Jan Švankmajer

Kunstkamera (2022)

An astonishing array of paintings, drawings, sculptures, prints, objects and materials fill room after room - but this is not a museum open to the general public. It is the home of the celebrated artist couple Jan Svankmajer and his late wife Eva, situated ...

Insect (2018)

The Dung Beetle is late, the Parasite is asleep and Mrs Larva is more interested in her knitting than the director's instructions. It's clear: this amateur theatre company has a long way to go before they can perform their version of "The Insect Play", a f ...

Surviving Life (Theory and Practice) (2010)

Eugene, an aging man, leads a double life - one real, the other in his dreams. He goes to see a psychoanalyst, who tries to interpret the meaning of his dreams. Eugene finds a way of entering his dream-world at will and finds out about his childhood and wh ...

Cinema 16: European Short Films (U.S. Edition) (2007)

A collection of short films by 16 European directors. ...

Jan Švankmajer: The Complete Short Films (2007)

Featuring all 26 entries in the official filmography, this is the world's first complete DVD edition of the short films by the legendary Czech Surrealist filmmaker-animator Jan Švankmajer. Technically and conceptually astonishing in their own right, these ...

Cinema 16: European Short Films (European Edition) (2006)

A collection of short films by 16 European directors. ...

Lunacy (2005)

A man takes up residence with a mysterious marquis and is soon persuaded to enter into an asylum for preventative therapy. Things are not what they seem, and the marquis may be even more sinister than what the young man might have predicted. ...

The Collected Shorts of Jan Svankmajer (2003)

For the past 40 years, Jan Svankmajer (Faust, Conspirators of Pleasure) has been hailed as one of cinema's most consistently surprising, wildly imaginative, and remarkable surrealists of our time. Utilizing a delirious combination of puppets, humans, stop- ...

Little Otik (2001)

When a childless couple learn that they cannot have children, it causes great distress. To ease his wife's pain, the man finds a piece of root in the backyard and chops it and varnishes it into the shape of a child. However the woman takes the root as her ...

Conspirators of Pleasure (1996)

Six Prague residents pursue bizarre rituals. Mr. Peony builds a chicken costume to wear while enacting homicidal fantasies toward neighbor Mrs. Loubalova, who does the same dressed as a dominatrix. Their mail carrier, Mrs. Malkova, inhales tiny balls of br ...

Food (1996)

Examines the human relationship with food by showing breakfast, lunch, and dinner. ...

Faust (1994)

A very free adaptation of Marlowe's "Doctor Faustus", Goethe's "Faust" and various other treatments of the old legend of the man who sold his soul to the devil. A nondescript man is lured by a strange map into a sinister puppet theatre, where he finds hims ...

The Death of Stalinism in Bohemia (1991)

A bust of Stalin is cut open on an operating table, leading to an elaborate animated depiction of Czech history from 1948 (the Communist takeover) to 1989 (the Velvet Revolution). ...

Darkness, Light, Darkness (1990)

A human body gradually reconstructs itself as its various component parts crowd themselves into a small room and eventually, after much experimentation, sort out which part goes where. ...

Animated Self-Portraits (1989)

An animated film compiled by David Ehrlich consisting of 27 animators from different countries all explaining themselves through their animation. ...

Meat Love (1989)

Two pieces of meat fall in love. ...

Flora (1989)

The last moments of a creature made of fruits and vegetables. ...

Alice (1988)

A quiet young English girl named Alice finds herself in an alternate version of her own reality after chasing a white rabbit. She becomes surrounded by living inanimate objects and stuffed dead animals, and must find a way out of this nightmare - no matter ...

Virile Games (1988)

A man sits down to watch a football match, which seems to consist of the players being violently mutilated in various inventive ways. The players then leave the football pitch and invade the spectator's flat. ...

Another Kind of Love (1988)

Svankmajer's music video for Hugh Cornwell's "Another Kind of Love. ...

Scalpel, Please (1986)

A psychological drama exploring the notion of the doctor as a moral authority, who within the framework of their everyday work must face questions of life and death. The film is adapted from a novel by Valja Stýblová, in which the author draws upon her p ...

