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

Couldn't quite hear what this silent film was trying to say.

I very much enjoyed Svankmajer's "Faust" so I was happy (and not ashamed) to pick this up from the same spot (hooray for libraries!).

It could be that Svankmajer is trying to isolate fetishism from an explicit sexual nature...the film quickly moves beyond the porn shop purchase to more vivid and involved flights of fantasy. The stop-frame animation itself lends a frenetic feeling, and the story does jump between several substories loosely united by interactions. Despite those facets, it seemed to move slowly, circling around some of the same images like a crazed chicken, or a fish in a tiny tub.

Perhaps the message is that everyone has their itch to scratch...but the nails never really did dig in for me. And if everyone is odd, then nothing is odd. This film sort of had that effect on me. A mildly profound statement, but ultimately, I suspect, an untrue one.

Not that there's anything wrong with you...nor me and my obsessive film reviewing...

Without saying too much about the actual "action", there is also a potential conclusion drawn from the film's flimsy plot that the boundary between imagination and reality might be more permeable than we suspect. That gave a little injection.

For those who find humor in this, I didn't. The closets? Yawn... Well maybe the recurring musical themes, especially the operatic baritone blast. The stories intermingle without ever interlocking. A more studied viewing may help more, it would not surprise me if there were some sort of secret decoder to the blood, bread, fish and further fetishes on display... But for me it just wound up as a sort of a coq-up.

Though a visually memorable one. Snorting the little crumb balls will remain with me. I actually preferred the shorter entrees from the "Food" chain of films served with this DVD. More focused and smaller in scope and time, but plenty of fantastic creativity with clay and otherwise. Especially the infinite breakfast club.