IMDb RATING
6.2/10
336
YOUR RATING
A dark and grotesque story of a married couple the wife, a mechanical monster made up of iron bits and her henpecked husband.A dark and grotesque story of a married couple the wife, a mechanical monster made up of iron bits and her henpecked husband.A dark and grotesque story of a married couple the wife, a mechanical monster made up of iron bits and her henpecked husband.
- Awards
- 1 win
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Did you know
- TriviaJohn Ford was a great fan of this film. He even held the party for Borowczyk during which Ford told him: "You know the mystery that the filmmakers are still fighting for to know. You know how to make a commercial film and do not loose your own identity".
- ConnectionsReferenced in Parole de cinéaste: Patrice Leconte dans la cour des grands (2015)
Featured review
This simply-drawn, nightmarish and often hilarious film was Polish director Walerian Borowczyk's first full-length feature and the last he would do using animation. It tells the simple story of a voyeuristic, diminutive husband and his iron-fisted wife, as they spend what appears to be a holiday in a desolate land filled with pesky butterflies and strange beasts. It is ultimately Borowczyk's idea of the mundaneness and repetitiveness of marriage, played out in a playful yet sometimes unnerving way.
Mrs. Kabal is a terrifying creation - well-endowed and dominant, speaking in a bizarre fashion that sounds like a human voice filtered through a blender. Mr. Kabal is the sympathetic one - running around like a headless chicken and obeying his wife's every need, even at one point entering her body to rid it of some unwanted butterflies. Every now and then he runs off to spy with his binoculars, always finding a semi-naked beauty much to the annoyance of an ever-present old man, who waves his fist in anger.
Not much is going on here in terms of narrative, and this causes the film to feel longer than it should be. There's only so many visual gags you can pull of with the omnipresent butterflies, who routinely fly into things and get on Mrs. Kabal's nerves. But for the most part, this is very funny stuff, and although the animation is crude, there is a surrealist quality to it all. Borowczyk would go on to make many highly-acclaimed and controversial live-action features after this, so this is a gentle introduction into the mind of the Polish auteur, and a cynical portrayal of the sanctity of marriage.
www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com
Mrs. Kabal is a terrifying creation - well-endowed and dominant, speaking in a bizarre fashion that sounds like a human voice filtered through a blender. Mr. Kabal is the sympathetic one - running around like a headless chicken and obeying his wife's every need, even at one point entering her body to rid it of some unwanted butterflies. Every now and then he runs off to spy with his binoculars, always finding a semi-naked beauty much to the annoyance of an ever-present old man, who waves his fist in anger.
Not much is going on here in terms of narrative, and this causes the film to feel longer than it should be. There's only so many visual gags you can pull of with the omnipresent butterflies, who routinely fly into things and get on Mrs. Kabal's nerves. But for the most part, this is very funny stuff, and although the animation is crude, there is a surrealist quality to it all. Borowczyk would go on to make many highly-acclaimed and controversial live-action features after this, so this is a gentle introduction into the mind of the Polish auteur, and a cynical portrayal of the sanctity of marriage.
www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com
- tomgillespie2002
- Nov 10, 2014
- Permalink
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- El teatro del señor y la señora Kabal
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime1 hour 17 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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Top Gap
By what name was Mr. and Mrs. Kabal's Theatre (1967) officially released in Canada in English?
Answer