Jan Svankmajer's Food Trilogy (videos)

If you've got the stomach for a heavy dose of gastronomic surrealism, here is Czech animator Jan Svankmajer three part movie called Food (Jidlo). Svankmajer made it in 1992, employing his trademark stop motion techniques with human actors and clay prosthetics.

Part One, Breakfast: A tale of food and automatons in which Mr. Babicky, Mr. Cecil and Mr. Albert take turns eating from, and providing the services of a food dispensing machine not unlike the kind that used to be found throughout the US at Horn and Hardart's Automats. [download mpeg video, 15 megs or youtube it]

Part Two, Lunch: The best of the three parts, in which an inattentive waiter forces two diners to partake in lunch without food. They eat everything on their table - the flowers, the tablecloth, their plates, their clothes, and in a nod to Charlie Chaplin's The Gold Rush, their shoes. But it doesn't stop there. [download mpeg video, 18 megs or youtube it]

Part Three, Dinner: The cannibalism continues at a higher end establishment, but unlike at lunch, the diners now have all the necessary garnishes and sauces to flavor their own body parts. [download mpeg video, 8 megs or youtube it]

More info on Svankmajer's Food here and here, and you can purchase it on DVD here. And if you like Eastern European stop motion animation, don't miss Mike Brent's Dark Strider site. via parumo

Comments

[EclecticMuzikMan]

Very funny.

[E. Inan]

Jan Svankmajer frequently uses some animation techniques but i prefer pronouncing him as a surrealist artist instead of a film maker, a puppeteer or animator. His authentic style and film language combines different disciplines and art forms.

[Maddy]

Your baby is fine.