|
|
|
Quay Brothers: Inner Sanctums - The Collected Animation Films - 1979-2013
[Blu-ray]
Blu-ray B - United Kingdom - British Film Institute Review written by and copyright: James-Masaki Ryan (6th November 2016). |
|
The Film
 Welcome to the weird and wonderful work of the Quay Brothers. The identical twin brothers from Pennsylvania who ended up living most of their adult lives in London while immersing themselves in the world of eastern European literature, art, and stop-motion animation have created some of the most influential and stylistically recognizable works in the film world from the late 1970s on to present day. How do you describe the works of the Quay Brothers to someone who has never seen any of their work? The nightmares of philosphers? The remnants of a repressive regime through found objects? The anti-Rankin Bass? Certainly confuses more than it gives answers. It really is best to go in by just watching the films and experience it for yourself. Timothy Quay and Stephen Quay were born and raised in Pennsylvania on June 17th 1947. After moving to England for studies in 1969 the brothers became further interested in European arts and culture, animation, filmmaking, and philosophy which would highly influence their own filmwork in the following years. Polish animators Walerian Borowczyk and Jan Lenica, the writings of Franz Kafka, Bruno Schulz, Robert Walser, and Stanislaw Lem were major influences on them. Moving back to America did not lead to anything significant, but the Quays were offered opportunities in Europe and they have called England home for the years since. While their student films and earlier filmwork has been lost or discarded, the earliest work credited to the Quay Brothers was 1979’s “Nocturna Artificialia” - a stop motion animated 21 minute 16mm production of a man traveling on a red tram through a stylized dark town. Using harsh light and shadows with only title cards for abstract explanations rather than dialogue, the short was also a technical feat with its use of tracking shots throughout. Many of the later films by the Quays would have the similar aesthetic and tone that would define their style. Hand constructed setpieces that looked like they were made from discarded objects, grotesque looking characters that you cannot turn away from, the use of harsh light and shadows, lack of dialogue, and beautiful gothic like nightmares come to life. The first film I consciously watched of the Quay Brothers was 1984’s “The Cabinet of Jan Švankmajer” - a tribute to the Czech stop motion animator and film director Jan Švankmajer who made films in a similar vein of the Quays. With a little boy’s head being opened up, his brain being emptied, and a madman filling the boy’s head with new wonder and derangement, it sounds like a horrific piece, but since this is a stop-motion film with the little boy being a kewpie doll with cotton for brains and the madman being a mechanical entity, it does have an innocence to it. But altogether it was one bizarre yet appropriate introduction to the Quay Brothers’ work and to Jan Švankmajer - we have to empty our minds of every preconceived notion before stepping into this weird world. The Quays would later experiment further by always evolving but still staying true to their distinct style. Live action would be used partially in the highly acclaimed “Street of Crocodiles” (1986), “The Comb” (1990), “In Absentia” (2000) etc, experiments with black and white stop motion with the series of music videos entitled “Stille Nacht” were also made throughout the years, documentary films such as “Anamorphosis” (1991), “The Phantom Museum” (2003), “Inventorium of Traces” (2009), etc were produced and all had a distinct Quay touch that carried the influences of the many before them while heavily a style of their own. I could talk about each film in detail but as stated by director Christopher Nolan, “Like all great enigmas, the more you know, the less you understand.” And that is quite true. Watch and think. Trying to contemplate with words will only make things more complex. This collection from the BFI “Inner Sanctums” collects a large selection, but not all the directed works of the Quay Brothers. The following shorts are offered with these technical specs across two discs: DISC ONE - Nocturna Artificialia (1979) (21:20) in 1080p AVC MPEG-4, in 1.37:1, in LPCM 1.0 - The Cabinet of Jan Švankmajer (1984) (14:12) in 1080p AVC MPEG-4, in 1.37:1, in LPCM 1.0 - This Unnameable Little Broom (1985) (11:11) in 1080p AVC MPEG-4, in 1.37:1, in LPCM 1.0 - Street of Crocodiles (1986) (21:23) in 1080p AVC MPEG-4, in 1.37:1, in Polish LPCM 2.0 stereo with English text translation - Rehearsals for Extinct Anatomies (1987) (14:27) in 1080p AVC MPEG-4, in 2.35:1, in LPCM 2.0 stereo - Stille Nacht I: Dramolet (1988) (1:47) in 1080p AVC MPEG-4, in 1.37:1, in LPCM 1.0 - Ex Voto (1989) (0:58) in 1080p AVC MPEG-4, in 1.37:1, in LPCM 2.0 stereo - The Comb (1990) (18:02) in 1080p AVC MPEG-4, in 1.85:1, in LPCM 2.0 stereo - Anamorphosis (1991) (14:18) in 1080p AVC MPEG-4, in 1.37:1, in English LPCM 1.0 with no subtitles - The Calligrapher - Parts I, II, III (1991) (1:19) in 1080p AVC MPEG-4, in 1.37:1, in LPCM 2.0 stereo - Stille Nacht II (Are We Still Married?) (1992) (3:26) in 1080p AVC MPEG-4, in 1.37:1, in LPCM 1.0 - Stille Nacht III (Tales from Vienna Woods) (1993) (4:18) in 1080p AVC MPEG-4, in 1.37:1, in LPCM 1.0 - Stille Nacht IV (Can't Go Wrong Without You) (1994) (3:57) in 1080p AVC MPEG-4, in 1.37:1, in LPCM 1.0 - In Absentia (2000) (20:05) 1080p AVC MPEG-4, in 2.35:1, in LPCM 2.0 stereo - The Phantom Museum (2003) (11:47) in 1080p AVC MPEG-4, in 1.78:1, in LPCM 2.0 stereo DISC TWO - Songs for Dead Children (2003) (24:02) in 1080p AVC MPEG-4, in 1:78:1, in LPCM 2.0 stereo - Eurydice, She So Beloved (2007) (11:20) in 1080p AVC MPEG-4, in 1:78:1, in LPCM 2.0 stereo - Alice in Not So Wonderland (2007) (3:05) in 1080p AVC MPEG-4, in 1:85:1, in LPCM 2.0 stereo - Kinoteka Festival Ident (2008) (0:34) in 1080p AVC MPEG-4, in 1:37:1, in LPCM 2.0 stereo - Inventorium of Traces (2009) (23:00) in 1080p AVC MPEG-4, in 1:78:1, in LPCM 2.0 stereo - Wonderwood for Comme des Garcons (2010) (3:24) in 1080p AVC MPEG-4, in 1:37:1, in LPCM 2.0 stereo - Maska (2010) (24:26) in 1080p AVC MPEG-4, in 1:78:1, in LPCM 2.0 stereo - Through the Weeping Glass (2011) (31:24) in 1080p AVC MPEG-4, in 1:78:1, in LPCM 1.0 - Unmistaken Hands: Ex Voto F.H. (2013) (27:09) in 1080p AVC MPEG-4, in 2.40:1, in LPCM 2.0 stereo As this set collects their short films, it does not include their two feature length films “Institute Benjamenta” (1995) and “The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes” (2005). As for shorts and other works there are some noteworthy omissions. “Stille Nacht V: Dog Door” featuring music by Sparklehorse and Tom Waits is missing. Early 1980s shorts such as “Ein Brudermord” is missing. Music videos such as Michael Penn’s “Long Way Down” and Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer” are not included - although on the Gabriel video they were contributors and not the directors. But as this particular set was organized with the cooperation of the Quay Brothers, it’s safe to say that it includes their best represented works from 1979-2013. Note this is a region B locked Blu-ray and can only be played on region B and region free Blu-ray players
Video
BFI presents all the films in 1080p in the AVC MPEG-4 codec. ”Street of Crocodiles”, ”The Comb”, ”In Absentia”, and Anamorphosis” were newly scanned and remastered at 4K resolution using the original negatives held by the BFI National Archive. These remastered shorts look exceptional with depth, clarity, and striking visuals clearly seen - a cut above the previous DVD releases which already looked very good. The creepy eyeless dolls in ”Street of Crocodiles”, The beautiful woodcuts and paintings in “Anamorphosis” are striking while the intentional blurry dreamlike world of”In Absentia” are well preserved. Digital masters of ”Inventorium of Traces” was supplied by Serafin´ski Studio Graficzno-Filmowe, and the two films ”Through the Weeping Glass” and ”Unmistaken Hands: Ex Voto F.H.” were supplied by Pro Bono Films. “Maska” is from a High Definition master provided by the Quay Brothers themselves. These are all films from the new millennium so they are expected to look good. The skeletons and medical artifacts of “Through the Weeping Glass” are brought to creepy life and the colorful ”Unmistaken Hands” look great. As for ”Inventorium of Traces” the image seems to be slightly stretched out, but I assume this must be intentional. “Maska” is one of the highlights with its use of darkness and colors and the transfer is excellent. As for ”Alice in Not So Wonderland”, ”Kinoteka Ident” ”Wonderwood for Comme des Garçons”, these were supplied in Standard Definition by the Quay Brothers and ”The Calligrapher -parts I, II, III” was produced in Standard Definition and was sourced from tape materials held at the BFI National Archive. Since these are upscaled from SD sources they do have their limitations of colors, detail, and depth but they still look quite good regardless. For all other films, the films were transferred to high definition from interpositive elements struck from the original negatives for the “Quay Brothers - 1979-2003” DVD set the BFI released 10 years ago. Even if the