Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > The Brothers Quay - Julian Petley (review date June 1986)

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Julian Petley (review date June 1986)

SOURCE: A review of The Cabinet of Jan Švankmajer—Prague's Alchemist of Film, in Monthly Film Bulletin, Vol. 53, No. 629, June, 1986, pp. 188-89.

[In the following review, Petley outlines the nine interlinked sections that comprise The Cabinet of Jan Švankmajer, an animated tribute to and analysis of the work of Czech surrealist puppet filmmaker Jan Švankmajer.]

Along with Jan Lenica and Walerian Borowczyk, the Czech Jan Švankmajer is one of the key animators to have emerged in Eastern Europe since the war. Like his Polish contemporaries, his work owes a good deal to Dada and Surrealism, and also carries more contemporary resonances of the Theatre of the Absurd. In Švankmajer's case, the link with Surrealism is particularly strong, since Prague, where he lives and works, was one of the capitals of European Surrealism. But whatever the influences, Švankmajer's vision is uniquely...

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1. Introduction
2. ∗Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. Mark Le Fanu (essay date Spring 1984)
   2. Tony Rayns (review date June 1986)
   3. The Brothers Quay with Chris Petit (interview date June 1986)
   4. Julian Petley (review date June 1986)
   5. Raymond Durgnat (review date June 1986)
   6. Michael O'Pray (review date June 1986)
   7. Peter Greenaway (review date Summer 1986)
   8. Richard Combs (review date July 1986)
   9. Roger Noake (review date July 1986)
   10. Vincent Canby (review date 29 April 1987)
   11. David Edelstein (review date 5 May 1987)
   12. Amos Vogel (review date May-June 1987)
   13. Terrence Rafferty (essay date June 1987)
   14. Georgia Brown (review date 2 April 1991)
   15. Jonathan Romney (essay date March 1992)
   16. Jonathan Romney (review date May 1992)
   17. Denise Tilles (essay date January 1993)
   18. Michael Atkinson (essay date September-October 1994)
   19. The Brothers Quay with Ryan Deussing (interview date 9 February 1996)
   20. Stephen Holden (review date 13 March 1996)
   21. J. Hoberman (review date 19 March 1996)
4. Further Reading
5. Copyright