Conspirators of Pleasure (1996)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Brilliant and touching

Beautiful, moving film.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Conspirators of Pleasure is a surrealist comedy of the absurd by Czech surrealist master Jan Svankmajer. It is a Czech-Swiss-British co- production, whose story revolves around the idiosyncratic sensual compulsions and obsessions (call it fetishes if you prefer) of six different characters, whose paths are crossed but never intermingled: a couple of neighbors, a couple formed by a policeman and a newsreader, a newsagent shop owner, and a postmistress.The film mixes surreal scenes, deadpan humor, hallucinogen imaginary, gory images, human-size puppets, and weird and twisted behavior worthy of a psychoanalyst. The result is a thought-provoking film, awkward, funny and disturbing at the same time.The film has no dialogs, the music and street/ambient noise being the only sounds in it. Despite this, there is a very expressive non-verbal way of social communication. However, there is no real human interaction between the characters. Invisible walls prevent them from relating to the others, no matter they are next-door neighbors or husband and wife. The sensual compulsion that each character develops is a clumsy imitation of the real human touch and physical contact -a mimicked expression of real human communication.The fetish objects are made of normal things, which become extravagant and erotic because of the idiosyncratic wishes of each of its creators, but they are quirky and even ridiculous from an outsider point of view. Despite the story being highly erotic, there is not even a sex scene in the movie, and there is just some limited semi-nudity. Even the raunchy scenes have nothing explicitly raunchy in them, as all is suggested never fully shown. For example, effervescent drinks going up and semen- like glue coming out of a tube are repeatedly associated to men's ejaculation. The most brutal and scenes in the movie -a Sado scene and a voodoo-like scene- use human-sized straw puppets with articulated facial movement that imitate and replace real humans. Even the scene related to the use of a "massaging" machine is comic and never explicit. The most surreal part of the movie is the one related to the behavior of the Post woman.Despite its surreal oddity, the story is told in a very straightforward but circular way. All makes sense within the logic of the story, even the inexplicable. Moreover, the story has a closure that is the start of another circular movement in which the characters swap, as a natural movement of evolution, the fetishes of the others. Svankmajer's surrealism is both social and individual. However, the exploration of the unconscious world of the characters is not the point, as it is clearly shown by the use of the closet in which two of the characters hide themselves. The closet is the world where the most inner wishes and deepest secrets of the characters are kept - the subconscious mind that produces the fetishes. We just are presented with those fetishes, without knowing what generates them, as the camera doesn't go into the closet with the characters.All the characters are wonderfully played by the Czech actors, so very expressive and believable in their respective roles: Petr Meissel (as Mr. Pivoine), Gabriela Wilhelmová (as Mrs. Loubalova), Barbora Hrzánová (as the postmistress), Anna Wetlinská (as Mrs. Beltinska), Jirí Lábus (as the newsagent), and Pavel Nový (as Mr. Beltinski).The music is terrific.The movie will unsettle and puzzle you, confront you and disturb you, slap you in the face and put a smile on it. It is very complex, but organically constructed. This is not a movie for lazy watchers, and one of those bizarre movies that you like or you hate, nothing in between.

Hard to give anything less than a 10 to Svankmajer's works, so I'll just echo the already.But I do want to make special mention of his 2D inclusion, in this film, of Julia Hayes. If you know of her, you'll be both pleased and disturbed by her appearance. It is from one of her best spreads, Hustler magazine.Of course, I doubt very much that she even knows about this, being an ex- stripper/dancer/model/nightclub owner in North Carolina (last I knew about).So, if anyone here has any line to her, let her know.

Jan Svankmajer's Conspirators of Pleasure is a film that speaks to an individualistic demographic to say the least. The film utilizes a combination of live action footage and stop action animation techniques to portray the lives of six people whose lives are dictated by their disturbing sexual fetishes. While some find the interconnected narratives humorous and others appear to relate to the story, this writer for one found nothing about the film witty or meaningful. In terms of thematic relevance the film does illustrate one reoccurring motif that the writer took note of: prior to executed their elaborate sexual desires, be it through torture, role play or a variety of more bizarre activities, the characters isolated themselves often through the use of a symbolic wardrobe door. Seemingly out of shame due to the oppressive nature of society in the given country each of the characters attempts to remain 'in the closet' so to speak, about their deviant personal lives. The film posits no conclusive ending and allows each character to remain more or less unchanged; the film therefore is little more than an unnecessary display of unusual behavior and this writer would have preferred it if the closet door had remained closed.

This movie stirred a lot of feelings in me. I admit, I first saw it because I love Svankmajer and was enticed by the idea of men "stripping" in it. LOL It was fascinating to note that each character has his/her own musical theme attached. Too bad that if I wore the chicken head, no one would understand!But what got me was the two men Kula and Beltinsky. These guys actually turned me on, sad to say. Between the fact that they are the only people we get to see "naked" in the movie (interesting that Svankmajer avoids the genitalia!) and the fact that they give the most convincing orgasms, they practically got me aroused with them! Of course, I'm glad that the newsreader "orgasms" in the movie, so to point out that the men weren't completely sexually dominant, but I still find it fascinating that those men were able to climax in VERY believable fashions! (isn't it said somewhere that men can't give faked orgasms?)In addition, I loved the intimacy with which the camera explored both men's bodies. Even if the genitalia wasn't shown (it didn't necessarily NEED to be shown, as their voices were enough), the images of their feet, legs, buttocks, and chests was VERY enticing, as well as lovingly portrayed. Both men are considered to be "unattractive" by the masses, being "lumpy," overweight, and lacking in muscular tone. But I found them beautiful in the same natural way that people like James Broughton and Walt Whitman prove. I'm not sure if Svankmajer agrees, but he clearly shows the beauty of the male body in such sensual, loving and erotic ways. As a closing note, the guy playing Beltinsky has probably the most BEAUTIFUL feet of any Czech actor.Wow, can't believe I said all that, but then again, this movie DOES spark interesting feelings! ;) Write me if you feel similarly!