The Cremator, 1969. Czechoslovakia
A year after the Warsaw Pact's army marched into Prague, Jurai Hertz's grotesque tales are filled with suffocating oppression and a tinge of darkly absurdist humor. Rudolf Hrušinský (1920-94, Czech actor) played Karel Kopfrkingl, a character set in the 1930s , in an extremely chilling way. A sickly and calculating crematorium manager in Prague, who believes he is saving humanity through death, and believes that death is the only true relief from human misery. The cinematography of Stanislav Milota (1933-2019, Czech cinematographer), with its distorted lenses and unusual angles, is another highlight of the film.
Czechoslovak New Wave iconoclast Juraj Herz paints the horrors of totalitarian ideology in this gruesome, dark comedy. When Kopferzinger is recruited by the Nazis, his increasingly deranged worldview drives him to develop a shocking final solution. The director combines the dark humor of the darkest gallows with bewildering expressionism—converging into disturbing perspectives, distorted footage, and dissonant quick cuts. The controversial and long-banned masterpiece, The Cremator, is one of the sharpest and most baffling portrayals of evil banal in film history.
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