| | Jan Svankmajer: The Garden [Zahrada] (1968) (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-13) |
 | | Carefully demonstrating to Frank how the ideal garden compost is created by alternate layers of earth and manure (examined as if under the microscope by the meditative camera), Josef also congratulates himself on his fence policy, which proves to be similarly layered. |
 | | This marvellously wry comment on the benevolent cultivation of social geography, the iron fist in the gardening glove, confirms Svankmajer's sympathy with other 'subversive' Czech film-makers of the period (Nemec, Kadar, Klos, Juracek), although to his evident delight the same process of manipulation applies to his own form of horticulture. |
 | | His films are full of awed spectators (the wide-eyed Frank is like another rehearsal for Alice) to whom he exhibits his formula - a staccato assembly of textures interwoven with multiple messages - with something of Josef's satisfaction. |
| www.illumin.co.uk /svank/films/garden/garden.html (814 words) |