The Cremator

The manager of a Prague crematorium considers his work sacred. He believes death releases people from suffering, reads a book about Tibet and gives the same speech at every funeral. At the end of the thirties the Germans arrive. He is told he carries German blood and given a task. His wife is Jewish. The subject is not fascism but an ordinary man making his own beliefs compatible with murder. Karl never converts at any point; he translates what he already believed into the new order and offers killing as a form of mercy. The horror sits inside that continuity. The form is thoroughly unsettling. Wide lenses distort the faces, the camera slides over his shoulder into another place entirely, and two scenes join on a single cut. Mirrors and display glass are used constantly. The style builds the sense of being inside his mind. It was completed in 1969, immediately after the Prague Spring, and banned by the regime. It sat on the shelf for twenty years and could only be seen again after the system collapsed; it is now counted among the masterpieces of Czechoslovak cinema. The source is Ladislav Fuks's novel. Rudolf Hrušínský plays Karl. Juraj Herz directs. Who it is for: viewers who like Eastern European cinema and formally daring films. Who it is not for: anyone wanting a comfortable watch; the film is unsettling throughout and gives nobody an exit.