Jan Svankmajer Dimensions of Dialogue Part 1

[annasghay]

the best thing I have ever seen

[weaknesscomespainful]

Oh...we meet again 240p >:C

[maciku12345]

je to perfektní

[nigen]

I figured it was more like natural selection. waste all over hominids until you get the refined form which is homo sapien.

[AngeloKain]

oooh man, this is a awsome video, i like it, but the quality is horrible

[waitingformypopcorn]

awe_struck

[naradum2]

horrible quality.... awesome vid

[fed35940]

ghoulish..



[joelwiklund90]

Hm... Like rock, paper, scissors. But more... Metal, paper, fruit...

I wonder if lizard and Spock turns up in the next part.

[Alma889900]

awesome!!

[jasology]

the chicken looked good.

[reeka411]

i knew it. origin of species: vegetables and kitchen utinsels!

[theCount1968]

i dont think it is youtube pixellating it... the quality of the source, rather :S

[mariposarabisoa13]

its anti-communist.

[KoKOS17]

La Alteridad, La Otreidad

[Oscar301]

I'm sure when the human race finally disappears from this world, all the animals will get together and say, "Thank fuck they've gone."

[rypaz87]

@Oscar301 i bet if you gave most animals a shining moment of cognition they would express a greater fear of other animals besides humans. i'm perfectly fine with shitting on the appeal of our own species, but don't make the mistake of thinking the rest of the natural world is suspended in a cooperative bliss.

[epn10]

arcimboldo comes to mind...

[jiac1125]

a perfect example of how some people are in this world.

[Clueless721]

its about the paradox of progress

hunter/gatherer society -> artisans/tools->the enlightenment/modern man

notice how as the agriculture one was going "forward" but as they fight they're going "backwards" in the end it just continues backwards

paradox of progress

[Linkcrc]

i think its about ideology.

[avitorres]

es como un extraño piuedra papel o tijera pero no lo logro entender al 100% este tipo era todo un jenio

[XohmadonX]

He's a friggin Genious O.O..

[dandaman58uk]

hard to believe how long ago this was made , must of taken for ever its just purely brilliant lol

[Marianacarrasco]

arcimboldi

[VertigoBee]

Paper beats rock.

[muchadoaboutnoting]

I saw this in Palo Alto in '89...I think before Mike & Spikes took over the nation. The festivals were filled with introspective and societal commentary like this one. Now it's Happy Tree Friends. Don't get me wrong...they're funny. But we need the old festivals back.

[veryshortname]

check out this guys films... amazing

[mspubquiz83]

look at the detail on it, youtube is pixellating it to fuck and it still looks amazing ..

[pervisdeaton]

yeah, it's better in full quality

but it's still good seeing it on here

[thebaloob123]

what the fuck?

that was amazing!!

[elbenjo90]

this makes me VERY hungry haha great animation! :)

[bobdudejo]

that was bloody intense!

[alfredunhill]

infomercial gone awry.....well done.

[wanabeswordsman]

It was like Rock-Paper-Scissors with Organics, Metallics, and Synthetics... Really bizarre but somewhat understandable. Very well done. :D

[seppesai]

yeah that's what i though also, mixed with a bit of intellectuality vs machinery vs nature destroying each other.. maybe the meaning is that we humans are the same underneath all those variants that may deceive us..

[swordhunter12]

@seppesai Personally it makes ME think of evolution. You know, 2 sets of raw materials constantly coming together to create something more defined and specific and eventually resulting in large scale reproduction.

[MothaFuckthePolice]

I LOVE JS! Alice and Little Otik are soo awesome! Buy them if you are into film/ art.

[RedSuit1]

the art of getting all up in somebodies grill.

[layzsonsabitch]

when i was in second grade lunch, the teacher would walk up and down the row and yell, "small bites, chew well!"

[himtan]

I think BLU was influenced by Svankmajer. In the short film "muto" there are many scenes which are copies of the last scene of this video.

[chloelovescats]

violent!

[jeffreysart]

He created us ,to experience creativity through our creations .Evolution . love the vid !

