Surviving Life

Dir: Jan Švankmajer

2010

****

At the beginning of 2010's Surviving Life, director Jan Švankmajer appears as himself, in stop motion photo cut-out animation, to introduce the film and to explain the reasons as to why it is animated in the way that it is. He explains that, essentially, it is to save money - you don't need to pay the actors as much, you don't need expensive sets and there is no need for a catering budget. He then goes on to explain that he felt the need to introduce the film in this manner, not because of egotistical reasons but because it would extend the run time - animations are usually quite short and he didn't want this to be the case, accept, Surviving Life is actually pretty long for what it is. It is safe to say that you either love or you hate Švankmajer's work, personally I love it but here my attention was stretched somewhat. The animation is amazing, very simple but very effective. It grows in scope and there is always something interesting to look at but the story stagnates ever so slightly towards the middle, following quite a bizarre but exciting first act. The conclusion goes some way towards making up for this lull but it is still on dangerous ground. I was going to say that there is no one else like Švankmajer but to be honest this looks a lot like the sort of thing Terry Gilliam was doing in the original Monty Python series. Very different but I think I like Gilliam's stuff more but then he never did manage a feature length film in the style like Švankmajer did. It is half tribute and half Švankmajer's own genius, its art, its love, its melodrama and its surreal fantasy. It's not often those genres ever mix and when they do they generally don't tend to have Chickens with boobs in them, mores the pity. I don't think it's half as good as his earlier work but that said, his earlier work is some of the most creative work committed to film, so it is still high praise. Not a great introductory piece but a certain hit with hard core fans.