Jan Švankmajer

Infobox actor
name = Jan Švankmajer


caption = Still from "Dimensions of Dialogue", 1982
birthdate = 4 September 1934
birthplace = Prague, Czechoslovakia
occupation = Animator
yearsactive =
spouse = Eva Švankmajerová

Jan Švankmajer (born 4 September 1934 in Prague) is a Czech surrealist artist. His work spans several media. He is known for his surreal animations and features, which have greatly influenced other artists such as Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam, The Brothers Quay and many others.

Švankmajer has gained a reputation over several decades for his distinctive use of stop-motion technique, and his ability to make surreal, nightmarish and yet somehow funny pictures. He is still making films in Prague at the time of writing.

Švankmajer's trademarks include very exaggerated sounds, often creating a very strange effect in all eating scenes. He often uses very sped-up sequences when people walk and interact. His movies often involve inanimate objects coming alive and being brought to life through stop-motion. Food is a favourite subject and medium.Stop-motion features in most of his work, though his feature films also include live action to varying degrees.

A lot of his movies, like the short film "Down to the Cellar", are made from a child's perspective, while at the same time often having a truly disturbing and even aggressive nature. In 1972 the communist authorities banned him from making films, and many of his later films were banned. He was almost unknown in the West until the early 1980s.

Today he is one of the most celebrated animators in the world. His best known works are probably the feature films "Alice" (1988), "Faust" (1994), "Conspirators of Pleasure" (1996), "Little Otik" (2000) and "Lunacy" (2005), a surreal comic horror based on the work of Edgar Allan Poe and the Marquis de Sade. Also famous (and much imitated) is the short "Dimensions of Dialogue" (1982), selected by Terry Gilliam as one of the ten best animated films of all time.cite web| last=Gilliam | first=Terry | title=Terry Gilliam Picks the Ten Best Animated Films of All Time | publisher=The Guardian | date=April 27, 2001 | url=http://film.guardian.co.uk/features/featurepages/0,,479022,00.html ] His films have been called "as emotionally haunting as Kafka's stories [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9901E2D7103EF930A25757C0A962958260&sec=&pagewanted=print] ."

Biography

An early influence on his later artistic development was the puppet theatre Švankmajer was given for Christmas as a child. He studied at the College of Applied Arts in Prague and later in the Department of Puppetry at the Prague Academy of Performing Arts. In 1958 he contributed to Emil Radok's film "Doktor Faust" and then began working for Prague's Semafor Theatre where he founded the Theatre of Masks. He them moved on to the Laterna Magika multimedia theatre where he renewed his association with Radok. This theatrical experience is reflected in Švankmajer's first film "The Last Trick" which was released in 1964. Under the influence of theoretician Vratislav Effenberger Švankmajer moved from the mannerism of his early work to classic surrealism, first manifested in his film "The Garden" (1968), and joined the Czechoslovak Surrealist Group. ["Jan Švankmajer: The Complete Short Films". BFI Booklet.]

He was married to Eva Švankmajerová, an internationally known surrealist painter, ceramicist and writer until her death in October 2005. She collaborated on several of his movies including "Faust", "Otesánek" and "Alice". They had two children, Veronika (b. 1963) and [http://www.surrealismus.cz/svankmajer/zivotopis.htm Václav] (b. 1975, an animator).

Filmography

Feature-length films

* "Alice" ("Něco z Alenky") (1988)
* "Faust" ("Lekce Faust") (1994)
* "Conspirators of Pleasure" ("Spiklenci slasti") (1996)
* "Little Otik" ("Otesánek") (2000)
* "Lunacy" ("Šílení") (2005)
* "Surviving Life (Theory and Practice)" (2008)

hort films

* "The Last Trick" ("Poslední trik pana Schwarcewalldea a pana Edgara") (1964)
* "A Game with Stones" ("Hra s kameny") (1965)
* "" ("Johann Sebastian Bach: Fantasia G-moll") (1965)
* "Punch and Judy", also known as "The Coffin Factory" and "The Lynch House" ("Rakvičkárna") (1966)
* "Et Cetera" (1966)
* "Historia Naturae, Suita" (1967)
* "The Garden" ("Zahrada") (1968)
* "The Flat" ("Byt") (1968)
* "Picnic with Weissmann" ("Picknick mit Weissmann") (1968)
* "A Quiet Week in the House" ("Tichý týden v domě") (1969)
* "Don Juan" ("Don Šajn") (1969)
* "The Ossuary" ("Kostnice") (1970)
* "Jabberwocky" "(Žvahlav aneb šatičky slaměného Huberta") (1971)
* "Leonardo's Diary" ("Leonardův deník") (1972)
* "Castle of Otranto" ("Otrantský zámek") (1979)
* "The Fall of the House of Usher" ("Zánik domu Usherů") (1980)
* "Dimensions of Dialogue" ("Možnosti dialogu") (1982)
* "Down to the Cellar" ("Do pivnice") (1983)
* "The Pendulum, the Pit and Hope" ("Kyvadlo, jáma a naděje") (1983)
* "The Male Game", also known as "Virile Games" ("Mužné hry") (1988)
* "Another Kind of Love" (1988) - music video for Hugh Cornwell
* "Meat Love" ("Zamilované maso") (1988)
* "Darkness/Light/Darkness" ("Tma, světlo, tma") (1989)
* "Flora" (1989)
* "Animated Self-Portraits" (1989) - Švankmajer was one of 27 filmmakers who contributed to this portmanteau work
* "The Death of Stalinism in Bohemia" ("Konec stalinismu v Čechách") (1990)
* "Food" ("Jídlo") (1992)

References

Literature

* Peter Hames: "Dark Alchemy: The Films of Jan Svankmajer", Praeger Paperback, 1995, ISBN 0275952991. Second updated edition published in 2007, ISBN 1905674457. Peter Hames is an expert on history of Central European cinema.

External links

*
* [http://www.keyframeonline.com/CastCrew/Jan_Svankmajer/4297/"The Animation of Jan Svankmajer"] at Keyframe - the Animation Resource
* [http://www.awn.com/heaven_and_hell/svank/svank1.htm Overview of his work]
* [http://www.jansvankmajer.art.pl Jan Švankmajer - PL]
* [http://www.wanderingscholars.org.uk/2.1.Marlow_article.pdf On Svankmajer's Faust]
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxBEyz9vgYs Svankmajer in conversation at BFI London]