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 A Short Film Named Desire (2017)

User Reviews

EroSocial

Slave/Master -- Sacher Masoch -- Sade, Marquis de -- SvankMajer. All S&M - purely by coincidence?

The liner notes and end credits of Conspirators of Pleasure list Max Ernst, Sacher Masoch, Marquis de Sade and Luis Buñuel as inspirations and or sources, planting Svankmajer's film firmly on the map of surrealist experimentation and with little doubt, denoting it as social and political commentary. Sexuality is employed to both present and represent socio-political disorders affected by the taut political tensions and trying social circumstances in everyday Eastern Europe.

Power relations between two tenants take the form of S&M, and repressed sexuality emerge in multifarious perverse ways in a city constantly spying on its citizens, where moments of privacy have to be enacted in strict interiors like closets and the imagination for fear of discovery and public shaming. Thrift stores where everyday items are salvaged turn out to be the sites providing raw materials for building and enacting sexual fantasies.

In Conspirators of Pleasure, sexual perversion and fetishes come across as symptomatic of a larger social and political neurosis. Yet, the end result of a film built on such an idea doesn't come across as staid, but superbly entertaining and wry, helped in no small part by the supremely brilliant realization by Svankmajer.

Conspirators of Pleasure is a winner and a must-watch.