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Animation > Short Film
A Game with Stones
A Game with Stones © Studio A

In this early stop-motion film by Czech surrealist Jan Svankmajer, a device consisting of a clock, a pendulum, a faucet and a bucket enacts a series of events whenever the clock chimes. Large stones are squeezed out of the faucet like eggs, falling into a bucket. A music box starts up, and the stones undergo a series of animated transformations which end when the bucket tips them onto the floor. The 'behaviour' of the stones seems like a simulation of organic processes: stone cells divide, skeletons and human faces are formed and are dismantled or consume each other until eventually the bottom falls out of the bucket.

Created by: Studio A
Released: 1965
Language: no dialogue
Country of Origin: Czechoslovakia / Austria
Alternate Titles: Spiel Mit Steinen (Austria), Hra s kameny (Czechoslovakia)
Style: stop-motion animation
Directed by: Jan Svankmajer
Produced by: A. Hans Puluj
Writing Credits: Jan Svankmajer
Animated by: Jan Svankmajer
Of Interest:

Like some other early Svankmajer's films, this one was produced in Austria. One of the relatively few of his films that relies almost solely on animation with fairly negligible live action.

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profile by: lupercal