The Quay Brothers (director)
BFI Film (studio)
Cert 15 (certificate)
305min (length)
10 October 2016 (released)
19 October 2016
There is little left to say about the Quay Brothers that hasn’t been said already. Their unique and often influential stop-motion animation and other related work has won identical twins Timothy and Stephen multiple awards and worldwide recognition. This 2-Disc set offers selected short films from 1979 to 2013, plus a host of revealing new SPECIAL FEATURES including a documentary by acclaimed director Christopher Nolan.
It would be fair to point out that the Quay Brothers work is an acquired taste and not always easy to decipher or that accessible. Complex, multi-faceted and often without any dialogue (occasionally also without any apparent plot) the beauty and magic of their films stem from beautifully fantastical, esoteric and warped imagery which in turn is influenced especially by the East European masters like Jan Svankmajer and Walerian Borowczyk, as well as the avant-garde music by the likes of Karlheinz Stockhausen.
Broken dolls, household tools, paper-mache objects, fabrics and other assorted delights all come to life in the Quays’ animated films – resulting in dreamlike and poetic, but frequently also disturbing ‘tales’ with deeply melancholic undertones.
The 1986 ‘Street of Crocodiles’ is of course the one that placed the brothers on the international map and gained them fans the world over. A peculiar tale which seemingly takes inspiration from Frankenstein’s workshop of filthy creation’, the Quays don’t shy away from stitching real organs (is there a butcher shop nearby their studio?) together and then some. This by the way was inspired by Bruno Schulz’ childhood memoirs of the same name.
Incredibly sad is the 2003 ‘Songs for Dead Children’ in which the souls of miniature dolls resembling, eh, dead children are called by blue spirit lights to embark on a journey into the hereafter before being placed back into coffins again… only to embark on their final journey. Very touching indeed.
‘The Comb’ (from the Museum of Sleep - 1990) explores the subconscious via a maze-like playhouse and skilfully combines animation with live-action.
Equally insightful is the 2011 documentary ‘Through the Weeping Glass’ about Philadelphia’s Mütter Museum – a medical museum containing a vast collection of anatomical oddities, pathological specimens, ancient medical instruments and other delights. The Quay Brothers surely must have found their second home there!
My personal favourite of the entire collection is the hauntingly beautiful ‘Maska’ (based on the story by Stanislaw Lem) in which an insect-like robot, disguised as a beautiful woman, sets out to execute a scientist who turns out to be a dissident. The setting is gorgeous fantastical hybrid of utopia and medieval worlds, and the costumes and masks of the puppets more than match the mesmerizing experience, in which metamorphosis holds reign supreme.
All in all there are 24 short films to pick and choose from (though all are worth it) and the SPECIAL FEATURES include:
• Newly remastered presentations
• Introduction by the Quay Brothers (2006, 20 mins)
• Quay (2015, 8 mins): a film by Christopher Nolan
• Quay Brothers audio commentaries for This Unnameable Little Broom, Street of Crocodiles, Stille Nacht I-III and In Absentia
• The Falls [excerpt] (1980, 5 mins)
• BFI Distribution ident (1991, 30 secs)
• The Summit (1995, 12 mins)
• No Bones About It: Quay Brothers (2010, 12 mins)
• Behind the Scenes with the Quay Brothers (2013, 31 mins)
• Unmistaken Hands: Ex Voto F.H. trailer (2 mins)
• Extensive booklet containing Michael Brooke’s ‘A Quays Dictionary’ (updated) and the 2013 dialogue ‘On Deciphering the Pharmacist's Presсriptiоn fοr Lip-Reading Puppеts’