Spiklenci slasti (Jan Švankmajer, 1996)

To say Švankmajer is an acquired taste is somewhat of an understatement. Things never start too normal and will always go really sideways before too long. In Conspirators of Pleasure, his third feature, he takes surreal flights of fancy too far at times, and too aimlessly: even a stream of consciousness needs to be directed when put on screen. Nevertheless, in his observations of the intersecting lives of six people with their own individual sexual perversions, there are plenty of moments of delight at the sheer inventiveness, particularly in how far he takes his characters' individual dogged quests for the ultimate onanistic turn-on. The stop-motion animation could probably have been left aside this time though: the live players are putty enough to serve the director's purposes.

5/10