based on the work of Edgar Allan Poe and the Marquis de Sade. Also famous (and much imitated) is the short Dimensions of Dialogue (1982), which shows Arcimboldo-like heads gradually reducing each other to bland copies ("exhaustive discussion"); a clay man and woman who dissolve into one another sexually, then quarrel and reduce themselves to a frenzied, boiling pulp ("passionate discourse"); and two elderly clay heads who extrude various objects on their tongues (toothbrush and toothpaste; shoe and shoelaces, etc.) and use them in every possible combination, sane or otherwise ("factual conversation"). His films have been called "as emotionally haunting as Kafka's stories[1]."

He was married to Eva Švankmajerová an internationally known surrealist painter, ceramicist and writer until her death in October of 2005. She collaborated on several of his movies including Faust, Otesánek and Alice.

Contents 1 Filmography 1.1 Feature-Length Films 1.2 Short Films 2 External links

Filmography

Feature-Length Films

• Surviving Life (Theory and Practice) (2008)
• Šílení (2005)
  • Lunacy
• Otesánek (2000)
  • Little Otik
• Spiklenci slasti (1996)
  • Conspirators of Pleasure
• Lekce Faust (1994)
  • Faust / Faust's Lesson
• Něco z Alenky (1987)
  • Alice

Short Films

• Jídlo (1992)
  • Food
• Konec stalinismu v Čechách [2] (1990)
  • The Death of Stalinism in Bohemia
• Animated Self-Portraits (1989) - Švankmajer was one of 27 filmmakers who contributed to this portmanteau work
• Flora (1989)
• Tma, světlo, tma [3] (1989)
  • Darkness/Light/Darkness
• Zamilované maso[4] (1988)
  • Meat Love
• Another Kind of Love (1988) - music video for Hugh Cornwell
• Mužné hry (1988)
  • The Male Game
  • Virile Games
• Kyvadlo, jáma a naděje (1983)
  • The Pendulum, the Pit and Hope
• Do pivnice (1983)
  • Down to the Cellar
• Možnosti dialogu (1982)
  • Dimensions of Dialogue
• Zánik domu Usherů (1980)
  • The Fall of the House of Usher
• Otrantský zámek (1979)
  • Castle of Otranto
• Leonardův deník (1972)
  • Leonardo's Diary
• Žvahlav aneb šatičky slaměného Huberta (1971)
  • Jabberwocky
• Kostnice (1970)
  • The Ossuary
• Don Šajn (1969)
  • Don Juan
  • Don Sanche
• Tichý týden v domě (1969)
  • A Quiet Week in the House
• Picknick mit Weissmann (1968)
  • Picnic with Weissmann
• Byt (1968)
  • The Flat
• Zahrada (1968)
  • The Garden
• Historia Naturae, Suita [5] (1967)
• Et Cetera [6] (1966)
• Rakvičkárna (1966)
  • Punch and Judy
  • The Coffin Factory
  • The Lych House
• Hra s kameny (1965)
  • Spiel mit Steinen
  • A Game with Stones
• Johann Sebastian Bach: Fantasia G-moll (1965)
  • Johann Sebastian Bach: Fantasy in G minor
• Poslední trik pana Schwarcewalldea a pana Edgara (1964)
  • The Last Trick

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