[daydream1nc]

where can I buy a dvd of like everything that he did?

[peasches82]

BFI filmstore sell 'Jan Svankmajer: The Complete Short Films' , but it's only region 2 so you'll need a region free dvd player. The longer films like Alice are easy enough to buy off ebay and amazon and stuff

[theredkatana]

carbon copies, the death of individuality due to the regurgitation of ideas. powerful stuff...

[HernanDiego]

Es maravilloso cuando una obra de arte es disparadora e inspiradora de tanta reflexiones.

Lo que pienso yo ante esto es "el significante es un bisturí". Lo que hay que retener en la imagen no es lo "simbólico" del tenedor o el libro, sino el hecho de que lo "masticado" se fragmenta.

Por otro lado, y fijensé que curioso, mientras más fragmentada ("masticada") la imagen, más cercana a la imagen "entera" de un humano.

[michoacanoixoye]

no cabe duda q en estas partes de europa sobre todo en la oriental. como este director checo no tienen miedo de hacer algo q no agrade ala gente. algo q se hace mucho en hollywod y festivales de cines paralelos a este. este renombrado director no le teme al cortometraje experimental y sus fascinaciones.

[Ignotus9]

Each being (movie) is composed of differing material or mechanisms.

These "differences" are embedded into us via the senses from culture, environment, your cultures technology whic creates the flow of information, and genes.

These elements create personality within any given culture. It demonstrates how unique any one person may be, considering their factors. These factors

create our difficulties in interacting with others and in turn shape ourselves

[MCMailbox]

Rock Paper Scissors Elementary.

A Never Ending Cycle....

[infinitely90]

Completely insane.

[circlekloser]

In our interactions with other human beings we tend to chew them up and spit them out. We take parts of them for ourselves and give of ourselves to them.

As we encounter more humans in this manner we become more refined and more homogenous as a people and as a culture.

[circlekloser]

homogenous as people, human beings.

[Loofiloo]

@circlekloser That is possibly the smartest thing I've ever read on Youtube

[jamo88hot]

I think the video says : "conversation is what makes us humans" ....cuz i mean the figures get more human-like at the end.

Also they all look the same at the end, which makes me think they've come to a common ground after all that arguing. And that combined knowledged gets passed along generations.

[mayonaiseketchup]

HOlalalaaa... Mon Dieu la qualité pfff... C dommage parce ke c une des meuilleurs anim ke g découvert... Heuresement ke je ne l'ai pas découvert sur youtube lol.. (the quality suks)

[bandg33k]

we are a copy of a copy of a copy of a copy.

we are not original or authentic anymore.

[44274]

i agree with hamgammy. but i believe the characters eating each other represents that some one better and smarter will come along and construct new things that were better then before.....great vid tho! :)

[mimosveta]

Yeah, but in the end as we can see all that remains are equals, so there is no room for progress left. So who's to say that new ideas were all that better than the old ones, from the time of diversity?

[closer14894n]

its a really cool video

[mariaokcolombia]

genio

[foryoubaybeh]

Emo.

[sexykittenbaby69]

why do you love his art? does it show any deeper level of human understanding for anyone or is it just cool? because a lot of modern art seems to be about the message behind it, not so much the actual art piece itself.

[tearsofblood701]

i once knew somebody who listened to music for the lyrics; they were more importaant than the beat or the tune. I don't care much about the lyrics, I just like a song if its fun to turn up and dance to. I think this kind of art is the same way. Yes, i'm sure the message is ultmiately important, but the main factor for me is how it makes me feel when i see it. it's not about the literal content but about some sort of mixture of form, content, and style that creates a reaction within the viewer.

[MancuernoSpecial]

Art (any kind of it) doesn't have anything of good or bad, excellent or stupid. WE put those aprecciations on every art piece, don't search for cannons, they divide us (based on our different opinnions).

If you want to thik this is bad, or not enough, think it, you'll be "okey". But please do not stop searching for what's "good" for you, and swim deep on it.

