The Cremator (1969)

disgusting, overrated, pointless

Best movie ever!

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

This film is everything else but the comedy! It shouldn't be funny in any case! It builds up an atmosphere of uncertainty and fear in an excellent way. The Rudolf Hrusinsky's lead character is superb. He is a kind of psychopathic personality blindly struggling for the maintaining order and meeting of commands regardless any consequences. In the context of Nazism it leads to destruction of his own family - his wife is a Jew. Not surprising that Kopfrkingl is on stage during every second of the film. The film is about his thoughts, reveals his mind processes, observes his perverted logic. A knowledge of the II World War history as well as Ladislav Fuks's (writer) genial artwork is helpful to understand this masterpiece.

Really unbelievable this film is stated as horror/comedy here on IMDb. Braindead is horror/comedy. This is pure horror. If Kopfrkringl's sick mind doesn't scare you, nothing does. This is a holocaust movie. But unlike Pianist or Shindler's list this movie is about cremator. About man who finds idea of burning thousands of murdered people every day very attractive. Director Juraj Herz have done brilliant piece of work by creating atmosphere of fear and madness so deep and believable. Because in fact there had to be some Kopfrkringl who actually done these things during WW2. This movie flows like honey (or some Lynch's work) with no boring spots and no disturbances in its rhythm. One scene traverses into another almost seamlessly. And in the end you can see mass murderer who thinks he is dalailama and you'll believe it's possible. That's why Cremator is REAL horror.

This movie tries to be a delicious and outrageous black comedy, but fails miserably.In order to find this movie funny, you would have to be someone who finds the mere mention of funeral cremation to be delightfully wicked and naughty. I suppose such people exist, but I doubt they are in any great number.The thing that makes this film especially irritating, apart from all the black humor that falls flat, is that Rudolf Hrusínský, the actor who plays the lead Kopfrkingl character, is in one's face, one way or another during every second of the film. He is present either on screen or in voice over narration almost constantly. And he is far from a pleasant or charming person. This movie is a lot like being stuck at some family get together and having to listen to your obnoxious, over weight uncle try to be charming and funny for hours. For me, this movie was a real ordeal.On the upside, some of the outdoor camera shots were nice. The tableau that the crematorium and its grounds made was pleasantly creepy and other-worldly. But that's all.

This film of Juraj Herj, like Morgiana, has a decidedly gothic feel. Karl Kopfrkingl, the owner of a modern crematorium gets creepier by the minute. At the beginning of the film at a family outing we see a snow leopard, peacock, tiger, snake, and a lion - Karl makes a comment that "cages are for mute persons." Later at a fair everyone else seems to be having a wonderful time; Karl looks quite glum. But when they enter a "chamber of horrors" exhibit, he's quite happy and intrigued while everyone else is shocked (it reminds me of one of Charles Addams' cartoons with everyone in a movie theatre crying, except for one man who seems positively overjoyed by the cinema situation).In a sense, Karl lives for dying - or at least lives to compassionately cremate as many people as he can, releasing and purifying their souls for another life. He seems to have a bit of an obsession with Tibetan Buddhism, carrying with him a tome on the Dalia Lama's palace and Buddhist customs.It doesn't take much flattery and cajoling by Nazi sympathizers to put Karl totally over the edge of sanity . . .Quite an incredible film, with good use of wide-angle lenses and closeups to indicate Karl's increasing derangement.