The Cremator

I caught the Czech film The Cremator (Spalovac Mrtvol) directed by Juraj Herz last night at the National Museum, as part of the World Cinema Series screenings. Strangely, it was classified as a horror film. Well, it was not a supernatural horror film, but as my friend said it was more "horrific" than "horror".

The story was about a man (the cremator) working in a crematorium who believes that cremation is a way of quicker release of souls to the ether and you slowly see him going 走火入魔, as he becomes delusional and thinks he's saving them from suffering (he killed his wife & son, and his daughter narrowly escaped). He also became totally obsessed with the notion that he was the reincarnated Buddha, who will be the new Tibetan Dalai Lama.

It was set around the time of World War II when the Nazis were planning their massacre of the Jews. It started off as him being self-righteous (and bragging about it) and slowly, you see him go down the hill as The Party influenced him, though you already glimpse the dark side of him along the way. In the beginning, he was pronouncing he was a Czech through & through, then slowly, from the prompting of his friend, a Party member, he believes he is of German descent. He killed his wife because she was half-Jew, and his son, quarter-Jew. He also "rattled" about some of the people or Jew friends saying some were against the Germans, for his own purposes (like to become the director of the crematorium) or he thinks they are not pure, or even an ex-staff who rejected his advances (he was a lustful man). He was also tempted into joining The Party when he was shown pictures of nude women by his friend (in The Party) who said that the privilege to come into contact with these women was opened only to Party members. They also influenced him to drink (which he said he abstained from).

At the end, the Germans offered him a big job given his experience as a cremator...yes, you've guessed it. The chamber for mass cremation of the Jews. He even described it as saving the people and you don't have to wait for them to die to be purified, they go in from one side and the ashes will come out from the other and their released souls would go out from the chimney into the ether (duh?!).

What I thought about the film? It seemed a bit slow moving at first and the protagonist kept talking & talking (basically the whole show is him going on & on about what he thinks) with that slight smile and straight face, which seems a mask to me of his evil self, slightly sinister. The way each scene transits is interesting as from one scene, it zooms in on him doing something in a gesture and when you zoom out, that gesture & him is in another scene already. As the movie goes, the people around talks less and he continues talking & talking...somehow it gives the feeling of going deeper into his mind, into his world of self-obsession, drowning out other voices.
Also, it gave voice to how the Party claimed the incarceration of Jews and the deaths were part of purgatory, while actually, they are the real decadent people, indulging in debauchery, adultery, etc., a self-righteous hypocritical lot. I also gained a new perspective about how the concentration camps were devised.
On the whole, the ideology was maybe a little disturbing. There was a lot of nudity though.