Philip French 

Surviving Life – review

Satire and psychoanalysis mix in Jan Švankmajer’s latest surreal offering, writes Philip French
  
  

Švankmajer surviving life
Jan Švankmajer’s Surviving Life: ‘The style is often close to vintage Terry Gilliam.’ Photograph: PR

The Czech satirist Švankmajer is in good form with his latest surreal combination of live action and animation, a “psychoanalytical comedy” in which a mild, middle-aged office worker attempts to establish a balance between everyday life with his grotesque wife and a dream world with his beautiful young lover. The ideas are pretty familiar, there is much lewdness of an eastern European sort, and the portraits of Freud and Jung amusingly join in from the positions on the wall of the hero’s shrink. The style is often close to vintage Terry Gilliam.

 

Leave a Comment

Required fields are marked *

*

*