Conspirators of Pleasure is a surrealist comedy of the absurd by Czech surrealist master Jan Svankmajer. It is a Czech-Swiss-British co- production, whose story revolves around the idiosyncratic sensual compulsions and obsessions (call it fetishes if you prefer) of six different characters, whose paths are crossed but never intermingled: a couple of neighbors, a couple formed by a policeman and a newsreader, a newsagent shop owner, and a postmistress.
The film mixes surreal scenes, deadpan humor, hallucinogen imaginary, gory images, human-size puppets, and weird and twisted behavior worthy of a psychoanalyst. The result is a thought-provoking film, awkward, funny and disturbing at the same time.
The film has no dialogs, the music and street/ambient noise being the only sounds in it. Despite this, there is a very expressive non-verbal way of social communication. However, there is no real human interaction between the characters. Invisible walls prevent them from relating to the others, no matter they are next-door neighbors or husband and wife. The sensual compulsion that each character develops is a clumsy imitation of the real human touch and physical contact -a mimicked expression of real human communication.
The fetish objects are made of normal things, which become extravagant and erotic because of the idiosyncratic wishes of each of its creators, but they are quirky and even ridiculous from an outsider point of view. Despite the story being highly erotic, there is not even a sex scene in the movie, and there is just some limited semi-nudity. Even the raunchy scenes have nothing explicitly raunchy in them, as all is suggested never fully shown. For example, effervescent drinks going up and semen- like glue coming out of a tube are repeatedly associated to men's ejaculation. The most brutal and scenes in the movie -a Sado scene and a voodoo-like scene- use human-sized straw puppets with articulated facial movement that imitate and replace real humans. Even the scene related to the use of a "massaging" machine is comic and never explicit. The most surreal part of the movie is the one related to the behavior of the Post woman.
Despite its surreal oddity, the story is told in a very straightforward but circular way. All makes sense within the logic of the story, even the inexplicable. Moreover, the story has a closure that is the start of another circular movement in which the characters swap, as a natural movement of evolution, the fetishes of the others. Svankmajer's surrealism is both social and individual. However, the exploration of the unconscious world of the characters is not the point, as it is clearly shown by the use of the closet in which two of the characters hide themselves. The closet is the world where the most inner wishes and deepest secrets of the characters are kept - the subconscious mind that produces the fetishes. We just are presented with those fetishes, without knowing what generates them, as the camera doesn't go into the closet with the characters.
All the characters are wonderfully played by the Czech actors, so very expressive and believable in their respective roles: Petr Meissel (as Mr. Pivoine), Gabriela Wilhelmová (as Mrs. Loubalova), Barbora Hrzánová (as the postmistress), Anna Wetlinská (as Mrs. Beltinska), Jirí Lábus (as the newsagent), and Pavel Nový (as Mr. Beltinski).
The music is terrific.
The movie will unsettle and puzzle you, confront you and disturb you, slap you in the face and put a smile on it. It is very complex, but organically constructed. This is not a movie for lazy watchers, and one of those bizarre movies that you like or you hate, nothing in between.
The film mixes surreal scenes, deadpan humor, hallucinogen imaginary, gory images, human-size puppets, and weird and twisted behavior worthy of a psychoanalyst. The result is a thought-provoking film, awkward, funny and disturbing at the same time.
The film has no dialogs, the music and street/ambient noise being the only sounds in it. Despite this, there is a very expressive non-verbal way of social communication. However, there is no real human interaction between the characters. Invisible walls prevent them from relating to the others, no matter they are next-door neighbors or husband and wife. The sensual compulsion that each character develops is a clumsy imitation of the real human touch and physical contact -a mimicked expression of real human communication.
The fetish objects are made of normal things, which become extravagant and erotic because of the idiosyncratic wishes of each of its creators, but they are quirky and even ridiculous from an outsider point of view. Despite the story being highly erotic, there is not even a sex scene in the movie, and there is just some limited semi-nudity. Even the raunchy scenes have nothing explicitly raunchy in them, as all is suggested never fully shown. For example, effervescent drinks going up and semen- like glue coming out of a tube are repeatedly associated to men's ejaculation. The most brutal and scenes in the movie -a Sado scene and a voodoo-like scene- use human-sized straw puppets with articulated facial movement that imitate and replace real humans. Even the scene related to the use of a "massaging" machine is comic and never explicit. The most surreal part of the movie is the one related to the behavior of the Post woman.
Despite its surreal oddity, the story is told in a very straightforward but circular way. All makes sense within the logic of the story, even the inexplicable. Moreover, the story has a closure that is the start of another circular movement in which the characters swap, as a natural movement of evolution, the fetishes of the others. Svankmajer's surrealism is both social and individual. However, the exploration of the unconscious world of the characters is not the point, as it is clearly shown by the use of the closet in which two of the characters hide themselves. The closet is the world where the most inner wishes and deepest secrets of the characters are kept - the subconscious mind that produces the fetishes. We just are presented with those fetishes, without knowing what generates them, as the camera doesn't go into the closet with the characters.
All the characters are wonderfully played by the Czech actors, so very expressive and believable in their respective roles: Petr Meissel (as Mr. Pivoine), Gabriela Wilhelmová (as Mrs. Loubalova), Barbora Hrzánová (as the postmistress), Anna Wetlinská (as Mrs. Beltinska), Jirí Lábus (as the newsagent), and Pavel Nový (as Mr. Beltinski).
The music is terrific.
The movie will unsettle and puzzle you, confront you and disturb you, slap you in the face and put a smile on it. It is very complex, but organically constructed. This is not a movie for lazy watchers, and one of those bizarre movies that you like or you hate, nothing in between.