In this early stop-motion film by Czech surrealist Jan Svankmajer, a device consisting of a clock, a pendulum, a faucet and a bucket enacts a series of events whenever the clock chimes.
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One of the best aspects about the stop motion animation stylizations of guys like Svankmajer and the Quay brothers are how everyday materials become literally animated into living things. One can animate with anything, and here he uses stones as if it were putty, playing with them like a God can shape water. The best part is when the stones become stand-ins for bones.
Awesome short film! Very creative, very visual. It looks like it took a long time to make this one, it is very intricate with some of it's images. Loved it!
3.7 stars. The film is at its most affecting and disturbing when it does not make recourse to anthropomorphism but instead reveals the vitalist impulses inherent in the stones. I especially like the erotic frottage since it mostly avoid obvious phallic or yonic imagery! I'm pretty sure the ending with the bust bucket spasmodically jerking once made me cry. Nice hard Eisensteinian editing too!
Svankmajer secuencia tras secuencia hace una coreografía cada vez más compleja y surrealista. Esta vez la música es reemplazada por un ruido sinfónico.