Jan Svankmajer - Dimensions Of Dialogue Pt:2 (1982)

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. In 1972 the communist authorities banned him from making films, and many of his later films were banned. He was almost unknown in the West until the early 1980s.

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), Little Otik (2000) and 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. They had two children, Veronika and Václav.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Jan
• Svankmajer
• Dimensions
• Of
• Dialogue
• Pt:2
• (1982)

[AussieBeache]

Yes because every artist sets out to make mindless entertainment that can be enjoyed by all.... Some people don't WANT to relate to the masses. They make what they want to make, and express themselves and their ideas the way they need to. I think you are missing what animation like this is all about. Do you have any idea the kind of work that went into this? The aesthetic beauty and skill of it makes up for an inability to become pop culture by far. Fun is a matter of opinion.. I enjoy this.

[tmbuscemi]

When looking at something like this you have to consider when it was made and where. Svankmajer created this, and many other animations, during the communist rule in Czechoslovakia to comment on the political unrest while trying to stay under the radar by not blatantly coming out and saying his opinions. The technique and subject matter are very deliberate and while it may mean nothing to someone today, it was very clear what this means when this was made. Not all art is good, but this is.

[ThatMrBobicus]

Silly heads. You had it right the first time.

[M199L991S]

Fuck.. I need to go to bed.

[scarletrobin]

Oh hey it's marriage.

[recordmanagement]

hilariously creepy! love it!

[MissEmilovely]

thats the sharpest pencil sharpener i have ever seen

[BernyjackStone]

is funny

[anonbud]

that was fucked up.

I really do not like this

[DarkAngelWishies]

Very creative and brilliant! =3

[Anna05912]

4:54 ouchh! =/

[keyboardkorg]

excellent!