Spalovac mrtvol

From time to time there are films of timeless quality. Born out of the chaos of a specific historical situation, which manage to find images, formulate words and condense signs. From the vortex of the Eastern European uproar of the late 1960s, marked by the trauma of World War II, The Cremator is one such work.

This Czech film delves deep into political horror and psychological study drama. Its a satirical, gloomy vision of the unhealthy consequences of totalitarianism exemplified in Nazi paranoia. Blood, race, nationality, ideology and party above family, friendship, with death as liberation/elimination.

The movie has an extraordinary atmosphere to it, it takes the shape of a walking nightmare, with a gloomy and ghostly musical accompaniment, vast use of wide angle photo to distort the images with surreal perspectives. Which provokes both fascination and disgust.

The Cremator is not perfect, but the rather odd mixure of the creative photo, exceptional story, marvelous story telling and superb performance by Rudolf Hrusinsky, results in a timeless movie gem.

Hrusinsky is quite good in this one as the Tibetan Buddhism obsessed, German cremator Kropfkringl who dreams of sending people to their afterlife and reincarnation while becoming a "savior" like the Dalai Lama. It is a good political satire of the Fascists in Czechia and the Sudetenland right before WWII.

The film is both horrible and comedic, and the gruesome murders of his wife and son are done in a very comical way. The film also uses the very sexually explicit imagery that the Czech new wave was known for which only adds to the perversion. One "comedic" scene is where the cremator praises German Fascism and the very act of death itself at his own wife's funeral while his comrades hail him and cheer him on. The scene where Kropfkringl discusses the beauty of a Jewish ceremony while scapegoating them to his NSDAP comrades in an intercut scene was masterful editing.

The soundtrack to this is very beautiful. I feel Terry Gilliam must have been influenced by this film and Czech New Wave films like it because many parts of the soundtrack and cinematography reminded me of Baron Munchausen and some of his other films (including an ending shot and scene that seemed very reminiscent to me of Brazil's). Definitely worth watching, but some people just don't get it.

Really unbelievable this film is stated as horror/comedy here on IMDb. Braindead is horror/comedy. This is pure horror. If Kopfrkringl's sick mind doesn't scare you, nothing does. This is a holocaust movie. But unlike Pianist or Shindler's list this movie is about cremator. About man who finds idea of burning thousands of murdered people every day very attractive. Director Juraj Herz have done brilliant piece of work by creating atmosphere of fear and madness so deep and believable. Because in fact there had to be some Kopfrkringl who actually done these things during WW2. This movie flows like honey (or some Lynch's work) with no boring spots and no disturbances in its rhythm. One scene traverses into another almost seamlessly. And in the end you can see mass murderer who thinks he is dalailama and you'll believe it's possible. That's why Cremator is REAL horror.

Juraj Herz's The Cremator, lost to Western audiences for many years before being recently rediscovered by the Brothers Quay, is an extraordinary surreal meditation on the political horror of 1930s Europe. Hrusínský's remarkable title performance literally and figuratively fills the screen, an alarming depiction of a deceptive and compulsive character slowly inhabited by Nazi political dogma. In some respects The Cremator recalls Polanski's claustrophobic nightmare Repulsion, though this is arguably even further out than Polanski could manage. Utterly devastating but incredibly watchable (the 90 minute running time passes in a heartbeat), this is a real find. I posted this comment because I was aware that the only other comment on the film was negative, and I really do believe it is worth your time checking this out.

This film of Juraj Herj, like Morgiana, has a decidedly gothic feel. Karl Kopfrkingl, the owner of a modern crematorium gets creepier by the minute. At the beginning of the film at a family outing we see a snow leopard, peacock, tiger, snake, and a lion - Karl makes a comment that "cages are for mute persons." Later at a fair everyone else seems to be having a wonderful time; Karl looks quite glum. But when they enter a "chamber of horrors" exhibit, he's quite happy and intrigued while everyone else is shocked (it reminds me of one of Charles Addams' cartoons with everyone in a movie theatre crying, except for one man who seems positively overjoyed by the cinema situation).

In a sense, Karl lives for dying - or at least lives to compassionately cremate as many people as he can, releasing and purifying their souls for another life. He seems to have a bit of an obsession with Tibetan Buddhism, carrying with him a tome on the Dalia Lama's palace and Buddhist customs.

It doesn't take much flattery and cajoling by Nazi sympathizers to put Karl totally over the edge of sanity . . .

Quite an incredible film, with good use of wide-angle lenses and closeups to indicate Karl's increasing derangement.