#1023: HERZ, Juraj: The Cremator (1969)
HERZ, Juraj (Czechoslavakia)
The Cremator [1969]
Spine #1023
Blu-ray
The Film
The Booklet
Twelve-page wraparound featuring an essay by film scholar Jonathan Owen.
Commentary
None.
High-definition digital transfer
Of The Junk Shop, director Herz’s 1965 debut short film.
Short documentary
From 2011 featuring Herz visiting filming locations and recalling the production of The Cremator.
Interview
With film programmer Irena Kovarova about the style of the film.
Documentary
From 2017 about composer Zdenêk Liška featuring Herz, filmmakers Jan Švankmajer and the Quay Brothers, and others.
Interview
With actor Hrušínsky from 1993.
Trailer
Extras Rating (0-40):
The Cremator [1969]
Spine #1023
Blu-ray
Czechslovak New Wave iconoclast Juraj Herz's terrifying, darkly comic vision of the horrors of totalitarian ideologies stars a supremely chilling Rudolf Hrušínský as the pathologically morbid Karel Kopfrkingl, a crematorium manager in 1930s Prague who believes fervently that death offers the only true relief from human suffering. When he is recruited by the Nazis, Kopfrkingl's increasingly deranged worldview drives him to formulate his own shocking final solution. Blending the blackest of gallows humor with disorienting expressionistic flourishes — queasy point-of-view cuts — the controversial, long-banned masterpiece The Cremator is one of cinema's most trenchant and disturbing portraits of the banality of evil.
100 minutes
Black & White
Monaural
Black & White
Monaural
in Czech
1:66:1 aspect ratio
1:66:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2020
Director/Writers
Based on the novel by Ladislav Fuks.
Screenplay by Fuks and Juraj Herz.
Herz was 35 when he directed The Cremator.
The Film
A
Film Rating (0-60):
60
The ExtrasThe Booklet
Twelve-page wraparound featuring an essay by film scholar Jonathan Owen.
Commentary
None.
High-definition digital transfer
Of The Junk Shop, director Herz’s 1965 debut short film.
Short documentary
From 2011 featuring Herz visiting filming locations and recalling the production of The Cremator.
Interview
With film programmer Irena Kovarova about the style of the film.
Documentary
From 2017 about composer Zdenêk Liška featuring Herz, filmmakers Jan Švankmajer and the Quay Brothers, and others.
Interview
With actor Hrušínsky from 1993.
Trailer
Extras Rating (0-40):
Comments
Post a Comment