Jídlo

Jan Svankmajer has portrayed many wacky things, but "Jidlo" is a whole new level. Portraying bizarre things happening during each meal, he goes all out. The first vignette "Breakfast" seems to be a slight repeat of his earlier movie "Et Cetera". The most eye-opening vignette is "Lunch", in which two men at a table can't get the waiter's attention, and resort to eating their plates, utensils, clothes, and even the table...but they don't intend to stop there. With "Dinner", Svankmajer decides to be grosser than the Farrelly brothers could ever dream of being.

Maybe this isn't Svankmajer's best movie ever, but it's still worth seeing.

This film is one of the tightest most beautiful short films I have seen, as well as being one that truly forces you to think . From an animator who has delivered so many incredible films ,I see this as a true center piece for his constant trials with censorship authorities. Using food itself as a social commentary for poverty and oppression, Jan is able to make us both visually intrigued while still delivering an intellectual point,something rare in todays world of film.

The film goes as the summary tells but it is much more than that. Otherwise it would be another boring idea with no details. The major focus is on the lunch, other meals appearing to be only preface and epilogue, which is pacing faster and faster to reach a point of craziness at one time dumbfounding and mesmerizing. The contest and contrast between two diners are not on how fast we can eat but on what can be eaten and how do we eat them.

This short piece is a good example because the audience feels that it refers to something which cannot be clearly identified, thus allows for multiple explanations. You can substitute 'eat' with various other words, to see what you get there, and you are no where near the director's idea. Maybe he didn't have one at all!

Food is like a surreal comedy horror that comments on humanity's relationship with food, all through the lens of Jan Svankmajer's filmmaking lens of stop-motion and live-action mixing, making up for some truly fever-dream-like stories! For a short film it's got a lot of story in its three brief sequences: Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner.

Food is probably one of the truest films about dining, and possibly one of the greatest criticisms of communism encouraging people 'eating off each-other' (at least that's my interpretation of the Breakfast segment); Lunch's critique of classism in that regard is also very sharp, and Dinner's indulgence of 'eating your own body parts' is comically dark stuff at its finest.

The 1990s were really a remarkable time for stop-motion cinema and Food was something of a radical film in a post-Wallace-&-Gromit world (A Grand Day Out was released in 1989). Also it was an achievement for the Czech Republic finally breaking free from its communist trappings and restrictions on filmmaking.

Food is good stuff; it's plentiful and satirical on what it's covering, and shows the cross-quadrant world of dining and how every experience says something about the consumer (and their priorities) and what they do to get by.

Food is a 4/5 star film. 8/10 IMDb points. It's not for everyone, but it certainly says a lot about all of us. It's like a cerebral stop-motion film. And a good one at that.

'Food (1992)' is a Czech short film comprised of three distinct segments: breakfast, lunch and dinner. The first involves a man entering a room and following a bizarre set of instructions to receive his meal, the second follows a pair of diners who are unable to get their waiter's attention and decide to eat whatever they can get their hands on instead, and the final is about a series of high-society people who are so focused on the extravagant garnishes they've been provided with that they fail to realise exactly what it is they've been served (or, perhaps, they just don't care). Initially, director Jan Svankmajer wanted to create this short back in the 70s, but was unable to do so due to the Communist rule in his country. By the time the 90s rolled around, the Velvet Revolution had occurred and the filmmaker was now free to create what would become a scathing commentary on the very people who prevented it from being made in the first place. The subtext of the picture is very clearly anti-Communist and each segment has a distinct theme targeting different aspects of the political movement. On top of its messaging, the piece is just an engaging and fairly bracing display of unconventional filmmaking. The live-action picture is created primarily using stop-motion techniques, which not only lends it a deliberately uncanny vibe but also allows for a seamless introduction of some absurdist visuals (crafted with plasticine). It's really convincing in its own way. This aesthetic consistency enhances the disturbing effect of some of the gags, as does the disgustingly precise sound design (if you don't like the sound of people eating, this isn't going to be a nice time for you). Some sections are more funny than frightening, even if the short is constantly conceptually unsettling and has a dark tone overall. There's definitely something off about the whole thing and this makes it a really compelling watch; it's the sort of thing you just can't look away from. It's a really well-made film that feels like it has something to say and a distinct way of saying it.