By the way, I like it (but it's a little simple FOR ME) :)

[Kaminoisee]

music itself without lyrics does have a message also, its just a much less obvious message

[elementalfairyspirit]

i think it rox cuz the stop-motion photography is cool. it looks cool, and i like it.

[foryoubaybeh]

So does the ultimate conclusion of being human act as a good thing in the context of the video, or a negative one? What does it say that they're stuck in the same endless cycle at the end?

[jennnahhh]

well, foryoubeybeh, I would say it is a critique on how humans tend to act. I think it is just recognizing a habit we fall into. Even though we can do the "same endless cycle", if we take notice we do not necessarily have to continue it. So maybe it is not really negative or positive?

[jennnahhh]

Or maybe it isn't even a sense of contentment, maybe it is that they do not know how to produce anything else. It seems to be an endless domination of ideas or persons; it almost makes the topic that they are discussing nonessential. Personally, the focus seems to be on the act of asserting power or correctness over something that opposes the entity's opinion/form/whatever, and how it is a never ending process of trying to be the biggest fish in the pond.

[tearsofblood701]

I agree that the 3 different aspects at the beginning improve each other through some sort of exchange, but what about the ending? The human forms just keep reproducing an exact copy. So once the mixing of the three (whatever you want to call them) is complete, what development from there can then occur? I would almost look at it as a critique of humanity, the dialouge ought to keep improving, but once we have established a balance between 3 areas of knowledge, we are content to be stagnant.

[Hamgammy]

It is represented like this:

Food represents the basic means of survival.

The metallic parts and tools are how we construct things and create systems to organize things for us. When combined with intelligence (the books and scholarly items), we truly know how to do everything, and therefore only need to keep reproducing.

[sexykittenbaby69]

I believe he is saying how these separate facets improve each other. These things eat each other up and spit them out, but after they take turns destroying each other they all become more human. This may not create a proper dialogue between them though, as each part dominates one and is submissive to another. But it certainly says that these parts interact with each other and improve through the dialogue that they do have.

[foryoubaybeh]

Does anyone think this affects the ideological exchange rather than the intellectual progression? While it could certainly reflect agriculture, technology, intellect... what if it's more of a critique on the exchange of ideas? This would make it something closer to spiritual, mechanical, scientific and how the three interact (or fail to interact?). Is he trying to say something about how we fail to create any sort of dialogue between the absolutes of thought processes?

[SirTensis]

My mind is officially blown.

[danjosimo3000]

Hmm, perhaps there is no principal philosophical, deeper meaning to this? He was probably just fucking around. Anyway I kno the vegetable stuff is influenced by guiseppe arcimboldo.

[beaulieu4008]

time.

[langtongirl]

i think the idea is that we all share ideas but we are also formed by others opinions and we all eventually conform to each other and become the same, its the molding of society, therefore we are only ever completely original when we are new (when we are children)

[sheep41]

maybe both the natural world and mechanical world are the factors which makes us who we are today? human is the most basic form

[hobbesdream]

Knorben Knussen and Swedish Coffee Crystals

[aihoschema]

Hmm... need to do some reading about Jan Svankmajer. I don't know how to interpret this. Im might be open to discussion. At the beginning there are the food guy, the metal guy and the paper guy. Can it be: agriculture, industry and intellect? They work like in the children game: stone, paper and scissors... Then it gets more and more "diluted". Is it that the global exchange of information makes us all the same - is that good or bad? I'm lost...

[nasonxian]

I think that's an excelent interpritation of it!

[fiura66]

este wn la cagó pa estar pitiao

de todas maneras da pie para pensar un monton de cosas, cada quien lo puede interpretar como quiera

[postmarked]

in the end we are all the same

[sadera1]

that mean more you are stronger more the weak became dangereux....more that you have victory ..more ..chance you have to be loser

[1000fot]

So awesome it hurts. I actually had to pause at 1:35 and collect myself before watching the rest of it. I mean, I knew Svankmajer was great and all because I've seen some of his other works, but this fucking blew my mind...

