Jan Svankmajer logo
(1934-Present)

Czechoslovak animator extraordinaire, Jan has been making intensely bizarre films since the mid-'60s. Most of his work is a mix between 3-D stop-motion animation, puppets and live-action, but it can involve any mix of the above. His stories are eerie, delightful, and surreal. His actors include real people, machines, socks, clay figures, antique dolls, pencil sharpeners, and skeletons or stuffed corpses of animals, among other things. His sets are usually decaying Czech buildings or landscapes, decorated with waste of the industrial age: rotting furniture, rusty nails, sawdust, oily screws, and the like.

His work includes Jan Svankmajer's Alice , many short films, and most recently the feature-length Faust.

His many admirers/students include the more famous Brothers Quay, who named one of their films after him: The Cabinet of Jan Svankmajer.




Check out the Svankmeyer pages that I have completed; these include stills and many quicktime movies:


Another VERY nice Svankmajer site... pertains more to his sculpture and paintings:
JAN SVANKMAJER: ALCHEMIST OF THE SURREAL



This page was created in October of 1995, last revised 7/14/96.
All content compiled/edited by Tim Fitzpatrick, except where noted.