CONSPIRATORS OF PLEASURE

A sheepish purchaser of gentlemen’s magazines pasting together a larger- than-life cockerel’s mask, a well-built lady sewing up a straw doll, the owner of a newspaper kiosk concocting a masturbation machine, a postwoman kneading bread bullets, a husband who develops stroking instruments covered with fur and nails: in Švankmajer’s frozen social world, people transfer their need for affection to home-made fetishes. With sumptuous settings and driving music the film unfolds lascivious theatre in the minds of its viewers: hungry looks say more than words, desire flashes up in hyper-real sounds of lip-smacking noises, and it’s all a bit of a laugh.