Film Info
2006
118 mins
Color
Czech Republic / Slovakia
In Czech with English subtitles
35mm
Aspect ratio: 1.66:1
Sound: Dolby Digital
“ONE OF THE YEAR'S BEST FILMS! A SATIRICAL MASTERPIECE!”
- Andrew O'Hehir, Salon
“Horrific but also funny! Line up outside New York’s Film Forum--and then other theatres nationwide!”
- Stuart Klawans, The Nation
“Raucously inventive and completely out of its mind!”
- Aaron Hillis, Premiere
“A bracing blast of old school surrealism!”
- Dennis Lim, Village Voice
“The last true surrealist...provides the full Svankmajer flavor--as well as a comic metaphor for human existence itself!”
- J. Hoberman, Village Voice
“Marvelous stop-motion animated sequences.”
- Manohla Dargis, The New York Times
“Awesome! Plentiful animation sequences!”
- V.A. Musetto, New York Post
“B plus. Darkly comedic...encourages simultaneous laughter, horror and thought. If that isn’t art, what is?”
- Tasha Robinson, The Onion
“An excellent jolt of blasphemy!”
- Nathan Lee, New York Sun
“The Marquis de Sade, Edgar Allan Poe, Delacroix, orgies and questionable therapeutic practices! Mixes high and low with deranged glee!”
- Time Out, New York
“100% Svankmajer....a potent cocktail....a double-barreled blast of Euro-cult outrageousness!”
- Grady Hendrix, New York Sun
“Svankmajer’s filmic imagination is genius....continues to enthrall, mystify and utterly creep us out!”
- Parisa Vaziri, Film-Forward
“His finest live-action feature to date!”
- Ken Fox, tvguide.com
“Combining horror, comedy, drama and absurdity has rarely been so much fun!”
- NYCMovieGuru.com
“Four stars! (highest rating)”
- Ed Gonzalez, Slant Magazine
“Intriguing!...Shot through with the Czech director’s customary black humor, and punctuated by some cheerfully gruesome animation...A fully formed film which transcends polemic by an intelligent use of the imagination.”
- Richard James Havis, Hollywood Reporter