masters are “old”, the HD transfers were excellent at the time and still look great with a great job by BFI transferring these materials. All films were restored and remastered under the supervision of the Quay Brothers. For restoration, manual and automatic digital restoration processes were used to remove dirt and scratches and repair damaged frames, while keeping intentional damage, blurriness, and artifacts in the films. As stated earlier the aspect ratio differs from short to short and they are preserved in their original ratios - although it should be noted that the shorts “Rehearsals for Extinct Anatomies” and “In Absentia” are NOT presented in originally broadcast 1.78:1 ratio but an alternate 2.35:1 ratio. The Quays envisioned these two to be screened at 2.35:1 and they are presented on the Blu-ray set in the directors’ intended version. These 2.35:1 versions are actually stretched from the 1.78:1 versions making everything look “fat” in the frame. Circular balls have become egg shaped, fingers are obese, and look unnatural. But then again many things in a Quay Brothers film look unnatural…
Audio
LPCM 2.0 stereo LPCM 1.0 All shorts have lossless LPCM audio in 2.0 stereo or 1.0 mono sound, depending on the short. All soundtracks were mastered at 24-bit from the original magnetic and optical tracks and digitally restored. Music is beautifully and sometimes scarily restored, occasional voices in certain shorts have no trouble with fidelity, and every gibberish mumble is discernible in the audio tracks. There are no hisses, pops, or cracks in the tracks and the intentional mechanical whirring or droning feedback sounds are kept as is. There are no English subtitles for the shorts (as most of them are silent or with gibberish whispers) but there are certain shorts with English text as part of the film.
Extras
The extras are divided on the two Blu-rays discs as follows: DISC ONE Audio commentary by the Quay Brothers Recorded for the previous DVD collection, the Quays offer audio commentaries on the 6 following films: “This Unnameable Little Broom”, “Street of Crocodiles”, “Stille Nacht I: Dramolet”, “Stille Nacht II (Are We Still Married?)”, “Stille Nacht III (Tales from Vienna Woods)”, and “In Absentia”. While it is almost impossible to deconstruct the meanings behind all the shorts even by the brothers directly, they gives some fascinating insight into the construction of the films, the literary and philosophical background, and more. English subtitles are offered for the commentary (just like the DVDs did) but I did notice a typo or two - like in ”Stille Nacht II”, the word have was misspelled as havev. in English Dolby Digital 2.0 with optional English HoH subtitles Introduction by the Quay Brothers (21:25) This “Introduction” is more like an extended interview with the brothers who talk about their lives and career. Troubles with financing, how they ended up in Europe, and how a lot of Polish art influenced their work, etc. Interesting is the accents of the brothers. While they are American born, they sound a bit Irish at points with hints of British English and even a little eastern European. Hard to pinpoint anyone else who really speak like them. You could watch this before any of the short films, but it’s probably best left until later. The films can speak for themselves. in 1080p AVC MPEG-4, in 1.33:1, in English Dolby Digital 2.0 with no subtitles BFI Distribution Ident (0:19) The Quays made this short intro for BFI back in the day but no longer used. Fortunately for this Blu-ray set, the BFI uses this ident for the disc intros rather than the more modern BFI ident. in 1080p AVC MPEG-4, in 1.33:1, in LPCM 2.0 "The Summit" short (13:07) Following the completion of “Institute Benjamenta”, the Quay Brothers made this short piece in 1995 - an adaptation of the stage performance “Ralf Ralf” by The Stone Brothers which features two suited men (played by the Stone Brothers themselves) discussing, arguing, singing in complete gibberish, sounding like a mix of French, Czech, Polish, and other eastern European languages. The live action pilot film was submitted as a proposal for a longer piece as the original stage play ran 70 minutes, but was unfortunately rejected by Channel 4. The video quality on this piece is unfortunately from a standard definition source and it shows very bad degradation of the weak source material. in 1080p AVC MPEG-4, in Dolby Digital 2.0 "The Falls" excerpt from Peter Greenaway's film (5:08) The Quay Brothers make an appearance in Peter Greenaway’s 3-hour film from 1980 ”The Falls”, though only in still photograph form. Greenaway asked the brothers to appear in “A Zed & Two Noughts” a few years later, but