Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

PiraBit if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Ogosmith Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Abbigail Bush what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Leofwine_draca My second Svankmajer film, following on from SURVIVING LIFE (which I hated). This one's a lot more fun, a truly surrealist movie that explores the world of the sexual fetish, without actually involving the sex act too much. So we get a story involving a bunch of crazy people who are turned on by bread balls, by brushes, and plenty more besides.It's a truly outlandish film made by a crazed but great mind, and it hangs together surprisingly well for a movie containing no dialogue. The various narratives tie together well, making no sense at the outset but gradually coming together for a breathtaking climax. The level of imagination is through the roof, and there are tons of great visual images here; it gets particularly good when the stop motion comes into it.A film not for all tastes perhaps, but a rewarding experience for those with open minds all the same.

Eumenides_0 In Prague, six ordinary-looking people work out their sexual fantasies: they build contraptions, they sew weird suits, they turn household objects into sexual devices. They're conspirators of pleasure, dedicating every moment of their lives to their fantasies. They're also the most harmless sexual perverts ever to grace cinema.In a world in which pervert conjures images of Norman Bates and Buffalo Bill, it's cool to see Jan Svankmajer showing that not having the same sexual appetites as others does not make one a monster. It makes you a bit silly, sure, especially if you like to dress up as a chicken; and you'll always have to be on the lookout, if you plan to put bread balls in your nostrils. But it's just another way of reaching pleasure.Speaking of deviations, this movie has little similarities to his previous ones, Alice and Faust. For one they're based on literary works; secondly they make extensive use of animation. Jan Svankmajer's greatest strength as a film magician is practically absent from this movie. But like his other movies, this one has no dialog. Svankmajer has confidence in his ability to show everything with his pictures and at times I did feel like I was peering into these characters' minds.Although not as visually impressive as Alice and Faust, this movie is still a fascinating cinematic feast for anyone who likes bizarre film-making.

Shannon Weiss Jan Svankmajer's Conspirators of Pleasure is a film that speaks to an individualistic demographic to say the least. The film utilizes a combination of live action footage and stop action animation techniques to portray the lives of six people whose lives are dictated by their disturbing sexual fetishes. While some find the interconnected narratives humorous and others appear to relate to the story, this writer for one found nothing about the film witty or meaningful. In terms of thematic relevance the film does illustrate one reoccurring motif that the writer took note of: prior to executed their elaborate sexual desires, be it through torture, role play or a variety of more bizarre activities, the characters isolated themselves often through the use of a symbolic wardrobe door. Seemingly out of shame due to the oppressive nature of society in the given country each of the characters attempts to remain 'in the closet' so to speak, about their deviant personal lives. The film posits no conclusive ending and allows each character to remain more or less unchanged; the film therefore is little more than an unnecessary display of unusual behavior and this writer would have preferred it if the closet door had remained closed.

ThurstonHunger I very much enjoyed Svankmajer's "Faust" so I was happy (and not ashamed) to pick this up from the same spot (hooray for libraries!). It could be that Svankmajer is trying to isolate fetishism from an explicit sexual nature...the film quickly moves beyond the porn shop purchase to more vivid and involved flights of fantasy. The stop-frame animation itself lends a frenetic feeling, and the story does jump between several substories loosely united by interactions. Despite those facets, it seemed to move slowly, circling around some of the same images like a crazed chicken, or a fish in a tiny tub.Perhaps the message is that everyone has their itch to scratch...but the nails never really did dig in for me. And if everyone is odd, then nothing is odd. This film sort of had that effect on me. A mildly profound statement, but ultimately, I suspect, an untrue one.Not that there's anything wrong with you...nor me and my obsessive film reviewing...Without saying too much about the actual "action", there is also a potential conclusion drawn from the film's flimsy plot that the boundary between imagination and reality might be more permeable than we suspect. That gave a little injection.For those who find humor in this, I didn't. The closets? Yawn... Well maybe the recurring musical themes, especially the operatic baritone blast. The stories intermingle without ever interlocking. A more studied viewing may help more, it would not surprise me if there were some sort of secret decoder to the blood, bread, fish and further fetishes on display... But for me it just wound up as a sort of a coq-up.Though a visually memorable one. Snorting the little crumb balls will remain with me. I actually preferred the shorter entrees from the "Food" chain of films served with this DVD. More focused and smaller in scope and time, but plenty of fantastic creativity with clay and otherwise. Especially the infinite breakfast club.