User:UnluckyRabbitsFoot/“Punch and Judy” by Jan Svankmajer (1966)

= User:UnluckyRabbitsFoot/"Punch and Judy" by Jan Svankmajer (1966) =

Lead
Rakvičkárna, commonly referred to as "Punch and Judy", is a 1966 film by Czech director & creative Jan Švankmajer. As an early entrance into this filmmaker's canon, Rakvičkárna is one of his three debut works, between Poslední trik pana Schwarcewalldea a pana Edgara, his first film, and Don Juan, his third. Much of Svankmejer's work is appraised for his implementation of stop motion animation to produce special effects, a stylistic motif utilized here in its earliest stages of development.

Plot
The bustling music halts and the frame turns to a baroque puppet stage, with curtains drawn. A snare drum enters and steadily increases tempo, building anticipation as to what's behind it. As the curtains of the antique puppet stage are pulled back, a live guinea pig is unveiled. The focus then shifts to a new, decrepit stage. Suddenly the scale of objects is revealed, and the backdrop is now a quilt of stitched rags behind the guinea pig. Now shown in the middle of the stage, the guinea pig is flanked to the right by a new actor, the jester, ringing a bell to indicate that it's feeding time for the guinea pig. Frequent shot changes synced with the ringing of the bell show different flat angles of the ragged backdrop, alternating between the jester's ringing and these shots of the film's setting. The ringing and alternation speed up, but drop off after a certain height. The jester retires the bell, a new score begins at a waltz-pace, and the jester introduces a white pot, subsequently filling it with grain from a folded paper container. He then carries the guinea pig to the right side of the stage, propping the pet up on the rim of the pot. He does so carefully, petting the animal with affection and using his puppet hands to make sure that the food gets into the guinea pig's mouth. This goes on for a moment, and eventually is interrupted by a transition to a wall of paper, with an illustrated graphic on it. Zooming out, the perspective is revealed to be through a window, and as the frame pulls back from the window, the second finger-puppet, the buffoon, simultaneously rises from the bottom edge of the window, introducing himself to the narrative. The buffoon's point of view is shown, watching the jester pet the guinea pig, and he then opens the window and pokes his head out in astonishment.