Into the Labyrinth: The Films of Jan Svankmajer (Free Screening!)

“To enter Jan Svankmajer's universe is akin to entering a labyrinth of surreal logic, childhood fantasies, and the eternal mysteries of the real. . . . One vital aspect of Svankmajer's appeal as a filmmaker is his eclecticism: he works with drawn animation and found-footage, marionettes, pure live-action, documentary, puppets, and trick photography. This magpie aesthetic can be partly explained by his surrealism, which esteems the creative and explosive juxtaposing of materials and objects, the wonder and mystery of the found object, and the debt all surrealists owe to the remarkable achievements of past art. However, the influence of Czechoslovakia's native tradition of Mannerism, reaching back to the sixteenth century . . . cannot be overestimated . . . echoed in the baroque detail . . . exotic, breathless excess . . . richly detailed texture, and underlying aggression.”

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