AN UNREALITY CHECK FOR THE ADVENTUROUS.Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic A crazy movie about the utterly relative nature of craziness, ``Lunacy'' is well-regarded Czech animator Jan Svankmajer's most successful venture into live-action filmmaking yet. Make that mostly live-action. Svankmajer is still enchanted en·chant tr.v. en·chant·ed, en·chant·ing, en·chants 1. To cast a spell over; bewitch. 2. To attract and delight; entrance. See Synonyms at charm. by the sight of stop-motion meat skittering around and homesteading in empty cow skulls and Venus statues. How all this pixilated pix·i·lat·ed or pix·il·lat·ed adj. 1. Behaving as if mentally unbalanced; very eccentric. 2. Whimsical; prankish. 3. Slang Intoxicated; drunk. raw flesh figures in a movie that's already bursting with imagery from Edgar Allen Poe and the Marquis de Sade Noun 1. Marquis de Sade - French soldier and writer whose descriptions of sexual perversion gave rise to the term `sadism' (1740-1814) Comte Donatien Alphonse Francois de Sade, de Sade, Sade is a bit of a puzzle. Every time our troubled protagonist Jean (hangdog hang·dog adj. 1. Shamefaced or guilty. 2. Downcast; intimidated. n. A sneaky or despicable person. hangdog Adjective sad sack Pavel Liska) gets to wondering if it's he or the world that's lost its marbles, the meat starts moving, so I guess it's representative of something -- probably, though, just the pleasure Svankmajer gets from manipulating animal innards. Fortunately, the main body of the film is far more intellectually rigorous, if no less perverse. In some kind of eternally overcast Europe where the 18th and 21st centuries co-exist, Jean is suffering from horrendous dreams of being menaced by thick, grinning bald guys with straitjackets, and hauled off to the loony bin. A ``sympathetic'' Marquis (veteran actor Jan Triska) offers the troubled traveler refuge at his crumbling estate. There, the Marquis sets to messing with Jean's head more. There's an obscenely sacrilegious sac·ri·le·gious adj. 1. Grossly irreverent toward what is or is held to be sacred. 2. Having committed sacrilege. sac sex rite with enslaved Enslaved may refer to:
To cure his phobia phobia: see neurosis. phobia Extreme and irrational fear of a particular object, class of objects, or situation. A phobia is classified as a type of anxiety disorder (a neurosis), since anxiety is its chief symptom. once and for all, the wicked Marquis convinces Jean to check into the local asylum, where the enlightened head doctor allows his charges as much freedom as they care to indulge. And boy, do they indulge, being insane and all. But, have the lunatics proverbially taken over? And is the staff any less mad? Like Jean, we never know what's coming next, nor whom to trust, in ``Lunacy lunacy: see insanity. .'' Cruelty abounds, sensuality runs riot, and it's all naughty, nutty fun. Only a master filmmaker could make such a fantastically sustained voyage into the Land of Questioning Reality, God and Propriety, and everything else we try to organize our sensibilities around. I just wish that the film had provided the answer to one question: What's with all the meat? Bob Strauss, (818) 713-3670 bob.strauss(at)dailynews.com LUNACY - Three stars (Not rated: violence, sex, nudity, profanity Irreverence towards sacred things; particularly, an irreverent or blasphemous use of the name of God. Vulgar, irreverent, or coarse language. The use of certain profane or obscene language on the radio or television is a federal offense, but in other situations, profanity ) Starring: Pavel Liska, Jan Triska, Anna Geislerova, Pavel Novy. Director: Jan Svankmajer. Running time: 1 hr. 58 min. Playing: Nuart, West L.A. In a nutshell: One of the Czech surrealist's better recent freak-outs, about alarming goings-on in an isolated asylum. Inspired by Edgar Allen Poe, the Marquis de Sade and whoever convinced the filmmaker that animated raw meat was interesting. In Czech with English subtitles. CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Anna Geislerova as Charlota and Pavel Liska as Jean Berlot in Jan Svank- majer's ``Lunacy.'' |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion