The Cremator
The Cremator is a 1969 Czechoslovak dark comedy horror film directed by Juraj Herz, based on a novel by Ladislav Fuks. The screenplay was written by Herz and Fuks. The film was selected as the Czechoslovak entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 42nd Academy Awards, but was not nominated. In 1972, it won the Festival de Cine de Sitges Best Film award, where it also received awards for its star Rudolf Hrušínský and cinematographer Stanislav Milota.
Set in 1930s Prague, Karel Kopfrkingl slowly devolves from an odd but relatively well-meaning cremator of the dead into a murderer of his family and mass murderer who proposes to run the ovens at extermination camps due to the influence of the Nazi party and Tibetan Buddhism, as he believes his murders are "liberating" the souls of the deceased into a better life. The film consists mostly of monologues from Kopfrkingl that follow his descent into madness. Influenced by German Expressionist film, it is often cited as an example of the Czechoslovak New Wave. The film was withdrawn from circulation in 1973 and not seen again until 1990, after the collapse of the communist system in Czechoslovakia in 1989.
With a 90.2% score on the Czech and Slovak Movie Database as well as praise from film critics, The Cremator is often considered to be one of the best films ever made in Czechoslovakia. It has also gathered a prominent cult following.
Plot
The film takes place against the backdrop of the political radicalization of Europe during the 1930s, more specifically the demise of the golden era of the First Czechoslovak Republic and the installation of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia under Nazi Germany in 1939. Spiritually, it is set in the aftermath of the death of Thubten Gyatso, the 13th Dalai Lama, in 1933.Karel Kopfrkingl works at a crematorium in Prague. While taking his wife and children to visit the zoo to visit the leopard's cage where he first met his wife 17 years previously, he mentions that he wishes to invite his new assistant Mr. Strauss to a gathering.
The gathering has many elderly people and people interested in funeral preparations. An "abstinent", Kopfrkingl wants no alcohol on the premises; only tea and "weak coffee" are to be served. He also puts out the cigar of a smoker. Kopfrkingl meets Strauss and tells him that he wants to take him on as an agent. Karel's wife Lakme compliments Strauss as being a good businessman and a Jew. Karel retorts that Strauss is a German surname but Lakme says names are not always what they appear. She says that her real name is Maria and that he only calls her Lakmé because of the opera; she reminds him that although he prefers the name Roman, his real name is Karel. Kopfrkingl just laughs and says that he is a "romantic". Kopfrkingl delivers a speech to them about the importance of cremation and the reincarnation that awaits them. It is clear that he is obsessed with his duties and believes he is not just cremating the dead, but liberating the souls of the departed. Kopfrkingl gives a speech to the guests and reads excerpts from a book about Tibetan mysticism by David-Neel. This is his prized possession, one he frequently quotes from throughout the film.
At this gathering, Kopfrkingl meets Reinke, a former soldier who fought with him in the Austro-Hungarian army during WWI and who now works as a chemical engineer. Reinke is a supporter of Adolf Hitler who sees the annexation of Austria as liberation from unemployment and misery. He will introduce Kopfrkingl to the Nazi party. While browsing paintings he settles on a painting of Emiliano Chamorro Vargas that he brings home to his wife, claiming it is actually of Louis Marin. Reinke comes over to Kopfrkingl's house and describes in greater detail his support of Hitler and the good things the Nazis have done in Austria. He gives Kopfrkingl a flyer about joining the party, but Karel remains uncertain. He tells Reinke that he has been raised Czech, reads Czech and lives as a Czech, and that he has only "a drop of German blood". Reinke tells him that sensitive people like him can feel even just that one "drop".
