You won't be disappointed!

This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Highly Overrated But Still Good

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

This is damned peculiar... I've recently rediscovered the excellent macabre work of Mr.Jan Svankmajer, an artiste of twisted, marvellous dark surreality to rival the Brothers Quay themselves. His style is somewhat similar to theirs, only without a conscience! Unlike the fantastical Quays, I would definitely describe a lot of his animations as more on the 'creepy' side. I haven't seen that great a number of his short films as yet, but I'd say this is probably going to be my favourite one. I can't imagine I'll be seeing anything that'll click with me as intensely as this. Would that I could only have half as much fun with every short film's attempts at the ghastly and unnatural that I've seen.. The frightfully potent stylistic surrealness of this brilliant short simply does not compute and feels fundamentally incorrect, and in a way that's none too easy to put into words. A vision of which the imagery belongs more in the realm of hazy dark fantasy than any kind of conventional reality, it's just way too inscrutable for mere paltry words to encompass, too impossible to place. It really does defy any descriptions... There's no sense of balance, and a sense of(now familiar) wrongness, that for whatever reason sits so well with me. It's like looking at a crazed artist's nightmare come to life, or an expression that's been pulled and twisted through a thick shroud of unearthly surrealness until it somehow becomes something to me, dreamlike, and for what it is, flawless. I find the blunt starkness and sheer lunacy of it oddly liberating and hypnotic. I could not help but be filled with wonder at the originality and hauntingly freaky style of it. ::: The sights in this are relatively Spartan and simple, but they're the kind that compels the viewer to try in vain to reach one definite answer as to what it all could possibly mean, but in my opinion that is not what mysterious and ethereal art such as this is all about. The unimaginative will probably just dismiss it outright as an amusing but meaningless collection of random kooky gags created by the repose of an active mind. But there's always a little more to feel and dwell upon, lurking in the symbology and portents. There's no dialogue, just the eccentric actions accompanied by ominous and stirring music as the rather cute young fellow embarks upon his misadventure in the oddball house of pain! I assume he died in some way at the end when his name was added to 'the list' of victims... I hope when the coroner's report came back in the cause of death was listed as "Art!" I personally found the whole thing to be more darkly absurd and comedic than anything frightening. Recommended if you love the awesome and unusual.

Man, I relate to this film full-heartedly. Recent struggles with unemployment and the lack of ability to do things like secure foodstuffs I would like and keep my clothes and furniture in good condition makes me look past this general surrealist take on the Tantalus story and feel closely connected to the feel of the thing, where the man just wants to relax and eat and is met by frustration and annoyance the entire way.The narrative is kept close and inexplicable, as it should be--a man is thrown in a flat and locked inside. He proceeds to try to live in it as best he can, but everything he does is met with surrealist twist--the faucet sends rocks (twist on Svankmajer's own earlier "A Game of Stones"), the foodstuff is always just out of reach or accessibility (the moment when he tries to drink a beer is exactly like dreams), his furniture is unreliable and at one point the apartment itself keeps grabbing him by the sleeves until he's all but lost his clothes.The visitor thing, that is out of nowhere. Not to say that it doesn't fit, because we're in surrealist land, everything fits. But it was a strange and almost homoerotic change of pace from the rest (which is mostly intended, as the rest is shot in fast motion and the visitor is shot in slow motion), and mostly channeled a way to wrap up the film in something other than total self-destruction of our hero. Methinks Svankmajer thought, correctly, that such an ending would be too banal. I'm glad his instincts worked to a much more compelling, albeit slightly off-beat, ending.--PolarisDiB

this was my first contact with Svankmajer. And what a strong impression i got! He is 'labeled' with the surrealist movement, and is frequently attached to the other surrealist names in cinema. In this film alone, i don't check any of what might be called surrealism, except for some aesthetic choices, and some physics of the world within i will explain. That is because surrealism had always to do with seeking to deliver through art states of consciousness which are beyond self-awareness. Dreams, for instance. Things which we can't control, which are not material, we can't touch, which happen in undefined time (in shape and duration). None of that is here. This has, of course, a veiled political speech between the lines. We have a character which is told where to go, he follows arrows which lead to wherever someone wants. He is given everything, but he can't taste anything. He is taken to doors, but he is not allowed to open them. He is given food, but than he has a dog to eat it. This takes place entirely inside an apartment. Of course this is (or could be) the direct metaphor to the Soviet Union, the iron curtain, all those elements which motivated many filmmakers and artists to create art that could express desperation and in satisfaction without alerting censors. That's not surrealist (believing now in some of the ideologies used than might be surrealistic, this is not). But this is, instead, a fantastic experiment. I don't know much about Czech animation, or Czech cinema, but i'm willing to explore it. I saw a short, a while ago, 'Prílepek', it was a very good experience from someone who learned a lot from this Czech reference. So i'm sensing a continuity that i care about exploring, so i'll be looking for more of these works.What we have here (and that is more close we can get to the surrealism mood here) is a world which defines its own rules. I mean physical rules. It's a world were the material behaviour of materials and objects is not the same as in our real world. It is possible for a man to place an arm across a wall, or a wood bed to completely disintegrate as if it was eaten up. That is what takes us to another dimension, and the frantic pace and editing also. The stop-motion is remarkable, and the technical level really very high here.My opinion: 4/5 don't miss it.

In one of Czech director Jan Svankmajer's many surreal shorts, an unidentified man is trapped in a room where nothing seems to act normally. Whether it's silverware that won't pick up food, walls that won't support him, or anything else, this is an existentially delicious hell. What's the point of making movies like this, we may ask. Well, what's the point of anything? I guess that if nothing else, Svankmajer was just exercising his creativity and imagination. I would suspect that in the Eastern Bloc, he probably didn't have a lot of fancy technology to work with, but he had talent, and that's what counts. "Byt" (how's that word pronounced?) certainly shows that. I recommend it. Czech it out.