When I watched this film I was really struck by the way it caught your attention immediately in the opening scenes of the film. The way the two friends were riding along together in the car just like any other friends would but yet you still felt uneasy and you weren't quite sure why. i remember watching it and almost double guessing myself in wondering if I should be feeling uncomfortable or if it was just me. By the time they actually did get to "the garden" I definitely then felt justified in my perceptions but then a whole bunch of questions came up. I really enjoyed how the filmmaker gave you enough information to feel like you were in on the story but yet not fully in on the secret. I think this film made a bold statement about communism and to its denial of human freedom. I think this is a film you could watch over and over again and catch something that you did not catch before and make you think of something you didn't think of before. i think that truly is film making at its best.
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tararockstar9 December 2007
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Polaris_DiB16 January 2007This is probably one of the best examples (other than Un Chien Andalou) of what the world "surreal" means. This short contains an extreme amount of unease and yet uncanny personality to it.
Two men drive up to an estate together, one man dominates all the talking. Seems the talkative guy owns a house with a human shrubbery--people linked together and standing at attention for hours on end, not allowed to move, to speak, or to sleep, and taken care of by the chattery fella himself. The guest has his own problems with the shrub, wondering about his affinity with it.
Jan Svankmajer uses some of his best composition to show just how uncomfortable this situation is. The people are not hidden, nor are they particularly different--in fact, they are about as various as a city street, all normal but with their own singular choices in clothing. This distinction of personality with the quiet submissiveness of authority is somewhat terrifying, helped along by the matter-of-factness of the camera. Human nature is not denied as examples of rather unvigilant pieces of the "shrubbery" are related as well.
The movie is appealingly menacing and mysterious, helping it to stick in the mind of the viewer for days to come.
Fans of Svankmajer should note the shared image of the comb in this movie and Svankmajer's latest, Lunacy. The characters in the two movies are somewhat alike, too, struggling against a seeming insanity and eventually needing to succumb to it.
--PolarisDiB -
framptonhollis7 January 2016Svankmajer may be my favorite filmmaker (he's at least in my top 3). He really knows how to create a truly interesting and bizarre experience, and even when he was in the earliest stages of his career he was making some truly outstanding cinema.
Although there is no animation or puppets used (like there would be in a usual Svankmajer film), you can still tell that this is a Svankmajer film. It's mainly because of the editing, which can turn the somewhat mundane opening of the film into an artistic and surreal experience. There's a lot of close-ups and quick editing which really enhance the strangeness of the short.
The film is also truly compelling, and more so than an average Svankmajer film. There's a lot of powerful meaning and symbolism here, making it a great watch for people studying film and fans of Svankmajer's work. -
Galina_movie_fan20 September 2006I think that the Czech title of this black/white short film matches it better than the English one. "Zahrada" means Fence and the fence in the movie catches our as well as Frank's, the guy who visits with his friend Joseph, attention immediately and makes us feel unsettling and uncomfortable. Josef's garden fence, you see, is made up of the standing and holding hands people, men and women. They just stand there silently, never complaining and seem to be eager to do a good job for their employer. Josef seems to own a very important secret that allows him to keep his "fence" in good shape and strict order and he whispers it to Frank's ear. We will never find out the secret but it must be life-changing because the next we see - Frank joins the fence and is ready to serve to the bearer of the secret. This short film alone makes Svankmajer a lawful heir to the one and only master of surrealism in the history of Cinema, Don Luis Bunuel. Svankmajer calls himself a "militant Surrealist" - very appropriate.
9.5/10 -
jwj1234517 December 2007This short film catches you off guard. The film starts with what you are to believe are a couple of friends going for a ride in a car on the country side. They are laughing joking with each other. You don't really get what is going on, but you make assumptions that they are good friends. Josef is the driver of the car and Frank is the passenger. After the drive they pull up into a long, one way, dirt driveway but are stopped right away by a hurse leaving the home. After they arrive at the home, there is a fence around there home made entirely of people. Alive and well, they are all holding hands. Frank is a little confused by this, but keeps his mouth shut. Josef goes on and on about how great his rabbits are and acting like there is nothing wrong with his "fence." THroughout the film Frank sees an opening in the fence and sees what is going on. He gets mad at Josef and joins the fence and fills the hole.
