The Czech surrealist auteur Jan Svankmajer is well known for his pioneering and experimental use of puppetry and stop-frame animation in his films (such as Neco Z Alenky). At a first glance for a British observer, his work has a distinct Terry Gilliam influence, with animation seemingly plucked straight out of Monty Python's Flying Circus, as photographs are animated together in an unusual collage. There is even that familiar image of an oversized human foot falling down from the sky. But in actual fact the truth is the reverse: Svankmajer has been making his films this way since the 1960's. It was then that an impressionable young Gilliam saw his work. Since those days the Brazil director has been quick to pay tribute to his hero, selecting the 1982 short Dimensions of Dialogue as one of his favourite animations of all-time in a recent poll. And many others have publicly stated their own debt to the Czech, including Tim Burton. So it is no surprise that his latest film, Surviving Life, was able to boat a respectful turn out for its show on Venice's biggest screen - which the veteran film-maker attended drawing rapturous applause. Surviving Life (Pežít svůj život in Czech) is a typical example of the director's work, with live-action actors shot in stop-frame (though close-up's are not done with this effect) and placed onto backdrops which are either drawn or taken from photographs. The story is about dreams (I want to go one review without mentioning Inception) and follows a middle-aged man as he talks to his therapist about the meaning of his dreams, whilst searching for new ways to induce them. The film starts with the director (also in stop-frame) telling us about the film we are about see. He suggests that it is "a poor substitute for a live-action film" and says he wanted to make it without animation, but didn't have the money for actors: "photographs don't eat". Of course, this is a ruse, but it plays into a theme of the film which he spells out in this intro: "Sadly, our civilisation has no time for dreams. There's no money in them." And so it is for the film's protagonist, Eugene, who finds that everyone, from his work colleague to his wife, has no interest in exploring the subject, treating it derisively. The only person who does want to talk about it is his therapist, but then only to apply Freud and Jung analysis of the meaning as wish fulfilment. I couldn't help but see this as a nod to that strand of film criticism that speaks of the Oedipal urge and refuses to see a sword as anything other than a phallus. Photographs of the two theorists are locked in a bitter duel throughout these sessions, gloating whenever the therapist quotes their work. There is imagination and invention galore here, and it is interesting and amusing for the first twenty or so minutes. But in the end it feels like Svankmajer's style is better suited to shorts (he has made relatively few features, most of them in the last decade), as I lost interest in the style of the animation quickly and wound up impatiently hoping it would end. The only thing that stopped me from falling asleep, was the fact that the director was in the seat directly in front of mine and I didn't want to offend him - and I'm not being facetious, I'm just very tired here in the second week of the festival. It possibly didn't help that the film is about sleep...