Barrandovské nokturno aneb Jak film tančil a zpíval (1985)

The 50th anniversary of the Barrandov studios was celebrated with a spectacular show: many directors and other important people gathered in the expensive decorations of the Variety Theatre auditorium (built for the Circus Humberto series). They smiled and ...

The Three Veterans (1984)

It is a story of three veterans released from the army. During one night spent camping in the country they one by one wake up and meet three elvish brothers. Each of the veterans is given a magic item - one gets magic harp that provides him with servants b ...

Down to the Cellar (1983)

A little girl goes down to the basement cellar to fetch some potatoes, and finds all her hidden fears about the cellar depicted in animated form. ...

The Pit, the Pendulum and Hope (1983)

Animated short film based on Edgar Allan Poe's "The Pit and the Pendulum" and Auguste Villiers de l'Isle-Adam's "A Torture by Hope". ...

Dimensions of Dialogue (1983)

Three surreal depictions of failures of communication that occur on all levels of human society. ...

The Fall of the House of Usher (1982)

In this animated version of Edgar Allan Poe's story, a traveller arrives at the Usher mansion to find that the sibling inhabitants are living under a mysterious family curse. The brother's senses have become painfully acute, while his sister has become nea ...

Ferat Vampire (1982)

A doctor is shocked when his beloved colleague Mima signs a contract with foreign car manufacturer Ferat, in order to work for them as a rally-driver. A scientist convinces him that human blood is being used as fuel for Mima's ever winning car, but does th ...

The Mysterious Castle in the Carpathians (1981)

In 1897, in a castle near the town of Werewolfville in the Carpithians, a slightly deranged Professor Orfanik experiments with his new inventions which include, even at this early date, television and a film camera. He is also an obsessed opera fan, keeps ...

Visitors from the Galaxy (1981)

Robert is a SF writer, who realizes that he can make his thoughts material. Because of that, a group of aliens arrives to Earth. Their leader is Andra, who shows affection for Robert, which does not please his girlfriend, Biba. A monster, Mumu, has arrived ...

Blázni, vodníci a podvodníci (1981)

A crazy comedy, turning into a grotesque with a number of absurd elements, tells the tangled story of the over-the-top siblings Zuzana and Petr, recessionists who like to prepare harsh surprises for those around them, especially Zuzana's timid suitor Karl� ...

Hodinářova svatební cesta korálovým mořem (1980)

This wacky musical comedy builds on absurd ideas, parodic humour and many variously subverted references to famous... ...

The Ninth Heart (1979)

Martin, a poor student, volunteers to go on a quest to find a cure for the princess Adriana, who is stricken with a strange illness. Unknown to Martin or anyone else, the princess is actually under the spell of the powerful magician Andlobrandini, who is p ...

Adela Has Not Had Supper Yet (1978)

When famous detective Nick Carter visits Prague, he becomes involved in strange case of a missing dog and even stranger carnivorous plant. He becomes convinced that he is standing against his greatest enemy, the Gardener, who supposedly died years ago in a ...

Castle of Otranto (1977)

An adaptation of the 1764 work of the same name, the first Gothic novel. In this mockumentary, the amateur archaeologist Dr. Vozáb has set to prove that the supernatural ghost love story takes place not in Italy, but in Otranto Castle near Náchod in Czec ...

Leonardo's Diary (1972)

Animated drawings inspired by Leonardo da Vinci are intercut with seemingly unrelated (but in fact strangely similar) live-action scenes. ...

Moje první benefice (1972)

A television adaptation of the memories of one of the first important Czech actors, Jindřich Mošna, about his difficult theatrical beginnings. At that time, as a kandrdas – i.e. a beginner – he asked the director for a so-called benefit, which was a ...

Jabberwocky (1971)

In stop-motion animation, a wardrobe moves through the countryside. It arrives in a house, a child's voice recites Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky," and various objects, such as toys and dolls, move about, disintegrate, and play out archetypal scenes. Like Ca ...

The Ossuary (1970)

A non-narrative voyage round Sedlec Ossuary, which has been constructed from over 50,000 human skeletons (victims of the Black Death). ...

