This is Jan Svankmajer's second film. It's a short that consists of a man playing a piece by Bach as various things around the organ move about on their own. It's filmed in black and white. But unlike later films by the master stop-motion artist, the things that move or seem to move are very mundane...such as doors or stones or holes opening up in the walls. I noticed state some felt this was a masterpiece, but frankly, I think his later stuff is so much better...and often creepier. This one isn't nearly as weird nor as interesting. For Svankmajer fans, it's definitely one to see but the man would definitely go on to better things.
6 Reviews
Love Abstract, But This Didn't Do It For Me
ccthemovieman-116 July 2007
Hey, I like abstract art. I like it a lot. I've done it, too. I preface my short review with those remarks because I didn't care for the film, and it had nothing to do with appreciating abstract art. Yeah, I know the filmmaker Jan Svankmejer was showing these house objects to the music....but that doesn't make it entertaining. Yeah, I noticed the textures and the shapes. Sometimes "arty" material is vastly overrated as well as underrated.
With motion films, I am of the opinion that if it's boring and the audience is snoring in their seats, it's not good entertainment.....and entertainment is what the movies are about.
Looking at stone walls, metal objects on the outside of the old house, doors and windows, etc., all to Bach's number was kind of cool for a couple of minutes. After that: b-o-r-i-n-g, and please don't give me the "you didn't get it" reply.
With motion films, I am of the opinion that if it's boring and the audience is snoring in their seats, it's not good entertainment.....and entertainment is what the movies are about.
Looking at stone walls, metal objects on the outside of the old house, doors and windows, etc., all to Bach's number was kind of cool for a couple of minutes. After that: b-o-r-i-n-g, and please don't give me the "you didn't get it" reply.
Svankmejer's Triumph
sirarthurstreebgreebling19 September 2000
This stunning short, in black and white and shot in widescreen is one of the best examples of the marriage of film and sound , the sounds affecting the images with bass and tibre. The man who plays the organ seems to literally bring the house down and walls open up and close , breath and moves as if the music has given them life. Simply superb.
a bit too sedate for my taste
disdressed126 February 2010
i didn't find this second short animated film from Svankmajer as good as his first one,The Last Trick.this one was just a bit too sedate in comparison.it's not horrible by any means and while there is lots going on,it's not quite as dynamic,for lack of a better word.it's only 10 minutes in length,but it gets a bit repetitive before it's over.The Last Trick was in colour,while this one's in black and white.i'm not sure if it being in colour would necessarily have changed my opinion,but it certainly would have been a different film.anyway,that's neither here nor there.for me,Johann Sebastian Bach: Fantasia G-moll is a 4/10
Perfect association
Polaris_DiB16 January 2007
Warning: Spoilers
This movie is magnificent, inspiring, and very creative. Outside of narrative constructs, this movie deals with tone... tone described in the breaking and fragmented walls of some mysterious apartment.
Architecture itself has been described by some as "frozen music", so this presents a sort of inverse relationship: music as melting architecture. What I find great about it, though, is that the grain and the grittiness of the walls fits perfectly with the tone of the song. Svankmajer has opened up an association with a famous composition into his own defined and bordered world--something an animator would be more prone to do, and a puppet master would know all about.
--PolarisDiB
Architecture itself has been described by some as "frozen music", so this presents a sort of inverse relationship: music as melting architecture. What I find great about it, though, is that the grain and the grittiness of the walls fits perfectly with the tone of the song. Svankmajer has opened up an association with a famous composition into his own defined and bordered world--something an animator would be more prone to do, and a puppet master would know all about.
--PolarisDiB
Simple Animations
Tornado_Sam27 October 2019
"Johann Sebastian Bach: Fantasia G-moll" was Czech animator Jan Svankmajer's second work in a career of many animated movies he would go on to make. Unlike his first, "The Last Trick" of 1964, it shows a bit more of the filmmaker's style in what it presents, hinting more strongly at what he would produce in later years. As other reviewers have stated, it is not nearly as complex nor as weird and surrealistic as those later movies, and thus not a good place for those interested in his output to begin, but as an early effort it shows how he can evoke a certain atmosphere out of putting appropriate sound to the proper image, which was undoubtedly the film's main goal.
The first minutes of the nine-minute film are entirely live-action, as a man enters a cathedral, climbs the stairs to the pipe organ, and after stuffing a whole apple (albeit a small one) in his mouth for no reason, he begins to play the Bach title piece. The rest of the work is a series of simple animations of cracks in stone walls growing and shrinking, doors opening by themselves, iron bars on windows, and other mechanical devices. Although basic compared to what he would later produce, the music fitting well with the dark images (the film is rendered in B&W) is enough to make it work and creates a fine music video. I would not consider it a masterpiece as have other reviewers, but it works on its own level and shows what Svankmajer would later go on to create.
The first minutes of the nine-minute film are entirely live-action, as a man enters a cathedral, climbs the stairs to the pipe organ, and after stuffing a whole apple (albeit a small one) in his mouth for no reason, he begins to play the Bach title piece. The rest of the work is a series of simple animations of cracks in stone walls growing and shrinking, doors opening by themselves, iron bars on windows, and other mechanical devices. Although basic compared to what he would later produce, the music fitting well with the dark images (the film is rendered in B&W) is enough to make it work and creates a fine music video. I would not consider it a masterpiece as have other reviewers, but it works on its own level and shows what Svankmajer would later go on to create.
See also
Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews
