A Film by Jan Svankmajer

“(A) feature-length phantasmagoria! Marvelous stop-motion animated sequences involving a literal moveable feast of severed animal tongues, loose eyeballs and errant brains. To its advantage, LUNACY owes less to Sade and more to Poe, in particular the humorous story The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Feather.”
– Manohla Dargis, The New York Times

“Svankmajer has spent 40 years developing a distinctive visual style, and it's front and center in LUNACY. His nihilistic story isn't for everyone but he skillfully manages its disturbing execution on ways no one else could, and he brings it across in a darkly comedic way that encourages simultaneous laughter, horror and thought. If that isn't art, what is?”
– Tasha Robinson, The Onion

“LUNACY is dark, scary and yucky! Svankmajer is the last true surrealist… this cavorting, copulating chorus of mindless meat puppets provides the full Svankmajer flavor – as well as a comic metaphor for human existence itself.”
- J. Hoberman, Village Voice

[3 ½ stars]
Awesome. Jan Svankmajer is a godlike Czech filmmaker.”
– V.A. Musetto, New York Post

“Tongues, eyeballs and entrails; the Marquis de Sade, Edgar Allan Poe, Delacroix, orgies, and questionable therapeutic practices - not to mention chocolate cake. Mixes high and low with deranged glee.”
– Time Out NY

“A potent cocktail distilled from the blended essences of Edgar Allan Poe and the Marquis de Sade. (The movie's) insane raw meat ballets, and its fevered political meditation on regimented totalitarianism vs. anarchic democracy, marks this movie as 100% Svankmajer.”
– Grady Hendrix, The New York Sun

“LUNACY will scour cant from your mental walls, unclog grimy sentiment from the drain of your heart, put the shine back on those scuffed eyes and ears, and leave your whole earthly domicile smelling as fresh as ground chuck.”
– Stuart Klawans, The Nation

Jan Svankmajer, master animator and dyed-in-the-wool surrealist, has influenced Tim Burton, the Quay Brothers and anyone who has ever harbored the fear that objects may be conspiring against them. LUNACY builds on his previous features (ALICE, FAUST, CONSPIRATORS OF PLEASURE, LITTLE OTIK), melding the creepiness of Edgar Allan Poe’s stories (“Premature Burial,” "The System of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether") with the sex and violence decadence of the Marquis de Sade. A “philosophical horror film” (according to Svankmajer), LUNACY asks who’s free?, who’s mad?, and why does all that raw meat seem to have a life of its own? Not for the faint of heart.

Czech Republic/Slovakia • 2006 • 118 Minutes • In Czech With English Subtitles • Zeitgeist Films