Rakvickarna

I like the stop-motion films of Jan Svankmajer. However, I am quick to admit that his work is NOT for everyone and can be VERY creepy. Much of this is because he is a surrealist and much of it is because, I think, he likes scaring his audience. I'd say that "Rakvickarna" is definitely from one of his creepier periods in film making.

There are three characters in this film--a live guinea pig, a Punch puppet and a Harlequin puppet. During most of the film, the Punch and Harlequin puppets fight (much like from a Punch and Judy show)--but the fighting gets much more morbid. At several points, the puppets act very lethally and dry to entomb the other puppet--all during which the guinea pig just keeps eating. In addition, seemingly random old-time pictures are rapidly projected. The look of everything is as if some 19th century objects were left in an attic to rot and this is the sort of stuff they do for fun. It's totally bizarre but well done--with puppetry mixed with stop-motion mixed with a real life animal. Odd.

Svankmajer is one of my absolute favorite filmmakers of all time. I cannot think of many directors that create films as artistic, thrilling, and funny as Svankmajer.

While this short film is one of Svankmajer's earliest works, it is also one of his absolute best. The plot is pretty simple, and isn't necessarily compelling, but the execution is truly excellent. It is darkly comic, strange, and creepy. Svankmajer masterfully mixes all of these elements to create a bizarre and oddly disturbing.

While Svankmajer has made more complex and intelligent films than this one, it's still well worth a look and a lot of praise.

Punch & Judy is Svankmajer's third film effort, and a triumph of surrealist satire. Whereas his two previous films had been too strange for their own good, this third film stands as a strong testament to Svakmajer's blossoming ability as a filmmaker.

The opening sequence is an important element to the film, showing a clockwork band of creepy-looking toy monkeys who seem to set the tone for the goofy animalistic black comedy that is about to unfold. Contrasted by this clockwork band of misfits are metallic clockwork contraptions of working-class families (covered with rust and paint chips) in a psychotic drone of mechanical repetition. After this, a "swinging ship" carousal sways back and forth to swaying images of decadent childish cherubs. Finally, a series of frightening carousal horses drone by the camera and after a collision-edited sequence of wooden horses, we are presented with a puppet stage.

From there, the story unfolds; the film features two puppets, Punch and Jody (mistitled as "Judy" - Jody has always been a male counterpart to Punch in his puppet plays, even though Punch does has a wife named Judy) who become involved in an escalating war with large mallets over a botched attempt to barter over a fine guinea pig. The sequences that follow feature bizarre imagery and seemingly nonsequitor clips and closeups (some animated) of archival newsprint.

During the entire conflict in which either side attempts to see the other dead and buried (and fails) while the guinea pig remains oblivious and indifferent towards either side. Thus the animal represents the arbitrary notion of property with regards to man's environment.

Eventually Punch & Jody slay one another after wreaking miserable havoc on the landscape of the stage around them (even passing over the mechanical contraptions and carousel horses featured in the opening sequence) and collapsing together into the coffin they had intended to bury each other in.

The puppeteer's hands slide out of the puppets, the coffin lid closes, and the unaffected guinea pig crawls through the open mouth of one of the wall paintaing.

The film itself is, among other things, a subervise satire of humanity - particularly our attitudes with regards to conflict. This film was made during the cold war, and made comedy of the capitalist versus communist ideals. (This subtle is further reinforced by the fact that Punch is dressed in red and demands a fairer share of money than Jody offers, while Jody lives in a house lined with newspapers and attempts to set the price for the guinea pig himself.) The film in a way, mocks the mechanized hypocrisy of communism, and the greedy inclinations of capitalism. Even so, drawing up a cold war allegory would be a disservice to the film, which symbollically mocks the human condition, and our never-ending always-escalating desire for conflict which results in our own mutual self-destruction. Meanwhile, nature being indifferent to our struggles, goes on without us.

This film is without a doubt, a masterpiece of surrealist and czechoslovakian cinema - if you enjoy it, I would recommend any of Svankmajer's other works, particularly his full-length films "Conspirators of Pleasure" "Alice" "Faust" and "Little Otik." His successive work (including his countless other short films, many of which are genius, particularly "Jabberwocky" "Ossuary" "Food" "Darkness-Light-Darkness" and "Dimensions of Dialogue") has only built upon the foundation created by this classic gem of a short film.

While visually Svankmajer's 1966 short film "Punch and Judy" is up to the standards of his normal work in the bizarre and artistic imagery, one thing this film lacks a lot of is the infamous stop-motion that made his style distinct. Being a puppet show, much of the movie is not animated at all and instead combines a good deal of live-action within its run-time, save several sequences. This is not a huge issue since it remains as weird and crazy as later works, but at the same time it does show how much developing needed to occur before the director would have an obvious style.

The film is set up as a puppet show, in which Punch and his enemy Harlequin battle furiously over a guinea pig. The stage itself is hardly lacking in any visual uniqueness; on the contrary, it is decorated with just about everything Svankmajer could lay his hands on. B&W nineteenth century photos appear throughout, as well as newspaper article clips. As the fight gets crazier and crazier, the film becomes darker and darker - supposed deaths of both puppets occur, only for each to be resurrected for a final battle. On top of that, the guinea pig is entirely live and out of place in the lavish setting, which makes the short even stranger.

The plot, while ridiculous and pointless, is mainly the key to set-up the action, and it is fun and interesting to watch although not nearly as interesting as later efforts. In the end, one must appreciate the filmmaker's lavishly artistic production design, but the film is far from outstanding though it does stay entertaining enough to give one a chuckle or two.