Conspirators of Pleasure

Director: Jan Švankmajer

Cast: Petr Meissel, Gabriela Wilhelmová, Barbora Hrzánová, Anna Wetlinská

 

A bizarre black comedy, a psychological, erotic yet fascinating film with practically no dialogue, naturally with resourceful use of music, a manual on self-abuse, observations from de Sade and Freud, and something of a "recipe book of great ideas” – this is the essence of Jan Švankmajer’s Conspirators of Pleasure. Pure Švankmajer extravagance. Artistically, the film is extremely inventive and contains a wealth of possible and also apparently impossible devices; it is also an image of human solitude, the desire for the most perfect pleasure – and, indeed, the endeavour to communicate which, however, comes to nothing. Jan Švankmajer demonstrates that he is able to work equally well with a cast as with animation techniques. What certainly lingers on is the fascination with pleasure and all the possible ways to achieve it.