Karl Kopfrkingl, chillingly portrayed by Rudolf Hrušínský, is a crematorium operator wooed by Nazism in the early days of the German occupation of Czechoslovakia. Production of Herz’s adaptation of Ladislav Fuks’ 1967 novel was interrupted by the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion, further charging its already potent political undertones with an added horror and complementing Stanislav Milota’s virtuoso expressionist cinematography and Liška’s indelible orchestral and choral score, featuring soprano Vlasta Soumarová-Mlejnková (also heard in František Vláčil’s Marketa Lazarová).
Preceded by The Flat Jan Švankmajer (1968) 13 mins – Unclassified 15+. A dingy apartment revolts against a man who stumbles into it. Liška’s score raises the tension.
4K DCP of The Cremator courtesy of the National Film Archive in Prague.