Jan Svankmajer

Jan Svankmajer (1934) is a film maker from Czech. His first film was made in 1964, and since then he has used stop motion animation to create his films. The film that we saw (Dimensions of Dialogue) was made in 1982. This is known as his best use of stop motion with the use of clay. The film itself has no story structure to speak of and is certainly a weird viewing, not completely enjoyable but interesting. He creates these characters which talk and communicate with each other in different ways.

The first part shows these people made out of rubbish, eat each other and spit back out, having been chewed to smaller pieces of rubbish. They then continue to eat each other, gradually losing structure until they are crumbs.



The second part of the film showed an intimate conversation between two people made out of clay, which literally bond together.



The last part is a conversation between two heads, where they bring out of their mouths a small variety of objects that go together. When they swap places, all the objects keep coming out with the wrong pair.



All his films have a surrealist quality, (he is a surrealist artist) which are certainly unlike any other animations Ive ever seen before. I'll be honest in saying that I didn't get the point of them.
His films have influenced film makers such as Tim Burton and The Brothers Quay.