critics consensus

A Svankmajer movie is not for everyone, but he displays his usual creative flair for surreal imagery. Read critic reviews

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Lunacy Photos

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Movie Info

In 19th-century France a young man (Pavel Liska) meets a nobleman (Jan Tríska) who invites him to spend the night in his castle, where the former witnesses a bizarre orgy and the latter's apparent death and burial. The next day, the nobleman explains he cured his fear of premature burial by having himself entombed, and he suggests that the young man, who is plagued by nightmares of a madhouse, have himself committed.

Genre:

fantasy, horror
Original Language:

Czech
Director:

Jan Svankmajer
Producer:

Jaromír Kallista
Writer:

Jan Svankmajer
Release Date (Streaming):

Feb 20, 2007
Box Office (Gross USA):

$48.0K
Runtime:

2h 1m
Sound Mix:

Dolby

Cast & Crew

Pavel Liska
Jean Berlot

Jan Tríska
The Marquis

Anna Geislerová
Charlotte

Martin Huba
Dr. Coulmiere

Jaroslav Dusek
Dr. Murlioppe

Jan Svankmajer
Director

Show all Cast & Crew

News & Interviews for Lunacy

Critical Consensus: A Brave New "World," A "Step" Down, And No Screenings for "Pulse" and "Zoom"

View All

Critic Reviews for Lunacy

All Critics (34) | Top Critics (16) | Fresh (22) | Rotten (12)

Quote not available.

June 1, 2007 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review…

Empire Magazine
Quote not available.

March 17, 2007 | Rating: 3/5 | Full Review…

Marc Savlov
Austin Chronicle
A horse-drawn carriage crossing an expressway overpass promises a more subversive ride than Svankmajer delivers.

October 27, 2006 | Rating: 2/4 | Full Review…

Bill Stamets
Chicago Sun-Times
While Lunacy leaves you with the impression that Svankmajer is more expressive with cutlets than he is with his atypically human-dominated dreamscape, some of the images are doozies.

October 26, 2006 | Rating: 2.5/4

Michael Phillips
Chicago Tribune
This is one of those deliriously unhinged movies that looks, feels and sounds genuinely insane, for all the right artistic reasons.

October 13, 2006 | Rating: 3/4 | Full Review…

Jeff Shannon
Seattle Times
At nearly two hours Lunacy becomes repetitive, at first ingeniously and then with a slowly dulling edge. The meat parade ceases to shock.

September 8, 2006 | Rating: 2.5/4 | Full Review…

Ty Burr
Boston Globe
Wickedly funny and astonishingly conceived, the film is a nonstop cavalcade of shocks, surprises and enchantments. I loved every minute of it.

September 18, 2007 | Rating: 4.5/5 | Full Review…

Christopher Campbell
Cinematical
By turns absurdly funny, disturbingly dissolute, unnervingly claustrophobic, and caustically misanthropic, Lunacy offers viewers the sort of punishing pleasures that so many of its characters seem, in their different ways, to seek.

June 12, 2007 | Rating: 4/5 | Full Review…

Anton Bitel
Eye for Film
As pure cinema, there's no denying the power of Lunacy, although mostly that power can best be described as, well, sadistic.

April 16, 2007 | Full Review…

Ken Eisner
Georgia Straight
Svankmajer continues to push at the boundaries of convention, juxtaposing blasphemy and torture while mocking the possibility of transcendence.

February 22, 2007 | Full Review…

Rex Roberts
Film Journal International
The definition of liberation as the act of being delivered from the hands of one lunatic into the hands of another who is equally mad remains universal in its political and social applications.

October 12, 2006 | Rating: B | Full Review…

Bill White
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
For all the arresting visuals, Svankmajer's morose depiction of the blurry line between madness and sanity is surprisingly pedestrian.

September 29, 2006 | Rating: 2.5/4

Sean P. Means
Salt Lake Tribune

View All Critic Reviews (34)

Audience Reviews for Lunacy

Jul 07, 2011

A mentally unstable man meets a modern day Marquis de Sade who holds blasphemous rituals in his basement and convinces his guest to commit himself to an insane asylum run by the inmates. In between scenes we see clips of steaks and disembodied tongues slithering about. It's bizarre, but not the strangest from surrealist animator Svankmejer; if you squint hard, it even looks like an ordinary horror movie. The tag line says it best: "Edgar Allen Poe + the Marquis de Sade + Jan Svankmejer = Lunacy."

Greg S Super Reviewer
Oct 10, 2006

If you're not familiar with Svankmajer's unique style of finding the endearing in the disgusting, nor grown accustomed to his meat puppets or skeletal animals, you might find this movie somewhat aversive at first - hopefully only to discover its brilliance in the end.

vieras e Super Reviewer