Jiri Barta: Labyrinth of Darkness
by Jirí Barta
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Actor: Frantisek Husák, Jirí Lábus, Michal Pavlícek, Oldrich Kaiser, Vilém CokDirector: Jirí Barta
Brand: Kino International
Cinematographer: Ivan Vít
Cinematographer: Jan Malír
Cinematographer: Vladimír Malík
Cinematographer: Zdenek Pospísil
Writer: Jirí Barta
Editor: Helena Lebdusková
Writer: Kamil Pixa
Writer: Viktor Dyk
Writer: Václav Mergl
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); English (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 147 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-09-12
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Kimstim
DVD Reviews of Jiri Barta: Labyrinth of Darkness
DVD Review: Amazon Recommends II: Jiri Barta -- Labyrinth of Darkness
Summary: 4 Stars
Hello again from this imaginary aisle of the abstract retail market.
Well it's easy to see why Amazon.com recommended this to me, considering the above-average amount of short film collections I own and my own interests in animation. I remember seeing this Jiri Barta collection at work once and was really curious about it, and it was nice to have the incentive to get around to watching it. I have to admit a lack of previous knowledge around this otherwise cult-followed, Svankmajer compatriot Czech animator, but it's been a wonderful adventure learning about him.
While Barta gets a lot of comparison to Svankmajer and the Brothers Quay (as well as Jiri Trnka, whom I've not yet gotten the opportunity to research), his movies are a lot looser, playful, and modernistic, sometimes to a fault. The collection of films on this set actually range through quite a lot of different moods and styles while always maintaining a clear sense of wit. At worst, some of the pieces can seem like Barta lost track of what he was starting and decided to just change it all -- rather difficult to do in animation when it takes so much time -- and at best it's perversely unpredictable fun.
I can see why "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" is his most famous work, as it fully realizes the very nature of fairy tale telling into graphic form, so that even in its most unique moments it seems direly, perversely familiar. It was very enjoyable and mesmerizing. My other favorite is the live-action "The Last Theft", mostly because it hits its gothic notes right on queue for some fun-loving morbid hilarity. The shifting tinting on the film is likewise mesmerizing, though what really scores that short points is the way in which even when things go right for the character, it all feels so perversely wrong.
The rest of the shorts are all really good, though sometimes I simply didn't care for them. "A Ballad about Green Wood" seemed almost directionless (it pulls together at the end); "Disc Jockey", though interesting in its primary shapes scheme, seemed too commercial--a real joke considering it and other shorts make a lot of fun of commercialism. Though what is a real surprise in these shorts, considering that when most people think "Czech animation" they think of fever dreams and mythic things, is just how willing Barta is to throw in 80s pop culture into the mix. Thus you get an interesting post-modern mix of the dream-scape sensibilities of that stop-motion movement mixed with a real tongue-in-cheek parody of modern times. I can't say I dislike it because I was really unprepared for it, but in a way that's wonderful because it means he stands out and also helps prove that even in a supposed "sub-genre" of independent stop-motion animation can be amazingly different styles and approaches (something that often gets overlooked in the essentializing of "independent" to mean "with the same anti-Hollywood concerns", which mostly isn't factual at all).
I don't know about the title of the DVD "Labyrinth of Darkness". Barta certainly has dark humor, and the shorts are a labyrinth in the sense that they branch off in different directions, but a "Labyrinth of Darkness" sort of puts across a much more brooding tone and mental fragmentation that these shorts aren't really concerned with. People looking for the disturbing surreality of Jan Svankmajer or the feverish Freudian landscape of the Brothers Quay might be a little disappointed by some of the offerings here; on the other hand, the works as a whole are a fresh twist on the interplay of movement, sound, and form, so I severely doubt anybody familiar with those other artists will be really turned off.
--PolarisDiB
Description of Jiri Barta: Labyrinth of Darkness
Studio: Kino International Release Date: 09/12/2006Bestsellers in DVD
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