The Brothers Quay Collection: Ten Astonishing Short Films 1984-1993

The Brothers Quay Collection: Ten Astonishing Short Films 1984-1993
by Stephen Quay, Timothy Quay, Keith Griffiths

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DVD Reviews of The Brothers Quay Collection: Ten Astonishing Short Films 1984-1993

DVD Review: Technical Alert On An Otherwise GREAT DVD
Summary: 5 Stars

Artistic matters:
I can understand some people being off-put by the artiness of these shorts. But part of the value of this disk, to me, is that it backs you off from the threshold of instant gratification and easy/glib comprehension that modern media sets for you. It is something like a trip through an ancient back country to the rooms of an old house that has been abandoned in place. The ravages of time are in themselves something awesome to behold, and there is something happening -- an odd dynamism-- even in this stillest of places.

The magic here is simply achieved in a way that may remind you of Cocteau's Beauty and The Beast. In one scene a stuffed toy rabbit pitches an egg up, and is instantaneously there, standing upside down on the grassy, forrested ceiling, to catch it before it lands. This appears to have been done with a simple flopping of the image, or a mirror. But you believe it, and it doesn't seem at all forced or affected, but rather, like part of a dream you want to follow to its irresistable conclusion. It is as unexplained and repetitious as a dream too, which may trouble some.

The fact that these films stretch from 1979 tells me that either the Quays have been extremely influential on graphic design and media in the following 2 decades, or that they had their fingers on the pulse of a lot that was coming down the pipeline starting in the late 70s. (It is hard to grasp that this stuff-- with such a high level of layering and degradation and "treatment"-- was done before the Macintosh or Photoshop.) Most of the images in these films are photographed in duotone-rich monochrome and extreme selective focus, denoting a wide open aperture shooting in the near-dark.

The Quays may have coined the concept of "art damage" as we know it today. Anyone interested in graphic and media design will want this disk. If I harp on the Quays connection to graphic design, it is at least partly because typography plays so important a role in their films. Their film titles and credits, and their general handling of type, 15 years old and older, is still edgy stuff. Any designer could study it to deepen their own work.

Get this disk. Problems and all, it is a must have.

Description of The Brothers Quay Collection: Ten Astonishing Short Films 1984-1993