Obscurité, Lumière, Obscurité

his is one of the few short movies where my jaw was dropping almost throughout the entire presentation. I was stunned at what I was seeing, it looked so bizarre. What a genius idea and presentation!

Basically, what we see is a body being put together, putting itself together. It is a claymation (clay animation) film which all takes place in a single room which looks like a big doll house room.

We have only a hand to start, but soon there is a knock on the door and another hand comes in. Then there is a knock on the small window and in flies an ear. Well, actually two ears but molded together looking like a bat or a butterfly. To condense the story, we slowly see an entire body formed. How it's done is utterly fascinating with some things, as I said, that just had my jaw dropping. Some body parts look impossibly big to get through the door,but they manage.

This is very, very clever material and one of the short films I will never forget. It was part of the "Jan Svankmejer: The Ossuary And Other Tales" DVD.

"Darkness, Light, Darkness" is a creepy stop-motion film. However, it's not nearly as creepy as many of Jan Svankmajer's other films...that's for sure!

The film begins with a pair of clay hands in a room. The hands seem to have a mind of their own. Soon, other body parts begin to come into this very crowded room--first some eyes, then ears, a head and so on until eventually the entire body is assembled by the hands and crowds the room.

While this doesn't sound like a lot of plot, the film IS highly entertaining. In fact, I cannot recall another stop-motion film I enjoyed more. I think it's because of the amazing quality of the film combined with a sick and bizarre sense of humor that really kept my interest. Not to be missed!!

I can't stop watching the short and feature films of the masterful animator Jan Svankmajer. His films manage to be surreal, creepy, weird, and funny, and "Darkness Light Darkness" manages to be one of his greatest accomplishments!

It is a very simple short film. The premise is that, in a room, various human body parts come together to create an actual human body, in only 7 minutes. It's a bizarre concept, which manages to be much less complicated than, say, "Dimensions of Dialogue" or "The Death of Stalinism in Bohemia" which both are much more political, and full of symbolism. "Darkness Light Darkness" isn't really political (at least I do not think it is, but there's the slight chance it could be, considering Svankmajer actually said that ALL of his films are political in the short documentary about him called "Animator of Prague"), but it is really surreal.

The atmosphere is somewhat uncomfortable and uneasy. No soundtrack accompanies the bizarre creation of this human body. But, as discomforting as its atmosphere is, "Darkness Light Darkness" also manages to be quite hilarious in its own weird way.

It serves as a sort of twist on the body horror genre, replacing horror with Svankmajer's dark sense of humor. He seems to play around with the strange concept, and fits some pretty funny scenarios into its short 7 minute runtime.

This is one of my favorite short films.

This 7 minutes short is a fascinating clay animation where a man constructs himself from clay (literally), being a God and his creature at the same time, putting the different parts of body together in a very small room. The more parts find their pace, the bigger the man becomes, the smaller and more suffocating the room gets. "Darkness-Light-Darkness" has been seen by many critics and viewers as a very strong allegory of suffocating life in Eastern Europe which is true, but I also see it as an allegory of a struggle every talented and deeply feeling artist goes through in the search for beauty and meaning regardless the political system or the country they live. From the darkness of non-existence to the light of knowledge to the unbearable darkness of being - that's the road Svankmajer takes us and as usual, his vision is not a cheerful or optimistic one.

Each film of Jan Svankmajer is, for me , kick to wake up. Tma/Svetlo/Tma is one par excellence. Because it reminds the universe of Alice in the small room and its significances, the build of a body , in which the hands are the first workers , the sexual organs before the clay as material for the body . So, a seductive parable , poetic and profound useful.