FANTASIA FILM FESTIVAL 2006
Lunacy (Sileni, Czech Republic, 2005)

Director Jan Svankmajer brings us a story about a young man, Jean Berlot, who on the way to his mother’s funeral, meets a very strange character who resembles the Marquis de Sade. The Marquis invites him to his house and Jean soon finds out the Marquis’ bizarre traditions and blasphemous ceremonies. Following Svankmajer’s tradition, there is a combination of live action and stop motion. Jean finds out that the so-called Marquis is actually a patient of a madhouse who had escaped. When Jean rescues the real doctors, who were kept locked in the basement by the patients, his own descent into madness begins when he has to confront his own fears. In between takes we see stop-motion scenes of cuts of beef (yes, you read well, cuts of beef!) running around, hiding behind clothes, moving things of their own will; we seem to be looking at the mind of a real madman. This is an original film by one of the industry’s best stop-motion directors I have seen.