Kostnice

Watching this, I was stunned such a place exists. To be perfectly honest, I didn't know the meaning of the word "ossuary," but I do now. This is the Sedlec Ossuary in the Czech Republic and, I guarantee you, a place unlike any you have ever seen.

For history of this amazing shrine, if you will, please read Galina's review here. She seems well-versed on the topic.

To see a building, an old chapel, with 70,000 skulls and human bones in it, arranged "artistically," is really eerie, wouldn't you say? It looks even stranger with Czech filmmaker Jan Swankmejer's grainy black-and-white photography, and how he presents what is there.

In the background we hear a woman giving a tour to students. We never see her or the kids, but we hear her throughout. She sounds as odd as this place and almost gets hysterical in the end when she thinks some kid might have handled one of the bones. She says she's worked there for a year-and-a-half and she feels a kinship with these bones, looking at them (my words, not hers) as if they are still alive and she is protecting them. That's how she comes across.

Anyway, the "story" is not her but this incredible place with skulls and complete skeletons all over - floors, walls, ceilings....everywhere you see in this big chapel. Most of these people died horrific deaths, many because of the Black Death: the plague. It's unbelievable. One piece of "art" is a chandelier from human bones and skulls that someone from America offered $100,000 for back in 1968.

I imagine it's really incredible to see this in person. It's macabre, to say the least, and perhaps it is the most bizarre placed to visit on Earth.

Svankmejer made a diversion from his vivid world to make this short , mostly non-narrative film. We are taken on a journey to one of the most horrificly spellbinding building in the world , which has been made from the skull's,rib's,legs,breastbones etc etc of thousands of bodies, to form the arches and doorways and to generally adorne this building.. With frantic jump cuts , a soundtrack that seems to ring in the ears for hours afterward and his own style give us a truly original way of seeing this macabre building. Watch this and then go for a walk in the woods , alone.

I think, that movie is very good. The film shows in all its glory one of the most macabre places in the world. The director decided that it was best not to say a word. Really. The spectacle is so shocking that comments are not needed. 70,000 human bones have the interior of the church. The place itself is creepy. Schwankmeier masterfully conveyed this horror. The music is perfect. The atmosphere and suspense are pumped. The operator takes the most beautiful shots. Installation is at height. While there is no better movie about this place. I recommend to all.

I've seen many films by Jan Svankmajer, short and feature and I like them all but the most astounding film of all and since couple of days ago, my favorite is "The Ossuary"(1970).

"The Ossuary" is the most stunning, disturbing, masterful and creative short film even for Svankmajer. I usually would stay away from the words THE MOST but "The Ossuary" deserves the epithet for the unique subject matter which is a voyage inside the Sedlec Ossuary, a small chapel located beneath the Cemetery Church of All Saints in Sedlec, a suburb of Kutná Hora in the Czech Republic with an actual tour-guide (or rather a substitute for a tour guide) who tells the story of the Ossuary to the group of middle school students. The ossuary contains approximately 40,000 human skeletons which have been artistically arranged to form decorations and furnishings for the chapel. During the Black Death in the mid 14th century, and after the Hussite Wars in the early 15th century many thousands of people were buried there.

In 1870, František Rint, a woodcarver, was employed by the Schwarzenberg family to arrange the bones of 40,000 people or so artistically and orderly. What he had created with the help of his wife and two children is the most disturbing, macabre, ominous and unsettling works of art I've ever seen: four enormous bell-shaped mounds occupy the corners of the chapel. A huge chandelier of bones, which contains at least one of every bone in the human body, hangs from the center of the nave with garlands of skulls draping the vaults. The guide proudly informed the audience that the USA government had offered the Czechoslovakia government $100, 000 for chandelier but the offer was declined. The signature of Master Rint and the year 1870 carved in bone can be seen on he wall near the entrance.

In 1970, the centenary of Rint's contributions, Jan Švankmajer was commissioned to make a "cultural documentary" about the ossuary. The result was a 10 minute long nightmare of the images that could be compared to the darkest and most pessimistic works in the history of Art. Bosch's "Inferno" looks like a sitcom next to the quiet and silence horrors of the artistically and lovingly arranged human bones and sculls that would never for a second let a mesmerized viewer forget about decay and death. Svankmajer did not have to create any hellish nightmarish images or visions - all he had to do - to let his camera go wild in capturing the never stopping and never ending Dance of Death.

Absolutely fascinating, terrifying, and unforgettable.

There are two versions of this short movie - one with a music sound-track and the second one (that was banned during the communistic era) with a sound record of a voice of an "educated" guide (some old women). It is funny and bitter at the same time. There are no visual differences between these two versions, just the sound-track is different. I wondered (and I still wonder:-) which of these two versions is older. The cutting is the same but it is suited to the song. But the second version (with voice soundtrack) was banned, so I suppose that the song was composed because of this reason... One of the (many) nice typical Svankmajer's moments, that I like in this movie, is the squeaking sound of bicycle in the beginning.