Comida

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.

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!

When I see something like this, I start to think of David Lynch. I've always contended that Lynch has made a career out of putting his nightmares on film. From Eraserhead to Twin Peaks we are haunted by the indifference of the world and the bizarre figures that inhabit it. This is all about the consumption of food, where everything we do is related to eating. But what this film does with gross but stunning animation is brings these strange things to us and perhaps create new nightmares. for us.

It's an apt title and solo-focus for Food to be a Jan Svankmajer short; he's obsessed with it, in case you couldn't tell from his other movies (it's used sometimes to ridiculous amounts in Little Otik), and in both playful and gleefully deranged ways. In this short we see his knack at mixing live-action and stop-motion as two gentlemen at a table have plates of food and eat them up... then they eat the forks, then the plates, then the table, then the chairs, not to mention their clothes, and we see how their mouths suddenly flip over to stop-motion for just that bit of mastication and then back to the real human forms. There's also the great bit with the man as a kind of cash-register of food as people sit down and at the flick of a button on his jacket get plastic forks and other things to munch down on their lot of good. Sometimes its disgusting, and at the end when actual body parts get in the mix of things (including, not too undeservedly, a penis and testicles, which actually are the dividing line that isn't crossed) it's downright crude, but it's downright raunchy and crazy and quintessentially Svankmajer. The icing on the cake, of course, is the Blue Danube used as the two naked men munch on their table.

'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.