Director: Jan Svankmajer
CZ/1971/13mins/color
"The world is divided into two unequal camps…those
who have never heard of Jan Svankmajer and those
who happen upon his work and know that they have
come face to face with genius".
The New Yorker
"My films have several meanings, and I'd
rather they inspired the viewer to use his own
subjective symbolism to interpret them. Just as
in psychoanalysis, there must always be secrecy.
Without secrecy, there is no art."
Jan Svankmajer
Jan Svankmajer is one of the world's most
imaginative and extraordinary film-makers.
Svankmajer, known for his four features, ALICE,
FAUST, CONSPIRATORS OF PLEASURE and
LITTLE OTIK also produced 24 short films
between 1964 and 1990, only concentrating on
longer works after the collapse of Communism in
Czechoslovakia. JABBERWOCKY, based on Lewis
Carroll's poem, is one of the most famous works of
this master surrealist.
"My version of Jabberwocky, which
has no conventional narrative, was a
Freudian record of the development of
a child through all its stages: through
homosexuality and sado-masochism to
rebellion against the father."
Jan Svankmajer on Jabberwocky
Commentary by Peter Hames, author of DARK ALCHEMY: THE
FILMS OF JAN SVANKMAJER, recorded in Stone, England.
