- A Figure to Support followed by Two Men and a Wardrobe and The Garden
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November 23 at 12:30 p.m.
West Building Lecture Hall The first of three absurd shorts, A Figure to Support is an essential and overlooked film of the Czech New Wave. A man is happily surprised to rent a pet cat—only to discover later that the rental shop from which he got the creature has disappeared from the streets of Prague. (Pavel Juráček and Jan Schmidt, 1963, subtitles, 38 minutes)
In Two Men and a Wardrobe, a great early short by Roman Polański, two men carry a wardrobe out of the sea, only to find unrelentingly hostile conditions on land. (Roman Polański, 1958, subtitles, 14 minutes)
The Garden is a rediscovered landmark in Jan Švankmajer’s oeuvre and the short that originally admitted him to the Czech surrealist group. One man invites another to his country home, which is protected by a very unusual hedge. (Jan Švankmajer, 1968, subtitles, 16 minutes)
still from Two Men and a Wardrobe
courtesy Photofest