Spiklenci slasti (1996)

Director:

Jan Svankmajer

Writer:

Jan Svankmajer (writer)

Release Date:

15 August 1997 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Comedy

Plot:

Six outwardly average individuals have elaborate fetishes they indulge with surreptitious care. A mousy...

Plot Keywords:

Neighbor | Rock | Newscaster | Satire | Surrealism

Awards:

4 nominations

Cast

Petr Meissel	...	Mr. Pivoine
Gabriela Wilhelmová	...	Mrs. Loubalova
Barbora Hrzánová	...	Postmistress
Anna Wetlinská	...	Mrs. Beltinska
Jirí Lábus	...	Newspaper Vendor
Pavel Nový	...	Mr. Beltinski
Frantisek Polata
Eva Vidimská
Ervín Tomendál
Josef Chodora
Marie Zemanová
Jean-Daniel
Martin Kublák
Eva Vosahlíková
Martin Radimecký

Also Known As:

Conspirators of Pleasure (USA)

Runtime:

Greece:75 min | USA:85 min

Country:

Czech Republic | Switzerland | UK

Language:

Czech

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Australia:MA (2008) | UK:18 | Hong Kong:III

Company:

Athanor

9/10

The movie opens with decadent pictures of masturbation and bestiality, but the film itself isn't that offensive. It's often very funny, and some of the things we see are just wrong, so how could it possibly be offensive? It'd have to be bad to be offensive, and this is spectacular. The story itself concerns a handful of people who have a connection in one way or another -- a fat woman, who lives next door to a bearded man, who buys porn from a beady-eyed man; the mailwoman who delivers to the bearded man, and the mustached man seen by the bearded man in an antique shop. The movie is filled with deliciously gooey sexual symbolism and would make an interesting double bill with "Crash." (Though unfortunately for a film so concerned with the odd things that we see, the film itself has got that dull, brown look to it that seems common with European productions.)

The film is dialogue free, and there's an especially good use of music and sound effects to more than make up for it (we can almost experience tactilely their sense of pleasure, the ecstasy of the mustached man who massages and prickles his wet, hairy skin with various types of bristled brushes); it's better that it's silent, because it gives a fuller feeling of the audience as voyeurs peeping in on these individuals' various sexual exploits, who create objects that satisfy their needs. There are some scenes that are just...the weirdest things I think I've ever seen, or at least certainly up there: a woman rolling up pieces of bread between her fingers and then snorting them up her nose later on in the picture. Or my favorite, the climactic scene with the bearded man dressed as a rooster, with umbrellas for wings, attacking a dummy made to look like that female neighbor. (She herself has her own dummy made in his image that she uses for S&M enactments.) But more than just surrealism -- and this is pretty surreal (meaning that it's real but bent) -- it makes a pretty powerful statement on the dullness of home life, whether you're single or paired off. 9/10