I like how Jan Svankmajer is making a large poke at the government. He is making a quite point that this is how they work. They pull you in with "come see my rabbits" and then you see what is really going on and by the time you want to leave you are already joined in.
This is a great short film and has a powerful message. I think it is a must see! -
planktonrules12 July 2017"The Garden" is a very strange film....and it's one that is unlike Jan Svankmajer's other shorts. Instead of his usual stop-motion, this is a live action film...but it's strange, surreal quality do make it a film I could believe was made by the man!
The film begins with Josef and Frank stopping to pee. Next, Josef takes his friend in the car to see his prized rabbits on his farm. However, Frank is struck by the setting....there is a wall of people surrounding the farm. Each person is holding hands and they stand there silently bordering the place. Frank is confused and eventually gets around to asking Josef about this...and where it then goes, you'll have to see for yourself.
If you are the type person who likes things very literal and normal, well this film is NOT for you. Strange and with a sly sense of humor...it's something Svankmajer fans should enjoy. Others...who knows?! -
meddlecore2 October 2022Zahrada is based on a book whose title translates to "The Living Fence", and it acts as Svankmajer's critique about living under an authoritarian regime, under the ruse of communism.
The garden itself is the state.
It's overseer is only concerned with it's cultivation, not that of the people whom he requires to prop it up and keep it safe from external "rabbits".
He uses his monopoly on information to keep the people in line...quite literally in this case.
While, those individuals who make up the living fence, are those who capitulate to a fascist regime, for whatever reason (whether that be fear of repercussions, because they have something against you, or because they have been brainwashed into adopting an ultra patriotic worldview etc.)- even if only superficially, when the leader himself is looking.
In this sense, it is much akin to Trnka's stop motion masterpiece Ruka (The Hand)...and can be interpreted in a similar light.
It's one of the few Svankmajer films that is completely live action, and has no stop motion at all.
But you can still see some of his trademark stylistic touches, throughout (the plate of food, the close up shots of facial features, etc).
A very weird, but very apt little short film...that is just as relevant now as it was then.
6.5 out of 10. -
"Zahrada" or "The Garden" is a Czech movie from almost 50 years ago and Czech filmmaking legend Jan Svankmajer was in his mid-30s when he made this. It runs for 16 minutes and is in black-and-white. The story is about two men who drive to one man's house and there is a fence that consists of people standing there. I am sure you could find a deeper message in there, for example a fear of other people or the absurdity of using humans to keep other humans out of your life, but I will not go into further detail here. However, I have to say that this premise alone is just not enough for 16 minutes and that is also why I lost interest in this film quickly. Then again, I may be a bit biased as I have never been too big on Svankmajer's work. If you like his other films, check out this one. I personally do not recommend it though.
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Tornado_Sam5 November 2019"The Garden" may be the most out-of-place Jan Svankmajer film of his earliest works, mostly pertaining to the fact that while the style of filmmaking remains the same (using the standard closeups and intriguing camerawork) the lack of stop-motion drastically changes everything. At the point in his career when the great Czech animator made this sixteen-minute short, his trademark was hardly developed yet: some of his works were animated segments, others were visually bizarre, and others still remained simple experiments in animation. "Zahrada" follows the path of the infamous surrealist shorts that started the experimental film movement (including the legendary classics "Un Chien Andalou" and "Meshes of the Afternoon"): the story and camera movement is meant to convey a mysterious setting, as well as the dark hints shadowing the entire premise. The main thing that separates it from those early avant-garde works is that is does follow, more or less, a coherent plot and does not cause random things to happen just to shock the audience. It's much more thought out than that and comes off as sort of an Edgar Allen Poe story to my eyes.
The premise deals with Joseph and his friend Frank going to visit Joseph's house after stopping to go to the bathroom by the side of the road. The strange thing is that the fence surrounding the house consists entirely of humans holding hands, a living fence which exchanges bets behind the back of their employer. The uncomfortable setting of the film is pulled off well, and it could be interpreted any way - what Joseph really whispers to Frank about the fence will always remain a mystery. And, despite the lack of any type of stop-motion, the short stays an interesting work in the filmmaker's output, even though he would later go on to different things.