It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

My second Svankmajer film, following on from SURVIVING LIFE (which I hated). This one's a lot more fun, a truly surrealist movie that explores the world of the sexual fetish, without actually involving the sex act too much. So we get a story involving a bunch of crazy people who are turned on by bread balls, by brushes, and plenty more besides.It's a truly outlandish film made by a crazed but great mind, and it hangs together surprisingly well for a movie containing no dialogue. The various narratives tie together well, making no sense at the outset but gradually coming together for a breathtaking climax. The level of imagination is through the roof, and there are tons of great visual images here; it gets particularly good when the stop motion comes into it.A film not for all tastes perhaps, but a rewarding experience for those with open minds all the same.

As its title attests "Conspirators of Pleasure" is a film about sex but it's also a Jan Svankmajer film which means that any prurience is going to be tempered with a good deal of surrealism and a certain amount of bizarre comedy. It's also full of the kind of people who, while turned on themselves by the prospect of anything sexual happening to them, are unlikely to turn you on. I know beauty is in the eye of the beholder but Svankmajer goes out of his way to fill the screen with people who, at best, might be described as 'unprepossessing'. It's also a virtually silent picture in that, while there is music and sound effects, there is no dialogue, not that it's needed, and it's virtually plot less as it follows a group of disparate, (desperate?), characters through a series of weird rituals, all of which appear to be sexual in one way or another. Again it's the animated sequences that come off best though in the overall scheme of things I wouldn't say this is one of Svankmajer's finer films. On the plus side, it's certainly not dull and it's quite short.

Conspirators of Pleasure is a surrealist comedy of the absurd by Czech surrealist master Jan Svankmajer. It is a Czech-Swiss-British co- production, whose story revolves around the idiosyncratic sensual compulsions and obsessions (call it fetishes if you prefer) of six different characters, whose paths are crossed but never intermingled: a couple of neighbors, a couple formed by a policeman and a newsreader, a newsagent shop owner, and a postmistress.The film mixes surreal scenes, deadpan humor, hallucinogen imaginary, gory images, human-size puppets, and weird and twisted behavior worthy of a psychoanalyst. The result is a thought-provoking film, awkward, funny and disturbing at the same time.The film has no dialogs, the music and street/ambient noise being the only sounds in it. Despite this, there is a very expressive non-verbal way of social communication. However, there is no real human interaction between the characters. Invisible walls prevent them from relating to the others, no matter they are next-door neighbors or husband and wife. The sensual compulsion that each character develops is a clumsy imitation of the real human touch and physical contact -a mimicked expression of real human communication.The fetish objects are made of normal things, which become extravagant and erotic because of the idiosyncratic wishes of each of its creators, but they are quirky and even ridiculous from an outsider point of view. Despite the story being highly erotic, there is not even a sex scene in the movie, and there is just some limited semi-nudity. Even the raunchy scenes have nothing explicitly raunchy in them, as all is suggested never fully shown. For example, effervescent drinks going up and semen- like glue coming out of a tube are repeatedly associated to men's ejaculation. The most brutal and scenes in the movie -a Sado scene and a voodoo-like scene- use human-sized straw puppets with articulated facial movement that imitate and replace real humans. Even the scene related to the use of a "massaging" machine is comic and never explicit. The most surreal part of the movie is the one related to the behavior of the Post woman.Despite its surreal oddity, the story is told in a very straightforward but circular way. All makes sense within the logic of the story, even the inexplicable. Moreover, the story has a closure that is the start of another circular movement in which the characters swap, as a natural movement of evolution, the fetishes of the others. Svankmajer's surrealism is both social and individual. However, the exploration of the unconscious world of the characters is not the point, as it is clearly shown by the use of the closet in which two of the characters hide themselves. The closet is the world where the most inner wishes and deepest secrets of the characters are kept - the subconscious mind that produces the fetishes. We just are presented with those fetishes, without knowing what generates them, as the camera doesn't go into the closet with the characters.All the characters are wonderfully played by the Czech actors, so very expressive and believable in their respective roles: Petr Meissel (as Mr. Pivoine), Gabriela Wilhelmová (as Mrs. Loubalova), Barbora Hrzánová (as the postmistress), Anna Wetlinská (as Mrs. Beltinska), Jirí Lábus (as the newsagent), and Pavel Nový (as Mr. Beltinski).The music is terrific.The movie will unsettle and puzzle you, confront you and disturb you, slap you in the face and put a smile on it. It is very complex, but organically constructed. This is not a movie for lazy watchers, and one of those bizarre movies that you like or you hate, nothing in between.

In Prague, six ordinary-looking people work out their sexual fantasies: they build contraptions, they sew weird suits, they turn household objects into sexual devices. They're conspirators of pleasure, dedicating every moment of their lives to their fantasies. They're also the most harmless sexual perverts ever to grace cinema.In a world in which pervert conjures images of Norman Bates and Buffalo Bill, it's cool to see Jan Svankmajer showing that not having the same sexual appetites as others does not make one a monster. It makes you a bit silly, sure, especially if you like to dress up as a chicken; and you'll always have to be on the lookout, if you plan to put bread balls in your nostrils. But it's just another way of reaching pleasure.Speaking of deviations, this movie has little similarities to his previous ones, Alice and Faust. For one they're based on literary works; secondly they make extensive use of animation. Jan Svankmajer's greatest strength as a film magician is practically absent from this movie. But like his other movies, this one has no dialog. Svankmajer has confidence in his ability to show everything with his pictures and at times I did feel like I was peering into these characters' minds.Although not as visually impressive as Alice and Faust, this movie is still a fascinating cinematic feast for anyone who likes bizarre film-making.