Dimensions of Dialogue

Dimensions of Dialogue
Directed by	Jan Švankmajer
Written by	Jan Švankmajer
Music by	Jan Klusák
Cinematography	Vladimír Malík
Editing by	Helena Lebdusková
Distributed by	Krátký Film Praha
Running time	14 minutes
Country	Czechoslovakia

Dimensions of Dialogue (Czech: Možnosti dialogu) is a 1982 Czechoslovak animated short film directed by Jan Švankmajer. It is 14 minute long and created with stop motion.

Plot

The animation is divided into three sections. "Exhaustive discussion" shows Arcimboldo-like heads gradually reducing each other to bland copies;^[1] "Passionate discourse" shows a clay man and woman who dissolve into one another sexually, then quarrel and reduce themselves to a frenzied, boiling pulp; and "Factual conversation" consists of two elderly clay heads who extrude various objects on their tongues (toothbrush and toothpaste; shoe and shoelaces, etc.) and intertwine them in various combinations.

Accolades

Dimensions of Dialogue won 3 major awards in 1983: the Grad Prix from the Annecy International Animated Film Festival, and the Golden Bear for Best Short Film, and the C.I.D.A.L.C. Award (Honorable Mention) from the Berlin International Film Festival. It was also selected by Terry Gilliam as one of the ten best animated films of all time.^[2]

References

1. ^ Re-animating the Lost Objects d'Childhood and the Everyday: Jan Svankmajer
2. ^ Gilliam, Terry (April 27, 2001). "Terry Gilliam Picks the Ten Best Animated Films of All Time". The Guardian. http://film.guardian.co.uk/features/featurepages/0,,479022,00.html. 

External links

• Dimensions of Dialogue at the Internet Movie Database
• Dimensions of Dialogue - Kratky Film
• Dimensions of Dialogue - Animation Heaven and Hell
• Dimensions of Dialogue - Tativille