Post by sacrilegend on Mar 11, 2007 9:07:45 GMT -5
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_%C5%A0vankmajer
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 all 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."
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.
Feature-Length Films
Surviving Life (Theory and Practice) (2008)
Šílení (2005)
Lunacy
Otesánek (2000)
Little Otik / Greedy Guts
Spiklenci slasti (1996)
Conspirators of Pleasure
Lekce Faust (1994)
Faust / Faust's Lesson
Neco z Alenky (1987)
Alice
Short Films
Jídlo (1992)
Food
The Death of Stalinism in Bohemia [2] (1990)
Animated Self-Portraits (1989)
Flora (1989)
Meat Love (1989)
Tma/Svetlo/Tma (1989)
Darkness/Light/Darkness
Another Kind of Love (1988)
Muzné hry (1988)
The Male Game
Virile Games
Do pivnice (1983)
Down to the Cellar
Jáma, kyvadlo a nadìje (1983)
The Pit, the Pendulum and Hope
Moznosti dialogu (1982)
Dimensions of Dialogue
Zánik domu Usheru (1981)
The Fall of the House of Usher
Otrantský zámek (1977)
Castle of Otranto
Leonarduv denik (1972)
Leonardo's Diary
Zvahlav aneb Saticky Slameného Huberta (1971)
Jabberwocky
Don Sanche (1970)
Don Juan
Kostnice (1970)
The Ossuary
Tichý týden v dome (1969)
A Quiet Week in the House
Byt (1968)
The Flat
Picknick mit Weissmann (1968)
Picnic with Weissmann
Zahrada (1968)
The Garden
Historia Naturae, Suita (1967)
Et Cetera (1966)
Rakvickarna (1966)
Punch and Judy
The Coffin House
Hra s kameny (1965)
A Game with Stones
Johann Sebastian Bach: Fantasia G-moll (1965)
Poslední trik pana Schwarcewalldea a pana Edgara (1964)
The Last Trick
Cena
Dimensions of Dialogue Part 1
Dimensions of Dialogue Part 2 (This is the best one I've seen so far)
Check him out at youtube:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuBwXfg3Mr4
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 all 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."
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.
Feature-Length Films
Surviving Life (Theory and Practice) (2008)
Šílení (2005)
Lunacy
Otesánek (2000)
Little Otik / Greedy Guts
Spiklenci slasti (1996)
Conspirators of Pleasure
Lekce Faust (1994)
Faust / Faust's Lesson
Neco z Alenky (1987)
Alice
Short Films
Jídlo (1992)
Food
The Death of Stalinism in Bohemia [2] (1990)
Animated Self-Portraits (1989)
Flora (1989)
Meat Love (1989)
Tma/Svetlo/Tma (1989)
Darkness/Light/Darkness
Another Kind of Love (1988)
Muzné hry (1988)
The Male Game
Virile Games
Do pivnice (1983)
Down to the Cellar
Jáma, kyvadlo a nadìje (1983)
The Pit, the Pendulum and Hope
Moznosti dialogu (1982)
Dimensions of Dialogue
Zánik domu Usheru (1981)
The Fall of the House of Usher
Otrantský zámek (1977)
Castle of Otranto
Leonarduv denik (1972)
Leonardo's Diary
Zvahlav aneb Saticky Slameného Huberta (1971)
Jabberwocky
Don Sanche (1970)
Don Juan
Kostnice (1970)
The Ossuary
Tichý týden v dome (1969)
A Quiet Week in the House
Byt (1968)
The Flat
Picknick mit Weissmann (1968)
Picnic with Weissmann
Zahrada (1968)
The Garden
Historia Naturae, Suita (1967)
Et Cetera (1966)
Rakvickarna (1966)
Punch and Judy
The Coffin House
Hra s kameny (1965)
A Game with Stones
Johann Sebastian Bach: Fantasia G-moll (1965)
Poslední trik pana Schwarcewalldea a pana Edgara (1964)
The Last Trick
Cena
Dimensions of Dialogue Part 1
Dimensions of Dialogue Part 2 (This is the best one I've seen so far)
Check him out at youtube:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuBwXfg3Mr4
