REVIEW: Quay Brothers bring 35mm classics to Film Forum
NEW YORK — The Quay Brothers — Stephen and Timothy Quay — are legendary figures in the world of animation and independent film. The identical twins have collaborated for decades, and their output is original, thoughtful and, at times, scarily expert. Director Christopher Nolan has curated an evening of the Quays’ best films, adding to the trio his own short documentary about the brothers’ artistic process, and the 70-minute program is currently running at New York City’s Film Forum.
The first gem is the unsettling In Absentia, a 2001 short film about a woman’s struggle to write a letter to her husband. The setting is an apocalyptic-looking asylum, and the brothers offers several closeups of the woman’s dirty fingernails as she continually writes the same message over and over. Outside is a Dali-an landscape, perhaps envisioned by the woman’s own psyche. Her missives go nowhere, and there’s a sad feeling of helplessness in her frantic desire to write something meaningful on the piece of paper.
There’s a touch of David Lynch in some of the Quays’ animated shorts, and In Absentia is no different. The style is bleak and unforgiving, the black-and-white images both stark and violent. Watching the fingers rip across the page is a sorrowful act, an image filled with fear, loss and a fractured mentality.
The second film is Nolan’s documentary, which offers a rare look into the animators’ studio. They explain — never with too much detail — their process of painstakingly meticulous craftsmanship. The puppets they use are a combination of found objects, and the resulting figures are something to behold. The camera movements around these puppets are precise, sometimes by the millimeter. Every bit of their films seems carefully thought out and intricately woven.
The final two films are worthy of inclusion in the 35mm festival. The Comb, from 1991, follows a porcelain doll as it journeys through a land of ladders and dreams. Street of Crocodiles, perhaps their masterpiece, is another puppet tale where screws unscrew themselves and figures populate a mechanical, mirrored setting.
In all three of the Quay Brothers’ films, the music is key. There’s no conventional dialogue, so the soundscape heightens the tension and draws the eye of the viewer a nearly forgotten detail at some corner of the screen. Somehow the music helps the puppets come to life.
The Quay Brothers may not be for everyone, but for those willing to take a risk, for those who prefer their animation to be edgy and out of the box, rather than solely Disney-fied, the 35mm curated festival is must-see viewing. Coupled with Nolan’s documentary, this is that rare glimpse into the minds of two originals.
The Quay Brothers — On 35mm is currently playing the Film Forum, with the animators scheduled to offer introductions to the shorts. The program will then tour the United States.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
- The Quay Brothers — On 35mm
- Featuring In Absentia (2000), The Comb (1991) and Street of Crocodiles (1986), created by the Quay Brothers, plus Quay (2015), directed by Christopher Nolan
- Curated by Nolan
- Running time: 70 minutes
- Not Rated
- Rating:
