Brilliant and touching

An Exercise In Nonsense

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

If I call it better than usual and give it a **/*****, you can probably already guess what my perception of the Brothers Quay is like. I don't hold them in high esteem. And also for this 13.5-minute film here, I cannot say I enjoyed it. Animation and story were negative factors as always with them, but narrator Witold Scheybal did a formidable job that at least got me slightly interested in the film. By 1993, the Quay twins were already really long in the business and very experienced and it is sad to see they still have not stepped thing up as this was a very forgettable watch. They usually do a decent job in selecting the soundtrack for their works, but of course it is not enough to make this one at least a mediocre watch. Stay away. Thimbs down.

I tend to find that when people review shorts of this type with prior knowledge of the makers (The Brothers Quay), they tend to talk about how the makers still manage to put their own distinct style into someone else's project. This time it feels like it's the other way around, that a professor (with a comically accented voice) is providing meaning to a Brother Quay film. It seems nothing's out-of-the-ordinary (except of course that the Quay brothers aren't ordinary) in this film.The topic is Anamorphosis, a visual trick of painters to hide meanings in paintings by requiring a person change their focal point for it. A painting of the countryside from the front looks like a painting of a person praying under a tree from the side. An odd painting-like segment within a painting of vice and greed turns out to be a skull.The producers of this work couldn't have picked anyone better than the Brothers Quay. It's obvious seeing most of their works that these two artists are well versed in not only art, but issues of perspective and hidden meaning. Most of their films could be considered like semiotic Anamorphoses themselves. Their doll-hero-figure makes a perfect protagonist to explore around this world of pre-cinematic animation.--PolarisDiB

This is probably the only Quay Brothers film I have seen that is in any way conventional. I understand it was their segment used in a greater work about art styles. The Quay Brothers explore the technique of Anamorphosis (a type of visual trickery where a picture seen at certain angles can reveal a hidden image that is not noticeable when viewed front on).As with all the Quay's work the film is beautiful and strange and utilises their trademark stop motion techniques and odd, dusty Victoriana , yet as mentioned, it's a little more conventional than usual. It comes with a charming narration and is an utterly engaging documentary on a fascinating and little known subject.As an introduction to the Quay's work it is hardly typical, but a good place for the timid to start. Then try In Absentia for something truly strange!