Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

To me, this movie is perfection.

The Age of Commercialism

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

"The Flat" is a 13-minute movie by Czech animation legend Jan Svankmajer from back when he was in his early 30s. It is in black-and-white and features two actors in the cast. The lead actor Ivan Kraus has never been in another movie, while Juraj Herz became one of the Czech Republic's most renowned directors in the decades after this short film. He was also a very prolific actor. Svankmajer and Herz are in their 80s now.I personally found this a somewhat unusual approach by Svankmajer. It is as wild as his other films, but it is not as often the case that there is a clear human protagonist. And also lots of music is included here. In terms of the action, it was as difficult to understand what was going on as in everything else Svankmajer made. I was not impressed and found this a forgettable effort. Not recommended.

This is damned peculiar... I've recently rediscovered the excellent macabre work of Mr.Jan Svankmajer, an artiste of twisted, marvellous dark surreality to rival the Brothers Quay themselves. His style is somewhat similar to theirs, only without a conscience! Unlike the fantastical Quays, I would definitely describe a lot of his animations as more on the 'creepy' side. I haven't seen that great a number of his short films as yet, but I'd say this is probably going to be my favourite one. I can't imagine I'll be seeing anything that'll click with me as intensely as this. Would that I could only have half as much fun with every short film's attempts at the ghastly and unnatural that I've seen.. The frightfully potent stylistic surrealness of this brilliant short simply does not compute and feels fundamentally incorrect, and in a way that's none too easy to put into words. A vision of which the imagery belongs more in the realm of hazy dark fantasy than any kind of conventional reality, it's just way too inscrutable for mere paltry words to encompass, too impossible to place. It really does defy any descriptions... There's no sense of balance, and a sense of(now familiar) wrongness, that for whatever reason sits so well with me. It's like looking at a crazed artist's nightmare come to life, or an expression that's been pulled and twisted through a thick shroud of unearthly surrealness until it somehow becomes something to me, dreamlike, and for what it is, flawless. I find the blunt starkness and sheer lunacy of it oddly liberating and hypnotic. I could not help but be filled with wonder at the originality and hauntingly freaky style of it. ::: The sights in this are relatively Spartan and simple, but they're the kind that compels the viewer to try in vain to reach one definite answer as to what it all could possibly mean, but in my opinion that is not what mysterious and ethereal art such as this is all about. The unimaginative will probably just dismiss it outright as an amusing but meaningless collection of random kooky gags created by the repose of an active mind. But there's always a little more to feel and dwell upon, lurking in the symbology and portents. There's no dialogue, just the eccentric actions accompanied by ominous and stirring music as the rather cute young fellow embarks upon his misadventure in the oddball house of pain! I assume he died in some way at the end when his name was added to 'the list' of victims... I hope when the coroner's report came back in the cause of death was listed as "Art!" I personally found the whole thing to be more darkly absurd and comedic than anything frightening. Recommended if you love the awesome and unusual.

There's probably some greater meaning to this short film from Jan Svankmajer, but I'm not even going to bother with it. All that you need to know is that 'Byt / The Flat (1968)' involves a man trapped in an apartment that more closely resembles a carnival house-of-horrors, and where the laws of physics and logic don't hold much sway. From this simple premise, the Czech Republic's master animator reaches into the bizarre depths of his mind to construct a version reality that doesn't quite make sense; it's a surreal nightmare where nothing operates as it should, everything goes wrong, and it seems that the frustration will never end. Water spews forth from a wood-fire stove; a single swinging lightbulb bashes a hole in the brick wall; a hearty meal goes uneaten when the utensils constantly play up; a water tap disgorges a solid rock. This is one of Svankmajer's few ventures into live-action film-making, though the technique of stop-motion – utilised so effectively in films such as 'Dimensions of Dialogue (1982)' – forms the backbone of his creepy visual effects.It may all mean something, but I'm more interested in the mood that Svankmajer is able to create through his use of visuals, particularly the stop-motion, which leaves the viewer bewildered and disorientated. The images are accompanied by an original soundtrack by Zdenek Liska, but it's often too dramatic and overwhelming to suit the film; something more restrained and mysterious would, I think, have been more appropriate to the tone for which Svankmajer was aiming. Ivan Kraus portrays the flat's unfortunate victim, and he responds to each new obstacle with a stunned deadpan frown that only occasionally betrays the enormous frustration and desperation that he is experiencing. The short film ends with the man, having bizarrely just encountered a visitor wielding an axe and a chicken, tearing down a wooden door to reveal a wall of signed names, with a pencil dangling alongside. Some have interpreted this as referencing the secret police interrogations that took place in Czechoslovakia when the Soviets invaded in 1968. It's a compelling theory, I'll admit, but I enjoyed 'Byt' mainly for its visuals.

