Alternate Title: Muzne hry
Directed by: Jan Svankmajer
year: 1988 14 minutes
Nominated for the Palme d'Or for "Best Short Film" at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival.
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 receives a new gloss: "Let the spectator beware."
- Genres:
- Animation / Claymation
- Comedy / Black Comedy
- International / European / Czech
- Animation / Stop-Motion & Puppetry
- Cult / Psychotronic
- Short / Narrative
- Sport / Association Football
Related Films
The Last Trick
Poslední trik pana Schwarcewalldea a pana Edgara
Dir. Jan Svankmajer
(1964)
11 minutes
- Genres:
- Animation / Stop-Motion & Puppetry
- Avant-garde / Surrealist
- Comedy / Anarchic Comedy
- International / European / Czech
- Short / Trick
- Fantasy / Magic
Two magicians perform an escalating series of tricks, most of which involve strange objects entering or exiting their plaster heads.
Don Juan
Don Sanche
Dir. Jan Svankmajer
(1969)
31 minutes
- Genres:
- Avant-garde / Surrealist
- International / European / Czech
- Animation / Stop-Motion & Puppetry
- Cult / Psychotronic
- Drama / Romantic Drama
- Adaptation / Theatrical / Stage
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.
The Garden
Zahrada
Dir. Jan Svankmajer
(1968)
16 minutes
- Genres:
- Comedy / Black Comedy
- International / European / Czech
- Avant-garde / Surrealist
- Cult / Psychotronic
- Drama / Political
- Short / Narrative
An unnerving fable of totalitarianism wrought in crisp black-and-white, THE GARDEN is an unusual live action effort from Czech animator Jan Svankmajer.
Historia Naturae
Dir. Jan Svankmajer
(1967)
9 minutes
- Genres:
- Animation / Stop-Motion & Puppetry
- International / European / Czech
- Documentary / Science
- Drama / Portmanteau
- Short / Documentary
The obsessive nature of Jan Svankmajer’s animation has an encyclopedic bent in this unique panorama of natural history.
Johann Sebastian Bach
J.S. Bach: Fantasia G-moll
Dir. Jan Svankmajer
(1965)
9 minutes
- Genres:
- Animation / Stop-Motion & Puppetry
- International / European / Czech
- Short / Non-Narrative
- Avant-garde / Surrealist
- Music / Tone Poem
The rare film to enter into deep conversation with a piece of music, in this case Bach’s “Fantasia in G Minor.”
Darkness Light Darkness
Tma, svetlo, tma
Dir. Jan Svankmajer
(1989)
7 minutes
- Genres:
- Avant-garde / Surrealist
- International / European / Czech
- Comedy / Anarchic Comedy
- Cult / Psychotronic
- Short / Narrative
- Animation / Claymation
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.
Reviews
I've never seen anything by Jan Svankmajer that I haven't loved. Another fabulous film.
Simply bizarre. I like it!
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