Stephen Quay

The Films of the Brothers Quay

Stephen Quay, Timothy Quay

This compilation by the Bother Quay is a montage of several of their stop-motion short films.

Street of Crocodiles

Stephen Quay, Timothy Quay

A puppet, newly released from his strings, explores the sinister room in which he finds himself.

The Comb

Stephen Quay, Timothy Quay

Joy Constaninides, Witold Schejbal

A porcelain doll’s explorations of a dreamer’s imagination.

Maska

Stephen Quay, Timothy Quay

Magdalena Cielecka

"Maska" is the latest animated film of Quay brothers, directors and puppet animators, with the music composed by Krzysztof Penderecki. The film is an adaptation of Stanisław Lem’s short story of the same title. The action of “Maska” is set in a technologically developed but, at the same time, feudal world. Beautiful Duenna was created in order to carry out certain mission. However, she will be forced to choose between accomplishing the task she was created for and love.

Punch and Judy: Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy

Keith Griffiths, Larry Sider

Percy Press Snr., Percy Press Jnr.

An unusual documentary from the Brothers Quay and Keith Griffiths about the history of the Punch and Judy puppet show.

Through the Weeping Glass: On the Consolations of Life Everlasting (Limbos & Afterbreezes in the Mütter Museum)

Stephen Quay, Timothy Quay

Derek Jacobi, Marie Fury

A documentary on the subject of the collections of books, instruments and medical anomalies at The College of Physicians of Philadelphia and the Mutter Museum housed there. This short film represents the first to be made by the internationally recognized Quay Brothers in the United States. While not a stop-motion animation film, a form for which the Quays are best known, the entire film is vibrantly constructed and 'animated'. Musical score by composer Tim Nelson and voice-over provided by Derek Jacobi.

The Falls

Peter Greenaway

Colin Cantlie, Stephen Quay

The exploration of the effects of an unexpected catastrophe, known as VUE (violent unknown event) through the bios of 92 survivors.

Anamorphosis

Stephen Quay, Timothy Quay

The Quays' interest in esoteric illusions finds its perfect realization in this fascinating animated lecture on the art of anamorphosis. This artistic technique, often used in the 16th- and 17th centuries, utilizes a method of visual distortion with which paintings, when viewed from different angles, mischievously revealed hidden symbols.

Rehearsals for Extinct Anatomies

Stephen Quay, Timothy Quay

Stop-motion animated short film in which, among other things, a man made of wire looks malevolent.

The Cabinet of Jan Švankmajer

Keith Griffiths, Stephen Quay

In Prague, a professorial puppet, with metal pincers for hands and an open book for a hat, takes a boy as a pupil. First, the professor empties fluff and toys from the child's head, leaving him without the top of his head for most of the film. The professor then teaches the lad about illusions and perspectives, the pursuit of an object through exploring a bank of drawers, divining an object, and the migration of forms. The child then brings out a box with a tarantula in it: the professor puts his "hands" into the box and describes what he feels. The boy receives a final lesson about animation and film making; then the professor gives him a brain and his own open-book hat.

Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream People Call Human Life

Stephen Quay, Timothy Quay

Alice Krige, Mark Rylance

Jakob arrives at the Institute Benjamenta (run by brother and sister Johannes and Lisa Benjamenta) to learn to become a servant. With seven other men, he studies under Lisa: absurd lessons of movement, drawing circles, and servility. He asks for a better room. No other students arrive and none leave for employment. Johannes is unhappy, imperious, and detached from the school's operation. Lisa is beautiful, at first tightly controlled, then on the verge of breakdown. There's a whiff of incest. Jakob is drawn to Lisa, and perhaps she to him. As winter sets in, she becomes catatonic. Things get worse; Johannes notes that all this has happened since Jakob came. Is there any cause and effect?

In Absentia

Stephen Quay, Timothy Quay

Marlene Kaminsky, Kathinka Pasveer

A woman sits alone on a chair at a table in a room on one of the top floors of an asylum. Bright spot lights dot the night, sometimes shining on her window. She sharpens pencils and writes on a page in a copy book. The pencil point often breaks under her fingers' force. She places broken points outside the window on the sill. A satanic figure is somewhere nearby, animated but of straw or clay, not flesh. She finishes her writing, tears the paper from the pad, folds it, places it in an envelope, and slips it through a slot. Is she writing to her husband? "Sweetheart, come." Written by

This Unnameable Little Broom

Keith Griffiths, Stephen Quay

Stop-motion animated short film in which a puppet on a trike captures a puppet bird-man.

Stille Nacht II: Are We Still Married?

Stephen Quay, Timothy Quay

Stop-motion animated short film with a white ball, a rabbit, and a girl, and a voice singing "Are We Still Married".

Stille Nacht I: Dramolet

Stephen Quay, Timothy Quay

A magnet moves on a floor. A moth beats against a window. A doll child watches the magnet; threads of metal filings gather around the magnet.

The Sandman

Stephen Quay, William Tuckett

Heathcote Williams, Irek Mukhamedov

One of several collaborative dance films by the Brothers Quay & (dancer, choreographer) William Tuckett. Little enough info around on line, but there's briefly by way of Wikipedia entry. Adapted rather loosely from the works of the E.T.A. Hoffman. Familiar Quays' tropes, much in evidence: automata, trompe l'oeil effects, etc. No credit on the sound design (which is fairly elaborate), tho' that is possibly Larry Sider.