By Jan Svankmajer
Darkness, Light, Darkness (Tma/Světlo/Tma)
Jan Švankmajer
Czechoslovakia (present-day Czechia) 1989
The Czech filmmaker Jan Švankmajer is known for weird and creepy animation that mixes man-made objects with organic matter and turns everything into an unnerving, surrealistic mess. Darkness, Light, Darkness is probably not his most celebrated work, but it's my favourite due to its cleverly contained subject, sparse materials and a visual metaphor that is so full of meaning, you could write a different interpretation every day for a week.
In this one, Švankmajer takes us on a trip deep into the uncanny valley. Using the exceptional sculpting skills of his lead animator and frequent collaborator Bedřich Glaser, he shows us a quite literal 'self-made man'. There's a bit of Alice in Wonderland here, the scary bit. There's a reconstruction of a deconstructed Everyman, bald and naked as the trope dictates. There's a penis joke, and some really nauseating sounds to accompany the grey sculptor's clay which makes up our main character. There's definitely a chicken or egg question, too, except with limbs.
I've watched it dozens of times at this point, and I'm still not sure whether it was the man who turned out the light, and how to determine if it was.
Spoilery trigger warnings:
realistic genitals, raw meat, dentures.
