Surrealism

Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members. By members I mean exactly people like the Quay Brothers (or Brothers Quay). Every artist has a different way to express what he needs to say. Some surrealists had different ideas in mind before the final product, but this is due to limitations set by the government. Most of the countries now-a-days don't have restrictions as they once had. It wasn't that easy to show everything you felt, I believe. Surrealism as way of expressing is unique. Followers of the revolutionary movement, like the Quay Brothers, have no meaningful spoken dialogue in their movies, with a very few exceptions. Surrealists transform their message in a way that only few can understand. Their creations are something far more different than the "normal" movies created for the masses. Surrealists use both organic and inorganic elements combined with music (mostly composed by Leszek Jankowski). Jan Švankmajer, for whom they named one of their films (The Cabinet of Jan Švankmajer), is also frequently cited as a major influence, but they actually discovered his work relatively late, in 1983, by which time their characteristic style had been fully formed. Art comes in all shapes and sizes, but this is art itself. The first time I saw their masterpieces was during the lecture, but I've been enjoying surrealism long before that. OK, that's enough for the introduction, let's analyse some examples.





This is one of their most famous shorts - Street of Crocodiles (1987).
"In that city of cheap human material, no insticts can flourish, no dark and unusal passions ca be aroused THE STREET OF CROCODILES was a concession of our city to modernity and metropolitan corruption.The misfortune of that area is that nothing ever succeeds there, nothing can ever reach a definite conclusion. Obviously, we were unable to afford anything better than a cardboard imitation, a photo montage cut out from last year's mouldering newspapers"
They clearly say what their goal was with that short. The whole movie has a dark environment and mechanisms connecting everything. It is one of the most incredible stop-motions that I've ever seen. They bring to life every object in the artificial city. Only the elements in the scene are lit which makes the viewer's eye curious of what is beyond the scene, what lives in the dark corners and the streets of the unknown. It is clear that most of the people who have seen Tim Burton's work will notice the similarity. The camera angles and the pans are amazing, one of the best designs I've ever seen. Let's analyse the environment:
-dark corners
-crisp macro focus
-blurry surroundings
-foggy background
-cold colours
-unreal inhabitants
-unknown mechanics
-freaky dolls
-adoreness of the piece of meat
The message which they bring with that is that the future of the humanity will be like that. The EXACT opposite of NATURE. 1987 is an after war period. Period of government changes and numerous reforms in order to control the mass of people.

Dimensions Of Dialogue and Passionate Dialogue (1982)

Another example of what can be said through unreal motions.Created by Jan Švankmajer (born 4 September 1934 in Prague) is a Czech surrealist artist. His work spans several media. He is known for his surreal animations and features, which have greatly influenced other artists such as Tim Burton, Terry Gilliam, The Brothers Quay and many others. When looking at something like this you have to consider when it was made and where. Svankmajer created this, and many other animations, during the communist rule in Czechoslovakia to comment on the political unrest while trying to stay under the radar by not blatantly coming out and saying his opinions. The technique and subject matter are very deliberate and while it may mean nothing to someone today, it was very clear what this means when this was made. Not all art is good, but this IS. The meaning of the first part - Passionate Dialogue is clearly the intimate love between a woman and a man (sex), and how they abbandon what they found - love. Both of them don't want it, so they start to fight over it and eventually they destroy each other. The second part is about the control set by communism. Work together and you will succeed, don't follow the rules, everything is out of order and you fail. Well, I'm glad I was born after 1989 :D

Meat Love (1989)

Short and simple, the opposite of "The American Dream". We don't care who you are and what you have, you are who you are, a piece of steak, jump in the frying pan. I find this humorous because it is what fairy tales aren't. Realism or pessimism, I don't know but it definitely doesn't say that you are free to do what you want.