Hra s kameny (1965)

Stones of different shapes and colors live and die together.

Director:

Jan Svankmajer

Writer:

Jan Svankmajer

Storyline

Stones of different shapes and colors live and die together.

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Plot Keywords:

stop motion

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Genres:

Animation | Short

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Details

Country:

Austria

Language:

German

Also Known As:

A Game with Stones

Company Credits

Production Co:

Studio A

Technical Specs

Runtime:

8 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Goofs

During the close-ups of the music box, the amount of rust and the position of the screws keeps changing back and forth. It seems that at some point the music box was cleaned and then the scenes were not displayed in the order in which they were shot.

User Reviews

Mirage of stones

Though random at first, there is obvious pattern in the repetition here. Every time a cuckoo clock strikes 12, stones drip out of a faucet into a bucket. Then undergo various transformations, until dropped from the bucket on the floor below. The opening shots, which are cracks on the walls and floors as their own landscape, presages the meticulous attention to texture. So we initially have stones as as this symbolic duality of black and white, then stones animated as beings, then parts of the anatomy, then overall shapes as consisting of these smaller rocks, then their disintegration as they crack against each other. Finally the bucket breaks, which is a freedom of sorts and the next batch of stones do not have to go through the process of forms. What it precisely means though is unclear to me. I hope the other Svankmajers are more evocative.