Actually, the times of the Wunderkammer are over, but now and then a rare opportunity flashes up to surrender to this infantile enchantment. At the beginning of the year, for example, it was so far in Amsterdam: Between Wolpertinger -like mythical creatures and "Sick Maps", which point the way to the heart of a perverted continent, the doors of the cupboard were flickering across the canvases into the darkness of the room like magic doors. Or grimaces that come together in a fraction of a second from buttons and bones or fruits and vegetables and could be crushed in the next moment already to food porridge. Welcome to the universe of Jan Svankmajer!
The Amsterdam film institute Eye had dedicated a large exhibition to the veteran animated film, which was intended to show the Czech born in 1934 as the all-rounder he is. It showed what makes Svankmajer's work from 1964 to today: movement. Their creator simply does not allow them any rest.
It is probably no coincidence that he chose film as a medium - or, perhaps rather, that this medium has found its way to becoming an artist. In this way, the Czech always casually made visible the mechanics according to whose rules the cinema itself works: after so many frames per second creating the illusion of a moving, coherent story.
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Jan Svankmajer: Lord of the puppetsAs an idea collector, Jan Svankmajer was inspired and inspired by many things: Surrealism, whose perhaps only living representative he is still allowed to apply today. Of the eating and loving habits of his conspecifics, the Habsburg heritage of Prague, the early natural history. He constantly practices a kind of balance of the imperfect world: for example, because he missed the principle of African fetishes in Europe, the artist simply created his own objects and kept them in his drawers from which he allegedly fetched them for regular dialogue.
Of course, Svankmajer is much better known as a filmmaker: he made several dozen short films and later several feature films, including the fairy tale adaptation "Alice". And so not only explored the possibilities of analogue animation technology in all variations, but also inspired many other filmmakers: Terry Gilliam, for example, likes to refer to the Czechs, as does Tim Burton.
Jan Svankmajer's animations are not cute, but they use the materials and tools of classic children's narrative. Fittingly, he filmed stories by, among others, Lewis Carroll - examples of clever children's literature before most of the ambiguity was expelled and the gloom poured into more harmless forms. No wonder that the Czech always returns to psychoanalysis: to look at their own demons, with whom one lives.
Svankmajer leaves the room to the uneasiness, perverts and exaggerates it at the same time. Real actors, the director missed in some scenes kneading faces, only to be able to turn them as a material from now on through the meat grinder or put in the form of eye cookies on the baking sheet. Or let's take a short film like "The Flat" from 1968: The horror of the poor protagonist appears bodily in the form of his own apartment, which is constantly directed against him in Kafkaesque situations. Stones drip from the faucet and smash the wash basin, furniture crashing into each other, until later hardly any substance remains to inhabit.
Although never an explicit political filmmaker, the Soviet occupation eventually imposed a ban on his profession. From 1972 to 1983, Svankmajer made even more abundant sculptures and images and channeled his creative urge into, for example, tactile works of art that are meant to be touched and only come to life through their interaction with their audience.
God of the little things
The rebellion against the supposedly inanimate world continued for the animation filmmaker during the cinematic compulsory break, albeit in a different form. He is the mover, god of small things, or just as the Amsterdam exhibition organizers called him, the alchemist. And what he brings to life: Mostly beings and states that you never knew before that they even exist on this earth!
Incidentally, Svankmajer taught us how little it takes to create animated film - often enough skilfully set zooms, camera pans, cutting staccato. However, the sound also has a tremendous share in this effect: Everywhere there is a groan and a squeal and creak, strings, oboe and percussion instruments are placed on each individual cut sequence.
It does not matter if you are watching a feature film or a series of short films in a row (which by the way are also good on DVD in Germany): The daredevil ride through the magical sound and image genre usually brings a healthy overload. But it's another exhaustion still rooted in analogue, palpable unlike the one that can kick in after several hours of cut staccato and drone-sound escapades of newer blockbusters.
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Jan Svankmajer - The Complete Short Films 3 Disc [3 DVDs] [UK Import]
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To pick out a single title remains difficult. One thing leads the Czech filmmaker to another, and the real secret of his oeuvre may lie in this: How he was able to create very precise films and images in this exorbitant, great, but for the average genius in the average state just overburdening Wust again and again. Jan Svankmajer turns 85 this Wednesday.
