Darkness Light Darkness
I thought it was clever
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We’re an on-demand movie theater where you can discover hand-picked films from festivals and collections around
the world. We make it easy for you to find films you’ll love, no matter what your interests are.
Jan Švankmajer
Films
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The Last Trick
Jan Svankmajer’s debut film extends the madcap spirit of his Prague-based Theatre of Masks. Two magicians perform an escalating series of tricks, most of which involve strange objects entering or exiting their plaster heads. Once pried open, they resemble surrealist cabinets stuffed with grinding gears, violins and insects....Start your free trial to watch
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Johann Sebastian Bach
The rare film to enter into deep conversation with a piece of music, in this case Bach’s “Fantasia in G Minor,” Czech animator Jan Svankmajer orchestrates walls, doors and windows as Bach does the different registers of the organ. In its luminous attention to surface texture, the film resembles an abstract...Start your free trial to watch
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Historia Naturae
The obsessive nature of Jan Svankmajer’s animation has an encyclopedic bent in this unique panorama of natural history. The film’s six segments move up the evolutionary ladder from crustaceans to human beings, dwelling on intricate tortoiseshells, otherworldly insect appendages and the expressive eyes of...Start your free trial to watch
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The Garden
An unnerving fable of totalitarianism wrought in crisp black-and-white, THE GARDEN is an unusual live action effort from Czech animator Jan Svankmajer. One man brings another to his home in the country. It’s an idyllic scene except for the strange sight of several dozen people locking arms as a human fence. Svankmajer...Start your free trial to watch
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Don Juan
A story of appetite and destruction, DON JUAN has been a staple of puppet theatre for centuries. Jan Svankmajer brings this tradition to vivid and at times uncanny life in this dynamic film adaptation. When we first see Philip and Maria, the lovers who inspire Don Juan’s wrath, they appear on the flattened plane of a stage....Start your free trial to watch
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The Ossuary
Though best known for his surreal animated films, this live action short is one of Jan Svankmajer’s most disquieting visions of death and decay. The film explores the elaborate ossuary at Sedlec Monastery. On the soundtrack (unlike the alternate version with a remarkable score by Zdeněk Liška), a tour guide explains that the...Start your free trial to watch
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The Otrants Castle
Jorge Luis Borges might have delighted at this singular hybrid of mockumentary and animation, an adaption of "The Castle of Otranto" (often described as the first Gothic novel) once removed. A phony professor claims to have located the titular castle not in Italy, where the novel is set, but in...Start your free trial to watch
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Manly Games
A man sits down with plenty of beer to watch a game of football but the points in this game tally body count rather than goals. Jan Svankmajer’s claymation Grand Guignol keeps the crowd cheering while the man gorges on cookies. When the animated players charge the real world of the glutton’s apartment, a time-honored warning...Start your free trial to watch
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Darkness Light Darkness
A corporeal and Kafkaesque claymation from Czech surrealist Jan Svankmajer. Two hands find each other in a room and begin molding themselves into a human figure. Different body parts come knocking, some more insistently than others, until the small space is stuffed with the finished man. Whether viewed as...Start your free trial to watch
Genres
- Comedy / Anarchic Comedy
- Comedy / Anarchic Comedy
- Sport / Association Football
- Comedy / Black Comedy
- Comedy / Black Comedy
- Classic / Classic Documentary
- Animation / Claymation
- Animation / Claymation
- Animation / Cut-Out
- International / European / Czech
- International / European / Czech
- International / European / Czech
- International / European / Czech
- International / European / Czech
- International / European / Czech
- International / European / Czech
- International / European / Czech
- International / European / Czech
- Short / Documentary
- Short / Documentary
- Documentary / History
- Fantasy / Magic
- Comedy / Mockumentary
- Short / Narrative
- Short / Narrative
- Short / Narrative
- Short / Narrative
- Short / Non-Narrative
- Drama / Political
- Drama / Portmanteau
- Adaptation / Literary / Prose
- Cult / Psychotronic
- Cult / Psychotronic
- Cult / Psychotronic
- Cult / Psychotronic
- Drama / Romantic Drama
- Documentary / Science
- Cult / Hyperreality / Shockumentary
- Adaptation / Theatrical / Stage
- Animation / Stop-Motion/Puppetry
- Animation / Stop-Motion/Puppetry
- Animation / Stop-Motion/Puppetry
- Animation / Stop-Motion/Puppetry
- Animation / Stop-Motion/Puppetry
- Avant-garde / Surrealist
- Avant-garde / Surrealist
- Avant-garde / Surrealist
- Avant-garde / Surrealist
- Avant-garde / Surrealist
- Music / Tone Poem
- Short / Trick
Recent Reviews
The Last Trick
I've followed Jan Svanmajer ever since his unique treatment of the Alice in Wonderland story. This guy has a way of telling a story that is unlike any other director....
The Last Trick
There's no film by Jan Svanmajer that I don't love. He is a master of stop motion animation, his a perfect blend of humor and the grotesque that give powerful...
The Otrants Castle
Another example of the unique genius of Svankmajer and his wonderful mixture of varied forms, cut-out animation and live faux documentary footage to create a wondrous and humorous take on...
The Last Trick
With his first film the master artist Jan Svankmajer introduces his unique vision. Using classic material with original and seemingly archaic objects, actors dressed as large puppets and mixing this...