A Quiet Week in the House (1969)

A man, apparently on the run, takes shelter in a dilapidated house. Every day, he drills a hole through a wall and looks into one of the rooms, each time seeing a different surreal vision. ...

Don Juan (1969)

The age-old story of Don Juan, played by giant puppets. ...

The Garden (1968)

Frank visits his friend Josef, who introduces him to his pedigree rabbits and his wife Mary. Frank is more interested in the slightly unsettling fact that Josef and Mary's garden fence is entirely made up of living people holding hands. ...

Picnic with Weismann (1968)

Various objects are having a sunny outing together in the nature. ...

The Flat (1968)

A man is trapped in a sinister flat, where nothing seems to obey the laws of nature. ...

Natural History Suite (1967)

An eight-part animated portrait of various species, accompanied by a different style of music. The various parts are: Aquatilia (foxtrot), Hexapoda (bolero), Pisces (blues), Reptilia (tarantella), Aves (tango), Mammalia (minuet), Simiae (polka) and Homo (w ...

Et cetera (1967)

A small, animated figure learns how to use a whip, a pair of wings and a house. ...

Man and Technology (1967)

In 1967, Jan Švankmajer participated in the Terre des Hommes competition of the Montreal International Film Festival by submitting "L'Homme et la technique". ...

Punch and Judy (1966)

Two puppets, Punch and Judy, do battle to the death over the custody of a live guinea pig. ...

A Game with Stones (1965)

A device consisting of a clock, a pendulum, a faucet and a bucket enacts a series of events whenever the clock chimes. ...

J.S. Bach: Fantasia in G minor (1965)

A man plays the Bach piece of the title on the organ, accompanied by images of stone walls with cracks and holes that grow and shrink, intercut with images of doors and wire-meshed windows. ...

The Last Trick (1964)

Two magicians, Mr. Schwarzwald and Mr. Edgar, try to outdo each other in performing elaborate magic tricks, leading to a violent ending. ...

Engi – Sound Designer Ivo Špalj (2023)

A look at the legendary Czech sound designer and his profession. Editor and documentary filmmaker Adéla Špaljová has her father Ivo Špalj talk about his life, career, and working methods. Over the course of his long life, sound designer Ivo Špalj (*19 ...

Kunstkamera (2022)

An astonishing array of paintings, drawings, sculptures, prints, objects and materials fill room after room - but this is not a museum open to the general public. It is the home of the celebrated artist couple Jan Svankmajer and his late wife Eva, situated ...

Alchemical Furnace (2020)

Jan Svankmajer, at 85 years of age, is one of the most prominent artists of European cinema. His work has inspired and guided generations of directors, and represents a sharp and merciless exploration of human nature which is entirely unique. When he decid ...

Vratislav Effenberger or Black Shark Hunting (2018)

The Music of Zdeněk Liška (2017)

One of the best Czech composers of film soundtracks is often described as a genius of film scores. He was not afraid to experiment and the timelessness of his work is proven by the admiration of the world, including the generation who came to know his musi ...

Raymond Roussel: The Day of Glory (2017)

A tortuous journey, in the company of the Spanish painter Salvador Dalí, around the figure of the enigmatic and visionary French poet Raymond Roussel (1877-1933). ...

Kikoe (2009)

Experimental documentary about Japanese experimental musician Otomo Yoshihide. Includes interviews with multiple musicians, artists, and writers as well as live footage. ...

Les Chimères des Švankmajer (2001)

An in depth look at both of the Švankmajers as they work on the full length film "Little Otik". ...

Jan Švankmajer: The Animator of Prague (1990)

This half-hour BBC documentary offers a revealing look at Svankmajer at work on "Death of Stalinism in Bohemia," and uses excerpts from his earlier films to trace the development of his unique sensibility. ...

The Cabinet of Jan Švankmajer: Prague's Alchemist of Film (1984)

The original 54-minute documentary, as broadcast by Channel Four on 20 June 1984, after which the animated links by the Quay Brothers were recompiled as a separate short. ...