My first experience of Czech animator and filmmaker Jan Švankmajer's unusual cinematic world came via the more traditionally structured film Little Otik (2000). In that film we had the notion of a wooden puppet-like figure being brought to life in a more psychological reinterpretation of the world of Pinocchio, as well as various Eastern European folktales; with Svankmajer's usually startling imagination held back by some literally wooden performances and a rather flat visual presentation. With that, his most recent film in mind, we come to the film in question; with Byt, or The Flat (1968), standing as Svankmajer's earliest experiment in live-action film-making, and one that continues a number of themes and motifs developed in his previous work, in particular The Last Trick (1964) and The Garden (1968).Even with this in mind, Byt is an entirely different kind of film from what we might normally expect to see from Švankmajer, with the live action elements driving the story, while the more broadly recognisable aspects of stop-motion animation are utilised as mere special effects. Regardless, the story here is truly fascinating; with Švankmajer creating an extraordinary work of pure, cinematic imagination that not only impresses and excels on the level of pure entertainment, but also offers deeper themes and interpretations presented as highly intelligent satire. It also shows Švankmajer tapping into the territory of his fellow countryman and contemporary Roman Polanski, and in particular, Polanski's cinema of confinement. In this respect you could draw obvious parallels with a film such as Repulsion (1965), not to mention the more recognisable psychological themes presented in other Polanski works, such as Knife in the Water (1962) and Cul-de-sac (1966).You could also argue that there was something of cross-reference of influences going on here, with Švankmajer taking influence from Repulsion whilst Polanski would take certain elements from this film and apply them to his later flawed masterwork, The Tenant (1976). However, whereas Polanski's work was intended to terrorise the audience, both on a playful and entirely devastating level, the sense of suffocating claustrophobia and mocking surrealism presented by Švankmajer here is somewhat sardonic; intended to entertain as well as provoke, and clearly offering something of a political comment on the state of post-Second World War Europe. The fact that the film features an appearance from fellow filmmaker Juraj Herz is also interesting, with Herz creating one of the greatest films of the Czech New Wave, The Cremator (1968). As with that particular film, Byt makes obvious references to the treatment of the Jews both before and during the Holocaust, and the general sense of fear and paranoia that was immediately recognisable to European filmmakers of Švankmajer's generation.There are of course deeper themes and issues expressed in the film than this, but your understanding and interpretation of them can easily come secondary to your enjoyment of Švankmajer's great style and lasting atmosphere. The film could also be seen as something on an influence on Sam Raimi's classic no-budget shocker The Evil Dead (1983), with the idea of a character confined to a single location that reacts against him in a way that is both horrifying and surreal. This similarity is also illustrated by the use of stop-motion animation alongside elements of live action, something that may have also been an influence to Japanese filmmaker Shinya Tsukamoto on imaginative and expressionistic films like Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1988) and Tokyo Fist (1995).Despite misgivings from certain Švankmajer devotees who feel that the over-reliance on live action animations is ineffective, this film for me ranks amongst the very best of the filmmaker's short-form, experimental works. The mood and style created by Švankmajer here is extraordinary, with the filmmaker creating a range of emotions from terror to confusion and even slapstick comedy. In this respect, he is aided by the great performance from Ivan Kraus as the man trapped in this confusing psychological space, and by the subtle use of metaphor and symbolism that seems to suggest so much, without offering any kind of easy answers.