Conspirators of Pleasure

Colour, 35 mm
Czech Republic, 1997, 75 min
Section: Tribute to Jan Švankmajer

Synopsis

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. Moreover, viewers receive instructions on how to construct unusual contraptions for use in intimate situations, for enhancing their sex life. The heroes of the film are a bunch of lonely people who – each in his or her own way – create an environment for their own erotic ends (not that one can speak of autoeroticism in this case, since they consort with appliances and objects which, in fact, replace potential partners). In addition to the truly original machines and rituals, the film features wonderful acting performances (Bára Hrzánová, Gabriela Wilhelmová, Anna Wetlinská, Pavel Nový, Petr Meissel, Jiří Lábus). Jan Švankmajer demonstrates that he is able to work equally well with a cast as with animation techniques. The stories and fates of the film’s main protagonists are interwoven, some of them die – are they happy or unhappy…? What certainly lingers on is the fascination with pleasure and all the possible ways to achieve it. The things those people are capable of doing in order to attain sexual gratification! Švankmajer’s Conspirators of Pleasure is, to a great extent, a film about us: everyone masturbates and whoever says he doesn’t, does it twice over… Have you ever denied doing it? Conspirators of Pleasure shows six ostensibly normal people undertaking abnormal practices. But then, what is normal and what isn’t?