The Cremator

This week I watched the Czech black horror comedy:

The Cremator (1969).

This is going to contain some spoilers, so be aware.

The titular character, Karel Kopfrkingl, is a senior employee at a crematorium in Prague. He seems to be happily married with two children, but there is a lot of darkness beneath his constant beatific smile and heavy, bulging eyes. He meets an old army buddy, Reinke, from WWI who has become a Nazi, and who pushes Kopfrkingl to join the party as well. Kopfrkingl isn't that interested, as he only really cares for his crematorium, or Sacred Temple of Death, as he call it, as well as a book on Tibet and Buddhism. Kopfrkingl believes that when the body is gone, the soul is free to reincarnate or go on to its heavenly reward. This means that in his mind, cremation hurries the process along, which makes it a sacred act. However, Kopfrkingl has a weakness: sex. Once a month he visits a brothel in secret, and once Reinke shows him pictures of all the pretty girls he can be with as soon as he joins the Nazi party, Kopfrkingl eagerly jumps on board. He is literally seduced into national socialism, and once he gets a taste of what this can get him, a grim downward spiral starts that will cost a lot of people their lives. After all, his wife is half Jewish...

The Cremator is one of the stranger movies I have seen, so I need to break this down a bit.

The comedy elements seem to be concentrated on a couple who always arrive late to everything, and then leave immediately as the wife invariably becomes hysterical over something, so that her husband has to drag her back out while admonishing her angrily. This happens again and again, but I didn't find it funny as such, rather it adds to the surreal atmosphere that has this movie in a iron grip.

The horror isn't what you might think just from the word either. There are no jump scares, very little blood and no common horror tropes at all. What The Cremator has is an unrelenting creepy and unsettling atmosphere from beginning to end.

Kopfrkingl is played by Rudolf Hrusínský and he does an amazing job! His entire being becomes this disturbing little man who seems harmless at a glance but carries volumes of horror in his soul once you look closer. He has this weird habit of repeating the same lines over and over once something triggers them, like how he met his wife at the zoo, or how he is abstinent, even if it makes no sense to repeat them. He also likes to comb other peoples hair, then his own, even the corpses at the crematorium gets the comb, and you never see him wash the comb either.

The Cremator is shot in black and white by choice to give it a more sinister look, and as it takes place just prior to WWII, the monochrome look fits well with the period. The director, Juraj Herz decided to shoot with a variety of lenses, one that he had to go to France to get, as it was that rare. The strange angles are in order to disorient the viewer, a clever move, since it makes Kopfrkingl's eyes pop more and makes many scenes even more unsettling due to forced perspective. Brilliant cinematography in other words. The movie also uses lots of quick cuts when Kopfrkingl becomes excited by something which mimics his quick darting thoughts.

So, do I recommend this movie? Yes, it is brilliant, but it is also really strange. The Cremator is entirely in Czech, so unless you know the language, prepare to read the subtitles. I suppose I missed out on a lot of subtleties, as subtitles usually don't convey nuance too well, but this didn't detract from the enjoyment of watching this movie. The Cremator is a bizarre masterpiece and if either Herz or Hrusínský had dropped he ball the entire movie would have fallen apart. I don't think this is a movie for everyone, but if you like disturbing surrealism, do give this a go.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great week!