declined, making this the only appearance the brothers have made as “actors” in a film together. in 1080p AVC MPEG-4, in English LPCM 1.0 with no subtitles DISC TWO "Quay”: A Film by Christopher Nolan (2015) (8:20) Filmmaker Christopher Nolan has been a long admirer of the Quay Brothers ever since he saw a televised broadcast of ”Street of Crocodiles” when he was young. The style and art direction of ”The Prestige” and the dreamscapes of ”Inception” are heavily influenced by the Quays’ work, and so it is only natural that he would take his 35mm camera to their home where they keep their archive of materials. Biggest question is, why is this only 8 minutes long? Also the short is in 5.1 but the surrounding audio channels are sparingly used. in 1080p AVC MPEG-4, in 1.78:1, in English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 with no subtitles "Behind the Scenes with the Quay Brothers" documentary (2013) (30:58) This documentary is of the Quays visiting the Mütter Museum in Philadelphia to shoot ”Through the Weeping Glass”. It is shot in beautiful black and white with a few sections in color toward the end. If only all behind the scenes materials could be made as artistically as this one… in 1080p AVC MPEG-4, in 1.78:1, in English Dolby Digital 2.0 with burned-in English text descriptions "No Bones About It!" episode featuring the Quay Brothers (11:00) This webisode features Robert Hicks PhD of the Mütter Museum who interviews the Quays - hard at work on their 2 week shoot at the museum for the short film ”Through the Weeping Glass” . The brothers talk about how they visited the place back in their college days in Pennsylvania and have always been mesmerized by the creepiness of the place. in 1080i60hz, in 1.78:1 Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo with no subtitles "Unmistaken Hands: Ex Voto F.H." Trailer (1:57) A trailer for the film is presented with none of the dialogue audio but only music from the film. in 1080p AVC MPEG-4, in 2.35:1 Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo with no subtitles Booklet A 41 page booklet is part of the set. Included within are: - A foreward by Christopher Nolan - An introduction to the Quay Brothers - A Quay Brothers Dictionary (updated) - "On Deciphering the Pharmacist's Prescription for Lip-Reading Puppets" - a dialogue between the Quay Brothers and Heinrich Holzmüller Nolan talks of the first time he encountered their work on television and being incredibly fascinated by it, but at the same time frustrated that he couldn’t catch who made the film and what it was called, leading to years of wondering about the particular film. The introduction and dictionary written by Michael Brooke updates many facts and information that were also in the original DVD set. Famous figures that inspired the Quays, worked with the Quays, and more are compiled in an alphabetical dictionary. The strangest of all is the interview with the Quays by Holzmüller - who was a German printmaker and calligrapher in the 16th century. But considering the alternate universe where the Quays reside in their minds, it only makes sense that this would take place. In the United States, Zeitgeist released “The Quay Brothers Collected Short Films” about a year ago with 15 short films, the Christopher Nolan short, the 6 audio commentaries, and a booklet. This BFI set includes all the disc extras from the US set, adds 9 more shorts, interviews, documentaries, and more. Clearly the UK disc is the way to go especially if region code is not a problem. Besides some of the missing short films, are there any more extras missing? The DVD set from 10 years ago offered “Rehearsals for Extinct Anatomies” and “In Absentia” in their broadcast 1.78:1 aspect ratios and the alternate 2.35:1 ratios while the Blu-ray only offers the latter. Also missing are the many commercials they have done for companies such as Coca-Cola, Nikon, Frito-Lay, and Fox Sports - but as they mentioned in their interview that those works help finance their more creative original works and they are not included here. The sequence they animated for “Frida” is also not included.
Overall
The Quay Brothers continue to influence, dazzle, mystify, and scare viewers with their filmwork to this day. Stop motion animation is a painstaking process that requires time, care, and creativity and their influence can still be seen in everything from music videos by Tool, “Tetsuo” and “Toy Story”. The new BFI collection is a huge step above the DVD set from 10 years ago and is also a better choice with additional shorts and extras over the US Blu-ray release. For a nightmarish time of the minds of the Quays, this Blu-ray set is unmissable.
|
|||||
|