Sílení (2005)

Director:

Jan Svankmajer

Writers:

Edgar Allan Poe (story) and
Marquis de Sade (story) ...

Release Date:

17 November 2005 (Czech Republic)

Genre:

Horror

Plot:

A horror movie testing two approaches to running an insane asylum - absolute freedom versus control and punishment...

Plot Keywords:

Asylum | Marquis | Therapy | Control | Nightmare

Awards:

4 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Pavel Liska	...	Jean Berlot
Jan Triska	...	Marquis
Anna Geislerová	...	Charlotte
Jaroslav Dusek	...	Dr. Murlloppe
Martin Huba	...	Dr. Coulmiere
Pavel Nový	...	Servant Dominic
Stano Danciak	...	Innkeeper
Jirí Krytinár	...	Reciting Madman
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Ctirad Götz	...	Ostler
Iva Littmanová
Katerina Ruzicková
Jan Svankmajer	...	Himself
Katerina Valachová

Also Known As:

Lunacy (USA)

Runtime:

Japan:123 min | Czech Republic:118 min | Argentina:118 min

Country:

Czech Republic | Slovakia | Japan

Language:

Czech

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Czech Republic:15 | Japan:R-15 | Argentina:16

Company:

Athanor

Trivia:

The official Czech submission to the 2007 Oscars in the Best Foreign Language Film category.

didn't quite meat with my expectations, but still good

I have Jan Svankmajer's films on DVD, like Alice, Faust, Conspirators of Pleasure, Little Otik, and when I watched all these for the first time I was sucked right into them and absolutely delighted with them all. Not so with this one, really, and I hesitate to say I was disappointed, but I suppose I was. This is the tale of a man who may or may not be insane and ends up in an asylum where it's gradually revealed that the lunatics took over and the staff was tarred and feathered and locked away in the basement. There's a strange character that fancies himself to be the Marquis De Sade, and oodles of other odd characters as well. And, there's lots of slithering and oozing meat, and eyeballs, and other sorts of Svankmajer's usual surreal and creepy stuff. But this film is considerably darker than his usual whimsical (yet creepy) stuff, and I guess you could say it's more of a horror film than anything else. There seems to be a lot of Svankmajer's usual style missing from this, and while I would say it was interesting it just didn't quite grab me like all his other offerings. I will have to watch this again to see what I think but upon a first viewing I would have to say I wasn't enthralled so maybe a second viewing will help. 7 out of 10.