Conspirators of Pleasure

Conspirators of Pleasure

D: Jan Svankmajer (1997); with Petr Meissel, Gabriela Wilhelmová, Barbora Hrzanóvá. What can you do with thumbtacks, feathers, nails, live carp, bread balls, a chicken head, straw-filled dummies, and a complicated servo-driven masturbation machine? Conspirators of Pleasure is a surrealist look at fetishism and its logical conclusions, set in modern-day Prague. Almost entirely without the aid of dialogue, it follows a postwoman, a TV news anchor, a shopkeeper, and two neighboring apartment dwellers as they feed their own somewhat demented fixations. The characters gather up props and devise gadgets to play out their well-planned, ritualized fantasies and help supply each other with the necessary items to follow through on their schemes. All the principals are outwardly fairly normal people, but with absolutely twisted private lives (the director's roundabout commentary on the human condition). The most outlandish vignette involves an elaborately designed chicken outfit, complete with feather-covered head and wings fashioned from umbrellas, used to act out a complicated, sadism-fueled scenario. With his use of stop-motion animation and live action, Svankmajer has concocted a bizarre and often-hilarious film that examines the nature of obsession and looks at its place in a repressive society. The DVD release also includes the director's short "Food," an animated film involving human vending machines, a cannibal buffet, and two diners who, after experiencing bad service, devour the restaurant itself. Told with a skewed Slavic perspective, this is strange, thought-provoking stuff for the open-minded.