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Food + The spirit of the hive

Food + The spirit of the hive

Food

Food

(Jídlo)

Jan Svankmajer

  • 1992
  • Great-Britain, Czech Republic
  • Comedy / Animation
  • 17mn
  • Sound
  • Color
Svankmajer studies human behavior and social mechanics through the prism of eating habits. At breakfast, lunch or dinner it’s always the same scene: two individuals eat... and harm themselves.
By using stop motion and the art of plasticine, Svankmajer puts his characters through all imaginable sorts of deformations. In Food, everything is edible: sausages, shoes, napkins and humans... tha latter being reduced to simple objects. Svankmajer’s devastating surrealist humor is both political and existential : this noisy spectacle where mastication sounds are amplified as much as cutlery sound, is always about one man dominating another. Physically and metaphorically, the human being is a very pliable material, a delicious corpse!

Credits

  • With : Ludvík Sváb, Bedrich Glaser, Jan Kraus, Pavel Marek, Josef Fiala
  • Screenplay : Jan Svankmajer
  • Photography : Svatopluk Malý
  • Editing : Marie Zemanová
  • Production : Keith Griffiths, Michael Havas, Jaromír Kallista

Dominik Moll

Czech surrealism at its best: absurd, cruel and poetic. Svankmajer’s work has influenced many filmmakers, like Terry Gilliam and Tim Burton. This tryptic about meals, with its mixture of live footage, animation and stop-motion, seems to me a perfect appetizer for L’Étrange Festival.

The spirit of the beehive

The spirit of the beehive

(El espíritu de la colmena)

Victor Erice

  • 1973
  • Spain
  • Drama / Fantasy
  • 1h38mn
  • Original version with French subtitles
  • Color
An isolated village in Castile at the end of the Spanish Civil War. After discovering James Whales’s Frankenstein, Ana is overwhelmed by her youthful imagination and is convinced she sees a spirit lurking about, despite her big sister reassuring advice. In an abandoned house, she discovers a wounded man.
This is no doubt one of the most beautiful films about childhood and escape from the hardships of reality through imagination. With still shots that allow time and life to pass, The Spirit of the Beehive, is a film to be lived, breathed, felt, as much as seen. Without using overt fantasy, it embraces the point of view of a little girl who has the power to recreate the universe, to modify or to delete it.

Credits

  • With : Fernando Fernán Gómez, Teresa Gimpera, Ana Torrent, Isabel Tellería, Ketty de la Cámara
  • Screenplay : Ángel Fernández Santos, Víctor Erice
  • Photography : Luis Cuadrado
  • Editing : Pablo G. del Amo
  • Music by : Luis de Pablo
  • Production : Elías Querejeta

Dominik Moll

If I had only one film to choose for this carte blanche, this would be it. If you don’t like it, I can’t do anything for you. It’s the most beautiful film about childhood, the capacity for wonder, the power of imagination, and children's fears. Yes, the Frankenstein monster is real.

Screenings

14/09 • 19h15 • Screen 300
Screening presented by Dominik Moll