Kopfrkingl shows the new assistant Mr. Dvorak the ropes at the crematorium. When discussing the crisis in Sudetenland Karel says he is not worried because he has "a drop of German blood". He asks a coworker he is smitten with to go on the tour of the facility with them but she refuses. Kopfrkingl shows Dvorak the catafalque and the coffin room. Dvorak bumps into a metal rod standing against the wall and Karel snaps at him not to throw it away because it could be very useful to them later. He also shows Dvorak a room filled with urns, all of which are filled with human ashes. Kopfrkingl is proud that he has "liberated" these people from the terrible sufferings of their life and sent them on to be reincarnated. Despite claiming to be moral and abstinent, Kopfrkingl sexually harasses the coworker he likes, visits a brothel run by "Mrs. Iris" and drinks. He also has qualms about Mr. Dvorak's frequent smoking.
Karel takes his wife and children on visits to a carnival and to a boxing match, but it remains clear that he is aloof and cut off from them. At a Christmas Eve dinner, Karel openly mentions his new-found respect for the Nazi party and the Third Reich, which begins to worry his wife. On Reinke's orders, Kopfrkingl spies on a Jewish ceremony and makes a report at the Nazi-owned casino. Reinke thanks him for his work but warns him that his wife is possibly Jewish due to her having prepared a Jewish-style carp dinner for them on Christmas Eve and having hid an invitation from Reinke. He tells Karel that it will be impossible for him to get better positions within the party if he remains married to her.
Kopfrkingl, now under the sway of Reinke and his disturbed Buddhist beliefs, hangs his wife from a noose. He sees visions of himself as an Asian monk assuring himself that he is doing the right thing by "liberating" his victims and that he will be rewarded by becoming the next Dalai Lama. The vision says he must prepare to journey to the eternal Fatherland in the Himalayas. Kopfrkingl delivers a eulogy for his wife, but it quickly descends into a Hitler-influenced mania about the importance of death in the new world order that the Führer is creating. Most of his former friends leave, but Reinke and his Nazi comrades are overjoyed and give him the Nazi salute.
Karel visits a brothel with his friend Reinke; they talk about Karel's son Mili. Karel says he is worried by how effeminate and weak he has become and that his mother's coddling is responsible. Reinke tells Karel that quarter Jews will not be allowed to go to school or pursue careers in the Third Reich, so it is best to be rid of him. Karel then takes Mili on a trip to see the crematorium, taking a "scenic" shortcut through the graveyard. In the crematorium's basement, Karel kills his son with a metal rod in the belief that he is "liberating his soul". He puts his son in a coffin with a dead German soldier that will not be open for viewing and that will go straight into the oven. The vision reappears and tells him that he is the reincarnated Buddha. He tells the vision that he will ascend the Tibetan throne in Lhasa but only after he first liberates his Jewish daughter.
A Nazi leader tells Karel about the use of gas chambers, which he very much approves of. He sees it as a faster way to liberate more people than his crematorium, which only burns one coffin at a time. Overjoyed, he experiences mania but the Nazi minister tells him to calm down and remember to keep the Nazi plan secret. He takes his daughter to the basement of his crematorium and attempts to murder her with the iron rod, but she gets away when he has another vision of himself as a Buddhist monk. The monk tells him the time has come for him to rule the throne as the next Dalai Lama and that the people of the world beckon for his wise guidance. The crematorium briefly appears as a Tibetan monastery and the monk throws open the gates to reveal the Nazi commanders parked outside. He tells them that his quarter Jewish daughter was about to be liberated but unfortunately got away, and they state that he need not worry as they will eliminate his daughter for him. In the final scene, Karel is driven away to oversee death camps with the female personification of death chasing after the car in the rain. He states "I shall save them all. The whole world". The closing shot is of the Potala Palace in Tibet.
