Historia Naturae, Suita (1967) User Reviews

Consumptive quality

[Polaris_DiB · 7/10 · 16 January 2007]

I wouldn't include this among Svankmajer's better shorts, but it does still represent his crafty ability to animate to music. Form and design seem the primary concern of a movie that goes into and out of and around and under various living organisms, often amazingly matching color to tone and shape to rhythm very well.

I don't know about the cutaways to the man eating. One thing I have noticed about Svankmajer is that he seems rather obsessed with people's mouths--it recurs in many of his films. In a way, I suppose the eating could be just general abstraction in that laughing surrealist way. Otherwise I think it might be a comment on our consumption of the natural world. Either way, I don't actually care for it very much. I like the music and the animation a lot more.

--PolarisDiB

A Tragedy of Consumptive Domination

[aburk903 · 8/10 · 22 October 2017]

Here is a story of domination and consumption. We begin seeing the shellfish, ultimately consumed as food. As the vignettes progress, we see aesthetic consumptive domination, voyeuristic consumptive domination, the consumptive domination of scientific examination, the consumptive domination of pet ownership, the consumptive domination of manipulated breeding, the consumptive domination of generating a historical narrative of the other species, and finally the human itself objectified (made object of scientific scrutiny, medicalized). We see in this final image that humanity has- after its domination of 'nature'- consumed itself. Consumerism ends as the consumer devours itself. There is a ninth vignette- we consume this image. It continues with us-

Visuals to Music

[Tornado_Sam · 1 November 2019]

In regards to the previous reviewer who gave "Historia Naturae, Suita" a four out of ten, I would argue that in the case of this film one should not compare it to Jan Svankmajer's later, more complex work but instead look at it on its own and on how well-crafted it is. When seen alongside the rest of the large output of films by the great Czech animator, it is true this early 1967 effort is rather simplistic in visuals and concept. There is little of the stop-motion Svankmajer was known for, and it is made to be more a music video than a humorous animation. That doesn't mean it's worse though, just outside his standard and still good for what it is.

In the film, Svankmajer goes through the different catagories of animals - such as mammals, reptiles, and other species - by presenting a series of drawings, live-action clips, diagrams, and other things in rapid succession to be in time with the Suite of the title. Like "A Game with Stones" of the same year, the short explores entirely the relationship between sound and image, and comes across as a music video of sorts in how the images are made to match up perfectly with the beat. To make it so effective with his combination of imagery and his superb editing skills, Svankmajer must have taken a great deal of time on the project, and the result is a wonderful payoff. The music is the highlight, but it's the wonderful array of visuals that pull it off and the film becomes an eye-catching, arresting short as a result. Well made for what it is.

didn't quite do it for me

[disdressed12 · 5/10 · 6 February 2010]

this animated short is consists of 8 brief segments,each dealing with a different species,each set with its own style of music.each segment has animated shapes that corresponding to the the specific species.these shapes evolve and change within themselves,creating different patterns.at the end of each segment,we see a man eating a piece of food.like the previous reviewer,I'm not sure what that part's about.anyway,visually, i thought this piece was pretty interesting.it's very colourful,and the transitions from one pattern into another were done well.the actual point of the piece,I'm not exactly sure of.but maybe there isn't one.i probably didn't do a very good job of describing what the film was about.it's pretty late in the morning here and i'm half asleep.i do know that it didn't quite do it for me.i give Historia Naturae, Suita a 5/10

Watch Svankmajer's newer films...save ones like this for last.

[planktonrules · 4/10 · 12 July 2017]

I have seen most of Czech master stop-motion filmmaker Jan Svankmajer's films...."Historia Naturae, Suita" was among the last. I am very glad it wasn't among the very first, otherwise I might never have grown to love Svankmajer's films and given up earlier. It's not a terrible film but the filmmaker simply hadn't mastered his craft and his earliest films are mostly very dry and easy to dismiss. In this one, he goes through the various orders of animals (fish, reptiles, etc.) and does a very fast-paced job of splicing film together of various representations--some of which are stuffed, are skeletons, are alive or are drawings. As it's a 'suite', there's music to accompany all this and I found the music, at times, a bit too frenetic. Not an enjoyable film for me.