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Directors: Stephen & Timothy Quay
Release Date: 1993
Rating: ★★★½
Review:
The fourth and last Stille Nacht film returns to the music of His Name Is Alive, and the rabbit and doll from the second film.
The most disturbing image is that of the girl doll somehow bleeding. In another scene a death-like man tries to steal the rabbit’s egg, using string. The rabbit saves his egg by cutting the string with his teeth, and hides the egg in a glass on the ceiling. This is the most story-like part of the film, which looks beautiful, but is drenched in mystery, just like the other three Stille Nacht films.
Watch ‘Stille Nacht IV: Can’t Go Wrong Without You’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘Stille Nacht IV: Can’t Go Wrong Without You’ is available on the DVD-set ‘The Brothers Quay – The Short Films 1979-2003’
Directors: Stephen & Timothy Quay
Release Date: 1992
Rating: ★★★★
Review:
‘Stille Nacht II: Are We Still Married?’ is the second of four ‘Stille Nacht’ films the Brothers Quay made: all four are very short and shot in black and white.
The second, like the fourth, is set to a song by the band His Name Is Alive, in this case their song’Are We Still Married’, and thus essentially is a video clip. The film features a small rabbit trying to catch a ping-pong ball which flutters across the room like a moth. Also featured is a breathing girl doll.
Like the other Stille Nacht films the Brothers Quay manage to evoke a wonderful atmosphere, while using various camera techniques from the silent movie era, sometimes zooming in on a very small detail of the scene. The Jan Švankmajer influence, too, is very present. The film may be very incomprehensible, it makes a very intriguing watch.
Watch ‘Stille Nacht II: Are We Still Married?’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘Stille Nacht II: Are We Still Married?’ is available on the DVD-set ‘The Brothers Quay – The Short Films 1979-2003’
Director: Jan Švankmajer
Release Date: September 1988
Rating: ★★★★
Review:
‘Another Kind of Love’ is a beautiful result of the glory days of MTV: A video clip by Jan Švankmajer!
Švankmajer treats Hugh Cornwell’s charming if rather forgettable song in his own typical way: the setting is one windowless room, he films the ex-Stranglers singer’s mouth a lot in close-up, there are objects with tongues (in this case singing shoes) and there’s a beautiful clay woman, who shares features with the woman in ‘Dimensions of Dialogue‘ (1982), apparently because the same template has been used.
Highlights form the deformations of the singer’s head, whose features have been reproduced very well in the clay model, and the clip’s finale, in which the woman emerges from the wall to embrace the singer, and drawing him into the wall, leaving the room empty.
Watch ‘Another Kind of Love’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘Another Kind of Love’ is available on the DVD ‘Jan Svankmajer – The Complete Short Films’
Dr. Grob's Animation Review 