Some film directors give you more than you can take on just one sitting, and Švankmajer sure is one of them. His main feature as a surrealist artist shines here: he's the ultimate collage artist, and don't take my words for it; had-drawn sets, ancient Czech puppetry, opera singing, live action filming, stop-motion animation and fragmentary history telling filled with references to Europe's myths of black magic and the occult are to be expected here. Tons of humor too; this may be in fact the funniest movie of the Czech genius which is no little archievement on his part. Lekce Faust (lit. 'The Lesson of Faust') seems to be his take on the original Faustian Myth and its expanded universe as a whole, as opposed to the very concrete, slightly moralist and narratively consistent adaptation by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Admirably so, as this movie defies any expectation you may have, and it progresses entirely as a dream, with chance, absurdity and apparent predestination as leading forces. Concerning those points, Švankmajer really differs from his first take on the Faustian Myth many years before (as a puppeteer in Johanes Doktor Faust by Emil Radok, 1958). While the main theme of Faust is, of course, portrayed (a scholar sells his soul to the Devil in exchange for knowledge and his own servant, Mephistopheles), it seems to be irrelevant at what time, or on which grounds such a pact takes place. The plot reveals a circular design, but what about the setting?
While our protagonist seems to be living in modern Prague (and not the prettiest one for sure), his curiosity propels him to go underground in search of a location displayed on a series of leaflets two strange characters are giving up in the street by the dozens. Then, after he descends the dark stairwells, we might be virtually anywhere: alchemical labs, theaters and dressing rooms of various kinds, medieval Portugal...Švankmajer seems to be more concerned with create a setting, a mood in which the unexpected and the frankly bizarre may arise at any moment, given the strange powers Faust is conjuring, and that may have trapped him way before he signs Lucifer's contract. And then, when the impossible is revealed and happening, we really salute it, even laughing. Such are the running gags made by the life-sized puppets, which are really something to talk about. One the characters on Baroque-era Czech puppetry was the Kašpárek, a Pimple of shorts which prompted comedy relief and served as both an easy identification target for the public and an ingenious sidekick for the main character. In short, this guy is damn funny, and Švankmajer makes an awesome renewal of this bit of tradition worth saving inside the modern-day medium of cinema. He previously used a Kašpárek in his awesome short-film Don Sajn (1971), his wonderful take on the classical Don Juan.
In one occasion during the film, Kašpárek takes both a grimoire and Faust's invocation circle and starts calling a demon endlessly once he finds out the formulae -piluke. The demon, pissed off because of having been called by such a clown and refusing to obey, tries to hurt him but Kašpárek is protected by the circle, so all he can is try scare him; then Kašpárek finds the conjuring necessary to get rid of a demon, and force him to leave -padluke. So, poor demon-puppet comes and goes of the room forced by the mechanical laws of magic and conjuration, until he gets completely exhausted, allowing Pimple to run out of the conjuring circle safely. Švankmajer is in fact mocking magic the best way possible: in fact, if those mechanics and laws of magic existed at all, they would be subject to experiment, repetition and a theory of causation, which would lead to a science of supernatural phenomena. Such was the dream of the occult, which in fact paved the way for modern science via alchemy and experimental repetition. In fact, it created the mind framing necessary for science by understanding the importance of causality, opposite to correlative thinking, a more habitual and natural way of understanding natural phenomena. All science has Faust and his demons inside her chest. I digress, of course, yet kudos to Švankmajer for lightly prompting all of this in my head.
As I have said, many elements of the movie remind us of other known legends concerning incantation: as an example, from The Sorcerer's Apprentice (sweeping brooms as Faust tries to call Mephistopheles), also a Goethian theme from his Der Zauberlehrling, by the way. Also, Švankmajer subtly introduces Prague's Golem theme in the narrative as Faust introduces the Holy Word (shem or emet, it does not show us) in the homunculus's clay mouth in order to give it life. Which then he takes away from him, as the homunculus apparently makes fun of Faust's mortality -not cool. Lots of black animals also appear on this movie, as walking premonitions in key locations and events (which apparently try to indicate Faust the recurring nature of Mephistopheles's pact and tragedy). A symbolic analysis of the film would be surely productive, as many visually shocking themes have these correlations with classic grimoires and magic literature. In Švankmajer's Faust, the end radically differs from that of Goethe: the Good is almost a punchline here, and I'm not even joking. Angels have a really affected voice when talking, they miserably fail at anything they attempt (from the sabotaging of Faust's contract to his redemption via a very tacky portrait of Jesus) and overall are outplayed by the demons and their ruthless pursue of the confused and pessimistic Faust. In fact, Goethe's morally set ending can't simply fit into surrealism, which historically draws closer to decadentism, subversive humor, anarchism and inner liberation from conventional structures of thinking and, perhaps more importantly, feeling. This latter element, fundamental in Švankmajer's work, prompted his investigation on tactilism, the study of surfaces and textures's visual influence which would be crucial to both Něco z Alenky (1988) and Spiklenci slasti (1996).
I'll call Lekce Faust one of Švankmajer's best films for sure, and can't really wait for his last movie, Hmyz (based on a Kapek Brothers's play) to be released. I'll probably review some of his other films as well, as they all give you a shot of something fresh, new, and evoking of endless possibilities of alchemic cinematography.
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