Young Jean Berlot?s mother has died in the lunatic asylum at Charenton. On his way home from the funeral he spends a night at a roadside inn. There he has a vivid dream ? the same dream he always has in times of stress, in which two hospital orderlies in white coats try to force him into a straitjacket. After a violent struggle, Berlot always wakes up to find that the room has been completely demolished. Another guest at the inn, the Marquis, witnesses the nightmare and its results. He pays for the damage and invites Berlot to his castle. On the way he hears Berlot?s story: when his father died his mother, who was much younger, went mad with grief. Since then Jean, who takes after her, has been haunted by the idea that he too will end up in an asylum ? hence the nightmares.

For the screenplay of ?Lunacy? I have borrowed ideas from two stories by Edgar Allan Poe, The Premature Burial and The System of Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether. These ideas are incorporated into a plot which otherwise owes nothing to Poe. One of the main characters, the Marquis, was inspired by the Marquis de Sade, from whose writings I have lifted several passages . ?Lunacy? will be a live action feature film; animation will be used only sparingly, chiefly in the dream and surreal sequences. Although the story appears to be set in early 19th C France, the film contains many deliberate anachronisms which remind us that this is an allegory of the modern world. And what better setting for this world than a lunatic asylum? If I had to attach a genre label to the film, it would be ?philosophical horror?. Its theme is absolute freedom, civilizational repression and manipulation.

"Born on September 4th, 1934

His studies at the College of Applied Arts in Prague in the Stage Design Department and at the Prague Academy of Performing Arts in the Department of Puppetry (directing and stage design) largely predetermined his own creative development.

In the Laterna Magica Theatre he experimented with some film procedures, including special effects, for the first time. He made his first film in 1964 at the Kr?tk? film Studio in Prague. The creative diversity of Jan ?vankmajer, however, exceeds the limits of film. The artist is active in autonomous visual expression, which he has practised since the end of the 1950s. His literary expression consists mainly of scenarios and tactile poems, while his theoretical activity has focused on research into the nature of tactile phenomena and the imagination. A considerable part of the imaginative strength of Jan ?vankmajer consists of blasphemous black humour and a playful viewpoint which, together with an extraordinary sensibility and a penetrating critical intellect, form the determining facets of his creative personality. His work, whether film, visual, or literary, is connected with the collective activities of the Group of Czech and Slovak Surrealists. "

"The Last Trick

Posledn? trik pana Schwarcewalldea a pana Edgara

Czechoslovakia, 1964, colour, 12 mins

Kr?tk? Film (Prague)

J.S.Bach - Fantasy in G Minor

J.S.Bach - fantasia g-moll

Czechoslovakia, 1965, black and white, Cinemascope, 10 mins

Kr?tk? Film (Prague)

A Game with Stones

Spiel mit Steinen

Hra s kameny

Austria, 1965, colour, 8 mins

Studio A (Linz)"