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Petr Meissel, Pavel Nový, Gabriela Wilhelmová, Barbora Hrzánová, Jiri Lavus ... see more see more... , Ana Veltinska , Anna Wetlinská , Jirí Lábus

Czech animator Jan Svankmajer gained acclaim and notoriety for his eerie, nightmarish stop-motion animated pieces fashioned out of discarded dolls, battered marionettes, and pieces of junk. His films ... read more read more...such as Alice and Faust delved headlong into the subconscious and dredged up images that were imbued not only with a woozy sense of dread but with a savage sense of wit. Svankmajer's third feature -- and his first (mostly) live-action film -- is an absurdist look at some very weird sexual adventurers. Peony (Petr Meissel) is a nebbish bachelor with a passion for porno mags and poultry. At the film's outset, he pulls a live chicken from his wardrobe and has his neighbor, Mrs. Loubalova (Gabriela Wilhelmova), cut its throat -- which she does with a fair amount of relish and glee. Using the head as a model, he fashions a papier-mâché chicken mask -- made from old pornography -- and an accompanying chicken suit. Later, in a bizarre backwater ritual, Peony dons his chicken costume and taunts and crushes an effigy of his neighbor. Mrs. Loubalova apparently harbors similar bloodthirsty fantasies for Peony -- in a similarly weird ritual, set in an abandoned church, she whips and then drowns a straw effigy of her fellow apartment tenant. Surrounding this unlikely romance of sorts are the onanistic obsessions of another quartet of very kinky characters. Mrs. Malkova (Barbora Hrzanova), the neighborhood postwoman, has a penchant for balling up pieces of bread for unlikely purposes. Kula (Jiri Labus), the guy who sells Peony his nudie mags, has created an elaborate autoerotic device connected to his TV, complete with robot controls and rubber hands, designed to, um, augment his enjoyment of the news -- especially when read by Mrs. Beltinska (Anna Wetlinska). Mrs. Beltinska, in turn, reaches the height of on-the-air bliss by having her toes sucked by a pair of carp hidden beneath her desk. And finally her husband, a police inspector, is much more interested in scrubbing his naked self with rollers spiked with nails or funnels filled with fur than in fulfilling his marital duties. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

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84% liked it

2,838 ratings

Critics

86% liked it

7 critics

Unrated, 1 hr. 26 min.

Directed by: Jan Svankmajer

Release Date: August 22, 1997

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DVD Release Date: February 22, 2000

Stats: 129 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (129)

  • arashxak
    August 29, 2009
    arashxak
    Svankmajer is more interested in detailing than developing & the film feels like a stretched short movie but overall interesting & fun, I've yet to see Faust & Lunacy but Little Otik is my favourite Svankmajer so far
  • Saxia
    October 11, 2008
    Saxia
    This movie probably deserves a higher rating, but shit: this is not for me.
    It's pretty obscene in a harmless way, but come to think of it -sick as it is- there are probably people walking this earth getting of on stuff like this. I mean hey, as long as there are people that pay ... read moremoney for used socks and underwear (this is the most "civilized" example that I can come up with), this doesn't seem very far fetched.
    Anywayz, Sigmund Freud is going to have a field day with this one ;)
  • DrBenway
    October 7, 2008
    DrBenway
    Conspirators of a Pleasure is a film about private obsessions. The film begins observing the behavior of six people as each is in their own little world gathering and constructing their own desires. There is no dialogue to the film. The theme of the whole film is to keep us wat... read moreching each character's eccentric behavior build until the nature of the obsession is revealed. Showcasing even more of Jan Svankmajer's great stop-motion animation and a very weird charm.

    If everyone is a deviant, then nobody is.
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  • jes25924
    June 27, 2008
    jes25924
    Jan Svankmajer(Alice), uses the same stop motion and puppetry techniques he has become legend for in a movie about masturbation, but containing almost no explicit sexuality. Six strangers bump into each other, exchange glances, and end up becoming th...(read more)e objects of the... read more others affections, which manifests in the construction(for most of the movie), of elaborate Rube Goldbergian sexual apparatus's. How do you have sex with someone who's only an image on a TV screen? It's here, as well as a straw puppet S&M scene, snorting dough, and fish toe sucking, yes that too. There's also an amazing ending, which ties all idiosyncratic strings together brilliantly merging politics, sexuality, and psychology in it's final moment and literal, climax. Like most Svankmajer stuff there's no dialog, and it's amazing the amount of ideas infused in the film only through actions, gestures, and inventions. Hard to find but well worth it. A masterpiece of sexual obsession, repression, and inter-connection. An unlikely film about comming out of the proberbial closet.

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Critic Reviews

Jeremy Heilman
March 5, 2002
Jeremy Heilman, MovieMartyr.com

The film's handmade look fits the material, since it's about desires too personal to be mass-produced. Full Review

Renfreu Neff
January 1, 2000
Renfreu Neff, Film Journal International

Agreeably witty and bizarre, but patience is required to sustain interest in its intricately oddball, non-verbalized story for nearly an hour-and-a-half. Full Review

Stephen Holden
January 1, 2000
Stephen Holden, New York Times

Click to read the article Full Review

December 6, 2005
Film Threat

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Emanuel Levy
July 17, 2005
Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com

No review available.

December 8, 2002
Film Threat

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Bryant Frazer
January 1, 2000
Bryant Frazer, Bryant Frazer's Deep Focus

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Dan Jardine
January 1, 2000
Dan Jardine, Apollo Guide

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June 24, 2006
Time Out

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May 24, 2003
Film4

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Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

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