[Mexxico57]

His film suggests that the personalities of man were created from the vomit of our environment and culture. I dont know how I'm supposed to feel...

[misfit2060]

wow this shits a fuckn trip id be scared out my mind if i saw this on acid bad vibes...

[StrumTheSymphony]

That Scared The Shit Out Of Me.

That's The Most Amazing Stop Mostion Animation I've Ever Seen. Is It About The Evolution Of Man?

[labrat882]

This animation is about how people's ideas evolve as they talk with each other and how there is nothing to improve anymore but they still argue, so your quess went very close!

[minnifuttu]

what the name this film??

[lebambale]

i think it's about evolution of the human.

[myinnerspace]

looks like rape and murder.

the crushing of another person's spirit.

[Gilb777]

the resolution should be higher

[PigLover69]

This is the most incredible stop motion ive ever seen.

[killer185]

beautiful

[TEEEEZZZEEEE]

fantastic stuff. I love svankmajer, his work is so surreal. I watched it the first time when i was very young and it had such an effect on me. love watching his work time and time again.

[Hetvrijewoord]

Very good piece of art. And original to! I like it now but when I first saw his work, when i was nine or ten years old, it scared me.

[Flash123Z]

This fascinate me

[a0d1m]

rock paper scissors!

[DMEB]

i am so happy to see this now.'....i only saw this once three years ago and was blown away then too!!!! thatnks for uploading this,,,

[migraneboy2006]

I wonder wich was first, this or the Peter Gabriels video for "Sledgehammer".. anyways this is something Id kill to have on DVD. This kind of stuff is what the "pause" button is for :)

Svankmajer is beginning to be my alltime favourite stopmotion artist.

[Tommuel]

There's a triple DVD boxset collecting his short films works available.

[Bibilo2006]

It was this. This was 1982, Sledgehammer was 1986. I bet this had at least SOME inspiration for Sledgehammer.

[ekerilaz]

If a work of art has one paraphrasable meaning, what is the point of a work of art?

[odelayz]

i think it's just amazing

[toribiotobi]

i think that believe that a piece of art have only one meaning is wrong. i´m an art student and i know, as a producer, when you do something you want to said just a thing but you ended saying a lot more, staff who are inside and only can express by the art´s lenguage.

im sorry for my english... i learn for movies :P

[aeriswithleo]

Because you learned English, are you still independent from American values? That's a sample of his points, people try to erase each others differences to the point that were all the same.

[aeriswithleo]

Because you learned English, are you still independent from American values? That's a sample of his points, people try to erase each others differences to the point that were all the same.

[toribiotobi]

1º im not learning, its just happend, i never went to a english class. its call "osmosis" 2º the fact that im "know" english doesn say that im erasing things. im adding things. i know who i am and where i come from.

my english its bad entill today. :(

[aeriswithleo]

#3 I know that, I'm just saying in times of dictatership and trying to appeal to the weathy and powerful, most people are forced to change like it or not. (Plus, I thought english would be easy to learn if kept simple)

[aeriswithleo]

#3 I know that, I'm just saying in times of dictatership and trying to appeal to the weathy and powerful, most people are forced to change like it or not. (Plus, I thought english would be easy to learn if kept simple)

[nicoeyes]

Looks like Arcimboldo took some acid.

[kalindoscopy]

mannerism meets surrealism... priceless.

[CharetteProd]

the influence is clear

[SuperSaiyan4Broly]

Ardently interesting. Such a judicious message.

[philosopha1]

this film is purely about the depression of czechoslovakia during the time of communisim and stalinism...nothing else..it shows how farming and agriculture is eaten by industry and factories...the traditions of the czech people were wiped out by the regime...this film shows the consequences...

[scumbauggio]

That can be said of the dehumanizing effects of the industrial revolution in general. Do you think that it also suggests that over time, there is nothing of substance left in partisan dogma and that the habit of confrontational dialogue outlives any usefulness - that people keep regurgitating the same things long after they have lost their relevance? Seems very apt for our situation in the U.S. today.

[patypechocha]

muy bueno.....muy bueno!!!!!!!!!

