Jan Svankmajer

"Alice" by Jan Svankmajer
An adaptation of "Alice in Wonderland" by Lewis Carol

During Moving Image & Photography week we were shown lots of animation and films to demonstrate different styles and ways of filming to use in our own projects. A particular animator which stood out to me was Jan Svankmajer. Particularly because as a child my parents taped "Alice" whilst they were in England to bring back to me in France (where we were living at the time). They thought it would be good for me to watch as they themselves were interested in the way the artist had animated it. However, it's not good to show to children as the film is scary and unsettling.

                
Alice trying to free herself from the creature's grasp                The caterpillar made from a sock, dentures and eyes

Svankmajer uses pixilation in his animations (stop/start animation). This enables him to become more creative with his work, making it more fantasy. Things like a sock, dentures and fake eyeballs come to life and become the famous caterpillar of the Lewis Carol story (right picture). One of Svankmajer's earliest influences is a christmas puppet show as a child. This proves itself in his later work, for example, in "Alice" when she shrinks in size, instead of a shrunk live human being, she becomes an animated china doll. He then joined turned his work towards a surrealist style, and he joined the Czechoslovakian Surrealist Group around 1968. From watching his films, surrealism becomes very apparent, for example in "Alice" skulls have feet and run to capture Alice (left picture). Personally I really enjoy surrealism and the study of dreams of Freud interests me a lot which is I think is why I admire the work of Svankmajer.

Another one of his works "Meat Love": 
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQkWrZw05P4]