In contrast to most other reviewers the film worked not very well for me. Probably because I watched it only for educational reasons not because I have a liking for this kind of films. So anybody interested in this kind of film should take my reactions as one of the uninitiated.
I think "The Cremator (1968)" is a very black comedy with some weak horror elements (there are no shock elements but some genre situations generating a very slight nightmare feeling). The humour is of a kind about which I cannot laugh. Others obviously can. It is a grotesque more than anything else.
Acting is a lot more unconvincing for me than in "Man of Straw (1951)" or "Vital (2004)" {films I felt reminded of}; the film obviously plays in the late sixties (inferred from female make-up and the whole feeling) though it is meant to play in the 1930s. Also in this respect "Man of Straw" is far more convincing. I liked some of the visualisations and some script ideas of "The Cremator" (for instance the protagonist's love for the Tibetan Book of Dead and Tibetan Lamaism).
In comparison with the rather good "Vital (2004)" by Shin'ya Tsukamoto the Czech film feels much weaker to me (in atmosphere, characterisation, direction) and less well constructed. It's for certain not a bad film, but also nothing I would recommend with conviction. Thus it gets 6/10 from me.
I think "The Cremator (1968)" is a very black comedy with some weak horror elements (there are no shock elements but some genre situations generating a very slight nightmare feeling). The humour is of a kind about which I cannot laugh. Others obviously can. It is a grotesque more than anything else.
Acting is a lot more unconvincing for me than in "Man of Straw (1951)" or "Vital (2004)" {films I felt reminded of}; the film obviously plays in the late sixties (inferred from female make-up and the whole feeling) though it is meant to play in the 1930s. Also in this respect "Man of Straw" is far more convincing. I liked some of the visualisations and some script ideas of "The Cremator" (for instance the protagonist's love for the Tibetan Book of Dead and Tibetan Lamaism).
In comparison with the rather good "Vital (2004)" by Shin'ya Tsukamoto the Czech film feels much weaker to me (in atmosphere, characterisation, direction) and less well constructed. It's for certain not a bad film, but also nothing I would recommend with conviction. Thus it gets 6/10 from me.