Spalovac mrtvol (1969)

The Cremator

A blend of horror and political allegory, with plenty of black humor. Rudolf Hrusínský gives a fantastic performance playing the demented lead role. Everything in the film is filtered through him, and the use of fish eye lens, close-up POV montages, and these weird invisible cut (where a new scene begins with what appears to be a close up of the previous scene, and zooms out to reveal the new scene) all characterizes his his twisted perspective. The film draw a connection between cremation/death and the Nazi racial cleansing. It's interesting how Herz makes the lead into a Tibet/Dali Lama nutcase, since the Nazis perverted the Buddhist swastika. Kopfrkingl enjoys his job at a crematorium in Czechoslovakia in the late 1930s. He likes reading the Tibetan book of the dead, and espouses the view that cremation relieves earthly suffering. At a reception, he meets Reineke, with whom he fought for Austria in the first World War. Reineke convinces Kopfrkingl to emphasize his supposedly German heritage, including sending his timid son to the German school. Reineke then suggests that Kopfrkingl's half-Jewish wife is holding back his advancement in his job.

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