[REVIEW] Short Films--"Down to the Cellar" and "Food" by Jan Švankmajer

INTRO

In my last post, I talked about a Czech filmmaker named Jan Svankmajer, and I was shown to two of his short films in the class, namely "Down to the Cellar" and "Food". Here's my thought on the two films.

DOWN TO THE CELLAR(Do pivnice, 1983)

A little girl goes down to the basement cellar to fetch some potatoes, and finds all her hidden fears about the cellar depicted in animated form. (IMDb)

Review: The film started off showing a little girl holding a basket walking down stairs, as she saw a man walking upstairs. The man tried to lure her to follow him by offering her a candy. The man probably had bad intention, because the little girl quickly ran away. As she walked down into the cellar, the screen was black and only showed the dim light from the little girl's torchlight. This is where the weird part of the film started. Some shoes were seen backing into the dark when the light source was pointed at them. When the little girl dropped her bread, one shoe came out of nowhere and dragged the bread into the dark and the screen shows that some other shoes were biting the bread at the same time. Next the girl saw a shovel shoving coals by itself. In both of the scene above, stop-motion effect was used to make lifeless objects came to life. This is also why Jan Svankmajer is well-known around the world. As the little girl continued her journey to fetch some potatoes, she saw a man preparing to sleep in coals. His bed and blanket were coals, as he covered himself fully in coal except for his face. When the man realised the present of the little girl, he invited her to sleep next to him, and a bed appeared suddenly next to his. The lirrle girl quickly backed off and accidentaly hit the wall behind her. In this room, a woman was baking cookies with soil instead of flour. The meaning behind the appearance of those two scenes is not known, maybe it suggests that the girl lived near an asylum of mentally ill people(which explains why they lived in a dark and dirty cellar). The little girl continued to run away from the two crazy characters and finally reached the room where the potatoes were stored. Once again the stop-motion effect was used to picture the potatoes that came alive--whenever the girl wasn't looking, the potatoes return to its original position by rolling funnily. Eventhough the little girl successfully fetched her potatoes in the end, her effort was wasted when a black cat chased her and caused her to trip over the stairs and guess what-- the potatoes "escaped" again. The film ended as the little girl walked back frustratedly to fetch her potatoes again. The film itself doesn't have a core message to deliver, but it made the viewers wonder how did the filmmaker came out with such bizarre ideas and made it come true with the stop-motion effect. I personally enjoyed the film because the tranquility it delivers through the quietness throughout the film, and the fact that the film probably used after sound effect by Foley artists made it even better.

FOOD(1992)

This short film consists of 3 segment, namely Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner.

BREAKFAST

(This summary was edited from the Wikipedia.)A man walked into a room and sit across another man. He swept the leftover on the table onto the floor, where more leftovers were seen. He reads the placard one line at a time and follows the instructions. He puts money down the man's throat and pokes him in the eye. The man's shirt unbuttons itself, and a dumbwaiter rises up into where the man's chest should be. The diner takes his food, and punches the man in the chin with his third knuckle for his utensils. When he is done eating, he kicks the man's shin for a napkin. After wiping off his mouth, the diner convulses, and then goes limp. The man now comes to life, stretches, and places the placard on the former diner. He stands and puts another tally mark on the wall. Another diner comes in and the scenario is repeated with him. At the end, we see a line stretching down the hall and around the corner. 

This suggests that the whole scenario was a loop and it continued until everyone had their breakfast. This one is particularly creative and different from the rest of the film, because who think of turning a man into a food processor? It is also disgusting when you think about it, that they were regurgitating the food again and again.

LUNCH

Summary: Two diners, a business man and a vagabond, are unable to get the waiter's attention. They proceed to eat everything in sight: the flowers, their shoes, pants, shirt, underwear, plates, table cloth, table, and chairs. The vagabond watches the business man and then eats what he eats. In the end with everything else eaten, the business man eats his utensils. The vagabond also eats his. The business man then smiles, pulls his utensils from his mouth, and advances on the vagabond. (source: Wikipedia)

This part portraits the difference between an educated man and an uneducated man. This was shown in several small details, such as the way they clean their utensils, how the educated man used his utensils while the other used his hands to eat most of the "food". In the end, the educated man also tricked the uneducated man and devoured him with his utensils. 

DINNER

Summary: An interior of a luxurious restaurant is shown. A wealthy gourmet sits at a table adding many sauces and spices to his dish, which is hidden by the sheer number of condiments (this is the scene shown in the film poster). This continues for a long time, and then we see him hammer a fork to a wooden left hand. He then starts to eat his own hand. In a series of short and violent scenes, we are then shown an athlete eating his lower leg, a woman eating her breasts (this is also shown in the film poster), and the last eater, who is about to eat his genitals. As he realises the presence of camera the man covers his genitals and shoos the camera away with his hand. (source: Wikipedia)

This is the weirdest part of the film because every consumer in the film was eating their own body part. There was no clear explaination on why they did that, which is also a trait of Jan Svankmajer's film. 

CONCLUSION

Well here it is, my review on the two short films made by Jan Svankmajer in the year 1983 and year 1992. There is not much difference when the both films are put together and compared, they are both weird and unexplainable, but also full of creativity. The improved stop-motion effect is also noticed when compared. At the age of 82, Jan Svankmajer will release another film named "Insect" next year, let's be patient and see what the filmmaker has to offer to the world again.

Referral links: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085448/
                        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_(film)
Original source of video: Down to the Cellar (1983)
                                         Food (1992)