[icantfindanamethis]

Svankmajer is absolutely exilerhating to watch

such a palpable texture to his stop motion films

[doktorkloride]

Brilliant animator

[JimiOriel]

absolutely brilliant - how on earth he has the patience to have done such a brilliant and intricate change of form over time. def my favourite animator. anyone have any other favourite animators?

[cottoncandyxtc]

We take in what people say to us and become our own person.

is that the meaning?

[JimiOriel]

that could be one meaning. But right at the end they both become the same - so maybe we dont become stay our own person. we start different - and then over time, we are influenced by certain things we come across - consuming and then rejecting them. thats what we share in common. so we end up all the same - a carbon copy of each other.

[mrsandoz]

Part 2 is even better!

[Futurecast]

Don't mean to be ungrateful but can we have it in higher quality?

[fjanton83]

Thanks. So great!!!!

[DementedDolphin]

.........until we are all the same!

[eggs07]

Brilliant. There are so many angles for interpretation here.. about how we perceive and present ourselves, and how we interact with each other... how we digest and create a perception of others... how we are ultimately all the same... tip of the iceberg. Makes me wish I was in some class studying it just so I had to write an essay on it.

[stuntsrfun]

man my teacher assigned me to watch this. and now i'm going back to his class without knowing what the meaning was.

[curien1000]

Definitely among his best shorts. It kind of reminds me a little of "A Game With Stones" (another great Svankmajer short).

[Kuchenwurst]

I may be wrong, but isn't "A Game with Stones" (Spiel mit Steinen) an Austrian movie?

Not sure though =S

[janenight]

Crazy and weird, but well done.

[Surtur]

whats the underlying message or meaning to this?

[Neferkal]

its "fuck a lot"

[Surtur]

Alot of his videos have sexual overtones to them. Are there any clips of Faust on youtube?

[Degazio]

Well done. This man is a master of stop motion/ claymation.

[gencokerem]

LOVE THE CLOCKWORK GUY

[DharokDude]

damn fuck i was going to say that...

[Nebra1979]

It's like paper scissors stone ... quite awsome art

[Brammers2007]

this is neat awesomeness!

[Humoer]

i kinda like Jan Svankmajer.. This made me smile in a grim way.. Dark and hillarious..

[jtwblack]

love everything this dude does he's like a weirdo genius!

[aqaspecification]

This is the greatest thing i have ever seen.

[murasakivideo]

That was brilliant! The attention to small detail is outstanding. At first, I thought they were fighting but then I realized that they were actually molding each other. They were influencing each other to the point of refinement. They also created a lot of followers.

[Rex671]

That was beautiful, and what a terrific concept. I just wished the quality was better.

There's so much attention to detail; I particularly liked when the metal guy recreated himself in order to turn around and how some of the creatures had a look of helplessness before getting eaten.

[VIVITER]

Jan Svankmajer is a genious! anyone who says it is crap doesn't know shit about art

[dvsryanX]

not german...Czech

[CrazyButLazyPunk]

This Is Crap

[hippokiller21]

It scares me all the way though!

Crazy Germans!

[Sartorius7]

This is hillarious.

[bethymai]

It scares me at the end!=(

[Dingleberry66]

crazy.

[jghendry]

saw this for the first time at the tate modern gallery in london

[bubblebreeze]

Man, this is brilliant! Along with the rest of Svankmajer's work, of course.

[sneakyrabbits]

Svankmajer clearly could not be ripping off of Tim Burton's stop motion technique since Burton's first stop motion film (Vincent) was made in 1982, while svankmajer made his first stop motion film in 1964.

I think their both awesome.

[JHunter22]

YES! Praise be to Youtube. Greater praise to J.S.

[tachyon17011701]

i believe it's svank-my-er

[brattette]

i have a silly question but how do you pronounce his name? i love him but i still don't know!!

[insaneguitarfreak]

this is unbelievable. the first time I saw this video it was ten years ago... I still love it, of course.

Svankmajer rules

thanks davelinton for posting.

Facundo(Buenos Aires)