Creatures made out of bones, paper collages, pieces of meat mating, dolls and plasticine – all this represents just 0,1% of Jan Svankmajer’s surrealist art.

Bones, dolls and a very peculiar interpretation of Alice in Wonderland. This is how I could sum up Jan Svankmajer’s Alice. The rabbit hole to Wonderland has been closed but Alice found her way there through a drawer. It looks old, strange and very independent; the movie seems to have a will of it own.

Svankmajer also created animations that were full of twisted content. Here are some of his shorter works in film.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0IcdacNlvA&feature=related

They say repetition is the mother of all learning, and these are a few moments that could go on and on and on and on and on.

Part II was the one I enjoyed the most as I believe it’s a very good metaphor for the goals we set in life. A man with two chairs and four sets of wings. In life, we sometimes go way ahead of ourselves and put either too much or too little energy into things. The ideal situation is to learn to choose the right pair of wings for each flight, according to distance of the flight. Watching it for the second time, I remembered some of Confucis’ words of wisdom that sum up this second part perfectly:

Don’t use a canon to kill a mosquito.

I’ve noticed something about the character in part III which I find fascinating: the human figure is actually a clipping that reveals in itself another image.

And if you think being bananas is bad, check this out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9k5Ct7EHuE&feature=related

Conclusion: Don’t be a vegetable. And if you are one (or more), hydrate yourself.

It’s not something you’d call your average morning with strange seagull sounds and perforated newspapers, a bald Barbie doll head that’s set on scaring you and the children that escape from coffee.

It’s humorous, it’s confusing, it’s  sometimes illogical. It’s contradictory, it’s sarcastic and unexpected. When you’re in a surrealistic Wonderland, this is your average morning.

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