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Conspirators of Pleasure
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Wikipedia article
'Conspirators of Pleasure' is a 1996 black comedy film by Jan vankmajer. His third feature film after 'Alice' and 'Faust', it was nominated for the Golden Leopard at the Locarno International Film Festival.
Plot
In Prague, Mr. Pivoka, an unmarried man, buys some pornography from his local newsagent, Mr. Kula, and returns home. A postwoman, Mrs. Malkov gives him a letter which reads "On Sunday" in cut-out letters. In secret, she then rolls pieces of bread into little balls and carries them in her satchel. Pivoka asks his neighbour, Mrs. Loubalov, to slaughter a chicken for him. Using the leftover feathers and papier-mch made from the pornography, he constructs a chicken head and fabricates wings made from umbrellas. Meanwhile, police captain Weltinsk buys rolling pins and pan lids from the same shop that sells Pivoka's umbrellas. Using these items, plus stolen pieces of fur and sharp things, Weltinsk constructs unusual objects in his workshop. His wife, a newsreader named Anna Weltinsk, feels neglected and buys some live carp. She is unaware that Kula is in love with her image and has constructed a machine rigged to stroke and masturbate him when she is on television. Pivoka and Loubalov construct life-size effigies of each other.
On Sunday, Pivoka drives to the country with his effigy while Loubalov takes her effigy to an abandoned crypt containing a closet, a chair with candles and a basin of water. Loubalov emerges from the closet and whips her straw effigy which, being animated, reacts. Pivoka dresses in his chicken outfit and struts around his similarly animated effigy, eventually crushing it with a boulder while Loubalov drowns hers in the basin. At home, Malkov shoves an unfeasible number of bread balls in her nose and ears and takes a nap. While Weltinsk strokes her carp and feeds them the bread balls Malkov later delivers, Beltinsk strips naked in his workshop and rubs his objects over his body. When Weltinsk reads the news, Kula turns on his machine and climaxes at the same time that she does, stimulated by the carp sucking her toes under her desk.
On his way home, Pivoka is fascinated by Weltinsk's image in a television shop window and stops to buy electronic equipment magazines at Kula's shop. Kula is now covering rolling pins with feathers; Malkov looks longingly at a carp in a fishmonger's windows. Pivonka discovers that Loubalov has been killed in her flat by a boulder that has seemingly dropped through her roof; Beltinsk is investigating. Entering his own flat, Pivonka sees the chair with candles and the basin of water awaiting him. His closet door slowly opens.
Cast
* Petr Meissel as Mr. Pivoka
* Gabriela Wilhelmov a Mrs. Loubalova
* Barbora Hrznov as Postmistress
* Anna Wetlinsk as Anna Weltinsk
* Ji Lbus as Newspaper Vendor
* Pavel Nov as Mr. Wetlinsk
Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 86% based on reviews from 7 critics.
References
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