Darkness/Light/Darkness

"Darkness, Light, Darkness" is a creepy stop-motion film. However, it's not nearly as creepy as many of Jan Svankmajer's other films...that's for sure!

The film begins with a pair of clay hands in a room. The hands seem to have a mind of their own. Soon, other body parts begin to come into this very crowded room--first some eyes, then ears, a head and so on until eventually the entire body is assembled by the hands and crowds the room.

While this doesn't sound like a lot of plot, the film IS highly entertaining. In fact, I cannot recall another stop-motion film I enjoyed more. I think it's because of the amazing quality of the film combined with a sick and bizarre sense of humor that really kept my interest. Not to be missed!!

If you are a fan of Jan Svankmajer, definitely check this out. Subtitled as "Scenes From The Surreal," this collection of Svankmajer's short films includes "Darkness, Light, Darkness," "Manly Games" and "Death of Stalinism," plus a documentary on Svankmajer and his work. Those who are familiar with his full-length features such as "Alice" or "Faust" will instantly recognize the trademark usage of clay animation and marionettes combined with live action. On "Darkness, Light, Darkness" we witness a clay man basically building himself up from a scratch. "Manly Games" is a soccer game like you've never seen it before. (When a player is down, he is really down, I'll tell you that.) And "Death of Stalinism" is Svankmajer's unique rumination on the fall of communism and the Velvet revolution in Czech republic.

So, if you are a fan of Svankmajer, this, of course, is mandatory. If you are not, check this out and you just might become one.

An inventive, even witty Svankmajer short (lasting 6 minutes) which basically sees the various disembodied components of the human body converging inside a low-ceilinged house(!) on their way to assembling the whole. Sometimes, though, it seems they're not quite sure how it's all supposed to turn out – as ever more organs knock at the door demanding entry; the biggest laugh unsurprisingly involves male genitalia as a very loud thud is heard prior to its (unimpressive) appearance! The claymation effects, naturally, are splendid and the results are delightful and striking enough (even at this modest scale, compared to the feature-length ALICE [1988], to which it's been attached on DVD) to definitely make me interested in checking out more of this celebrated animator's work.

This 7 minutes short is a fascinating clay animation where a man constructs himself from clay (literally), being a God and his creature at the same time, putting the different parts of body together in a very small room. The more parts find their pace, the bigger the man becomes, the smaller and more suffocating the room gets. "Darkness-Light-Darkness" has been seen by many critics and viewers as a very strong allegory of suffocating life in Eastern Europe which is true, but I also see it as an allegory of a struggle every talented and deeply feeling artist goes through in the search for beauty and meaning regardless the political system or the country they live. From the darkness of non-existence to the light of knowledge to the unbearable darkness of being - that's the road Svankmajer takes us and as usual, his vision is not a cheerful or optimistic one.

Each film of Jan Svankmajer is, for me , kick to wake up. Tma/Svetlo/Tma is one par excellence. Because it reminds the universe of Alice in the small room and its significances, the build of a body , in which the hands are the first workers , the sexual organs before the clay as material for the body . So, a seductive parable , poetic and profound useful.