Conspirators of Pleasure (1996)

Six people unknowingly form a cycle of masturbation as they each cause others to privately indulge in their fetishes.

Director:

Jan Svankmajer

Writer:

Jan Svankmajer

Stars:

Petr Meissel, Gabriela Wilhelmová, Barbora Hrzánová

4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
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
Zhan Daniel
Martin Kublák
Eva Vosahlíková
Martin Radimecký

Storyline

Six outwardly average individuals have elaborate fetishes they indulge with surreptitious care. A mousy letter carrier makes dough balls she grotesquely ingests before bed. A shop clerk fixates on a TV news reader while he builds a machine to massage and masturbate him. One of his customers makes an elaborate chicken costume for a voodoo-like scene with a doll resembling his plump neighbor. She, in turn, has a doll that resembles him, which she whips and dominates in an abandoned church. The TV news reader has her own fantasy involving carp. Her husband, who is indifferent to her, steals materials to fashion elaborate artifacts that he rubs, scrapes and rolls across his body.

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Plot Keywords:

no dialogue | dark humor | absurd | nudity | female nudity | 

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Details

Country:

Czech Republic Switzerland UK

Language:

Czech

Release Date:

15 August 1997 (USA)

Also Known As:

Conspirators of Pleasure

Company Credits

Production Co:

Athanor, Cominici, Delfilm

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Crazy Credits

Professional Expertise: count Leopold Sacher-Masoch marquis Donotien Aldonse François de Sade Sigmund Freud Luis Buñuel Max Ernst Bohuslav Brouk

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Connections

Referenced in Shitters (2017)

User Reviews

Masterpiece of perversion, the fetish movie to end all fetishes.

In his most original (at least from what I've seen), very different from his other films, most disturbing yet most hilarious film, the great magician Jan Svankmajer, animator-surrealist from Prague, makes his modern-day city the setting for the story of six ordinary people with extraordinary fantasies. The film that acknowledges as inspirations Sigmund Freud, Max Ernst, Luis Bunuel (the admitted fetishist himself) and the Marquis De Sade (all of them I am sure would love it) portrays the strange world of hidden fetishes that can be found in the most unexpected places. Three men and three women encounter one another through the day and exchange the knowing glances even though some of them don't even know each other but there is a certain connection and they feel it. They all are "conspirators of pleasure" who spend the most part of the film meticulously, painstakingly and creatively inventing methods, tools and constructions for fulfilling their bizarre fantasies. We will observe chicken suit with the wings made of umbrellas. There is a woman-post worker with a fetish for bread. She rolls up balls of bread and sucks them up her nose through a straw (honestly, not my idea of fun but hey, you should see the look at her face). There are unusual brushes made up of rolling pins, pan lids, and stolen pieces of fur that one man, the detective rubs over his body while his wife, the TV news-person feels neglected and buys some live carp that she strokes and feeds them the bread balls which were delivered by the post worker. The TV lady has no idea that she's been an object of a newsagent- guy's desire. He constructed the machine that consisted of several mechanic arms which can hug, stroke, rub, pull...gently while he watches her on TV and reaches his climax at the same time as she does helped by her carps but I am going to stop right here and only add that "some of our most exciting sexual experiences take place entirely within the minds of other people." (Roger Ebert - not about "Conspirators of Pleasure" but I thought it'd fit perfectly here)

What can I say? The film is a satire on human perversion but what makes it unique, its style. It has no dialog whatsoever but it is not needed, really. The lust and desires don't need words, they speak for themselves. There are the moments in the film when you'd look in total disbelieve at the weird characters and their bizzar objects of longing but you just cant help smiling. It's been over the year since I discovered Svankmajer and I've been trying to see anything that he's made. He's never disappointed me. He looks inside my mind, takes the the hidden desires and weird fetishes that I would never want to be uncovered and I would only admit to myself I have, turns them into the images hellishly disturbing but mesmerizing and hilarious and threw them back at me using his unmatched and brilliant (sorry, I have to use this word) combination of live action film-making, special effects, and his deservingly celebrated animations techniques.

Masterpiece of perversion, the fetish movie to end all fetishes.

Long Live Jan Svankmajer!