Spiklenci Slasti

After Alice and Faust (the latter was screened at Rotterdam in 1995) Jan +_+vankmajers third feature is again characterised by a sparkling combination of ‘normal’ feature film elements, animation techniques and an inimitable and individual approach to the surrealist idiom.’Sunday’. That is all that is written in the anonymous letter that Mr Peony has just been given by the postwoman, Mrs Malkova. That is the sign for the protagonists of the film to prepare for an extreme and very individual experience of pleasure. Mr Peonymakes a couple of bat wings and models a statuette that looks like his landlady, Mrs Lubalova, who in turn makes a rag doll that looks like Mr Peony. Mrs Malkova kneads bread balls and commissioner Beltinsky sticks various objects on pan lids in his secret workshop. His wife, the attractive newsreader Beltinska, buys two live carps to put in a zinc tub. Mr Kula, the newspaper seller who is in love with the TV picture of Beltinska, builds an installation in which the TV screen is a kind of psycho-erotic centre. Sunday approaches.Jan +_+vankmajer has made a film in which nothing is said, but a lot is shown. The soundtrack plays a significant role. The bizarre sexual expressions that Svankmajer puts on the screen are inspired by Sacher Masoch and De Sade, Buñuel, Freud and Max Ernst. +_+vankmajer: ‘It is an erotic film in which no one ever gets round to the act.’