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Lunacy: Svankmajer’s political allegory

by Sarahana | August 2006

72-year-old Czech surrealist filmmaker Jan Svankmajer is best known for his remarkably intricate and profound stop-motion animations. Inspiring Tim Burton to the Brothers Quay, his cast has notably featured an interesting mix of objects such as food, clay models, animal body parts, and pieces of meat. His latest work is the live-action film Lunacy, the plot of which draws from Edgar Allan Poe stories and the philosophy and life of Marquis de Sade. Svankmajer appears in the opening scene to present a short monologue: the film, he says, debates the ideology governing the operation of a lunatic asylum—whether to run on the principle of absolute freedom, or an absolute system of control and punishment. He speaks of our world that is often a mix of the two ideologies, combining the worst aspects of both.

In the monologue Svankmajer claims the film is rather a horror movie, not a work of art. Having presented the asylum as a metaphor for our world, the question of whether or not it is a work of art may be secondary (left to those for whom the the definition of art is more gripping than the idea of our world as a lunatic asylum). The horror here, however, does not evoke outbursts of empty fear in sudden jolts—or what may be considered "pure fear," fear lacking context or depth; fear that is shaken out of the audience in a cathartic entertainment experience—much like electric shock treatments aim to shake the madness out of a patient. Despite scenes that may drive the weak-hearted out of the theater half way through the film, each visual treat, including the memorable sex scenes, comes equipped with a deeper idea—the horror of Lunacy stirs from the inside, building itself upon layers of emotions (including laughter) that linger on afterwards.

Though animal body parts and pieces of meat make special appearance in the film as if to poke fun at human beings by poking fun at Svankmajer's own legacy, the movie is mostly carried by a superb cast of real actors*. The characters include a group of patients who revolted against the authority of an asylum a year ago in the spirit of the French revolution, and doctors who have been imprisoned in the cellar since. The patients have continued their own version of therapy that emphasizes the encouragement of free will, be it sexual or infantile. This includes orgy, rape, other "services" involving the young nurses; one scene shows a ritual of driving nails into a statue of a crucified Jesus, holding him responsible for the burden the world has come under because of his sacrifice. It also includes "preventive therapy," which involves the re-enactment of dreaded scenarios, such as being buried alive, for the sake of a therapeutic effect.

The hope of the audience is vested in Jean, a young man tormented by a recurring a dream—specially after periods of stress—and by an awareness of right and wrong. Repulsed by the violence of the patients, he helps liberate the real doctors. By the time he does so, the metaphor for our world is in full bloom: the sane authority is not any less madder, and—their madness passing for logic and sanity—far more dangerous. Trapped in the middle are those with a conscience, lacking an appetite for power. According to Karen Cooper of Film Forum, Lunacy asks, "who's free? who's mad?, and why does all that raw meat seem to have a life of its own?" Call it Svankmajer's 1984, if you will.

* Lunacy is not Svankmajer's first live-action film.

Comments

August 28th, 2006

1 | Bhudai Pundit:

Testing…

October 20th, 2006

2 | Manish Gyawali:

Interesting — these Eastern Europeans might englighten us with new visions. I think a lot of good art ( and I’m not saying this is one ) is going to come out of that area.

Lets see…..

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