Watch this film
Prime Video
Rent, buy, or stream
Amazon
DVD & Blu-ray
Apple TV
Rent, buy, or stream
Vudu
Rent or buy
Some links are affiliate links — I earn a small commission if you buy, at no extra cost to you. Learn more
The Cabinet of Jan Švankmajer
No ratings yet
In Prague, a professorial puppet, with metal pincers for hands and an open book for a hat, takes a boy as a pupil. First, the professor empties fluff and toys from the child's head, leaving him without the top of his head for most of the film. The professor then teaches the lad about illusions and perspectives, the pursuit of an object through exploring a bank of drawers, divining an object, and the migration of forms. The child then brings out a box with a tarantula in it: the professor puts his "hands" into the box and describes what he feels. The boy receives a final lesson about animation and film making; then the professor gives him a brain and his own open-book hat.
Watch this film
Prime Video
Rent, buy, or stream
Amazon
DVD & Blu-ray
Apple TV
Rent, buy, or stream
Vudu
Rent or buy
Some links are affiliate links — I earn a small commission if you buy, at no extra cost to you. Learn more
More by Stephen Quay
Full filmography →
Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass
2025
Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass
2025
Quay
2015
Unmistaken Hands: Ex Voto F.H.
2013
Unmistaken Hands: Ex Voto F.H.
2013
Through the Weeping Glass: On the Consolations of Life Everlasting (Limbos & Afterbreezes in the Mütter Museum)
2011
Eurydice: She, So Beloved
2007
Alice in Not So Wonderland
2007