Cast
- Rudolf Hrušínský as Karel Kopfrkingl
- Vlasta Chramostová as Lakmé; Dagmar
- Jana Stehnová as Zina
- Miloš Vognič as Mili
- Zora Božinová as Erna Reinkeová
- Ilja Prachař as Walter Reinke
- Eduard Kohout as Bettleheim
- Míla Myslíková as woman in hat
- Vladimír Menšík as husband of woman in hat
- Jiří Menzel as Dvořák
- Jiří Lír as Strauss
- Helena Anýzová as Death/ woman at cremation speech/ wax figure/ prostitute/ boxing match spectator
- Jindřich Narenta as Nazi friend of Reinke
- Marie Rosůlková as elderly woman who demands a Rakvička dessert
- Dimitri Rafalsky as Mr. Fenek
- Růžena Vlčková as Anežka
- Oldřich Vízner as Kája
- Václav Štekl as musician/ boxing referee/ wax museum showman
- Nataša Gollová as Mrs. Iris
- Jiří Hálek as Mr. Holý
- Jiří Kaftan as murderer in the wax museum
- Jan Kraus as Vojtech Prachar
Production
Herz wrote the script first and then filmed exactly by the script. He was very pleased with the original script and mentioned that he had left extra space for empty pages in the back of the book for anything else that might come to mind, but those pages were never used.
File:Pardubické krematorium, Pardubice.jpg|thumb|Crematorium in Pardubice, Czech Republic
There were multiple shooting locations: Kopfrkingl's "Temple of Death" was shot at three different crematoria. The first one was a crematorium in Prague in which Mr. Dvorak's suicide, the murder of Mili and the attempted murder of Zina were shot. The actors were well-prepared for these scenes and always ended on time at 3 PM because they did not want to be around the coffins with dead bodies inside. Filming took place during July and August in the middle of the summer heat and the bodies were starting to smell. The second shooting location was an urn grave in Plzeň. The third shooting location was a crematorium in Pardubice that was chosen by the film's set designer. This building was built in a Cubist style and makes up all of the exterior shots of the crematorium. The eulogy for Lakme and the subsequent Hitler-style rant delivered by Kopfrkingl on the importance of death were also filmed here. The tour of the ovens Kopfrkingl gives to Mr. Dvořák was shot near the ovens in the back of this crematorium. Herz set up two torches outside the main entrance that were used in the film. The building retains these torches to this day even though they were set up for the film. The crematorium in Pardubice was declared a National Cultural Monument by the Czech government due to its appearance in this film and impact on Czech culture. These shooting locations and description of the actor's feelings while behind the scenes can be heard described by Herz himself in the documentary This Way to the Cooling Chambers which he made for the German release of The Cremator.
None of the actors had much trouble shooting in the crematoria besides Menzel. Vlasta Chramostová would rehearse each scene to herself to prepare while Hrušínský just wanted the first shot. Hrušínský did not like to prepare at all for his roles; he preferred to do all the acting on the stage and screen. This acting method probably originated from his stage origins.
Olga Dimitrovová was responsible for the costume design while Frantisek Straka designed the sets and chose the crematoria to use.
Herz and the story's author Ladislav Fuks shared a love of the macabre and gallows humor but Herz did not like how dialogue heavy The Cremator was and initially thought it was uncinematic. Herz thought the title alone was interesting enough for its own movie but didn't like the long monologues.
Music composer Zdenek Liska bet a box of champagne to the cameraman Stanislav Milota that the film would not be successful or stick to the script. Liska was forced to buy Milota the wine after it was completed.
This is the only film on which actress Vlasta Chramostová collaborated with her husband Stanislav Milota. She recalls that when the film began to be shot in the relaxed pre-August atmosphere of 1968, no one would have guessed that it would become an award-winning cult film. After the shoot and the premiere, the film was banned by the Socialist government. She recalled a humorous story where her husband Stanislav Milota prophetically answered her question about how they want to shoot the scene with Kopfrkingl hanging her from the noose in the bathroom. Stanislav Milota replied with sarcasm worthy of Kopfrkingl: "Like it's your last shot." He had no idea what truth he had just prophesied as Vlasta Chramostová was not allowed to act after August 1968 and Stanislav Milota also ended his career in Czech film.