RNL
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Post by RNL on Dec 15, 2005 19:05:51 GMT
Stephen & Timothy Quay (1947- /1947- )
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RNL
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Post by RNL on Feb 13, 2006 3:16:46 GMT
Supposedly The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes is getting some sort of a release this weekend, but I think it'll probably be more likely to vanish mysteriously from all Coming Soon schedules on Friday morning than actually appear on the Now Playing ones.
It's impossible to find any of their post-Benjamenta shorts, too. I want to see In Absentia and The Phantom Museum more than most any other films, but there aren't even bootlegs available, despite $195 educational copies existing.
Bah!
Somebody else see lots of these so we can discuss them.
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RNL
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Post by RNL on Feb 16, 2006 3:15:02 GMT
As I predicted, The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes has quietly disappeared.
Woe...
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Post by johndav on Feb 18, 2006 21:10:14 GMT
I love Street of Crocodiles, and Institute Benjamenta was among the most visually interesting British films of (relatively) recent years, so i'm really looking forward to Pianotuner. Woe indeed if it's disappeared already, cos i was reading an interesting little article on it in the latest Sight and Sound. I think i'll go and take a look at how it's rating at imdb. Jeez, less than 5/10! Now is that a really an accurate reflection on the quality of the film or more about the people who've seen it?
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Capo
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Post by Capo on Feb 18, 2006 21:26:03 GMT
Now is that a really an accurate reflection on the quality of the film or more about the people who've seen it? Since the answer to that is rather obvious, allow me to play the pedant here: I don't think any collective rating of a film is an "accurate" one, but more, as you say, a reflection of the people who've seen it. All the "Best of" lists that the BFI, AFI, or any other passionate film-following institution make fail to mention which kind of people were voting. If readers of a children's magazine made a list, it would be entirely different, though no less "accurate". Phew.
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RNL
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Post by RNL on Feb 18, 2006 21:45:24 GMT
I always find it really strange that more original, idiosyncratic films always receive very low ratings from festival-goers, averaging out at around 5 before they get proper releases.
After Cannes, Manderlay was on 3 for weeks, now, after its wide release, it's nearing 8.
Svankmajer's latest was also around 3, and has since crept up to a rather meagre 6.
You'd think people who bother to attend festivals would be more open-minded about what they see.
Bah, once more.
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Post by Michael on Feb 18, 2006 21:46:01 GMT
I've never heard of these guys or any of their movies.
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RNL
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Post by RNL on May 21, 2006 22:46:41 GMT
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Capo
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Post by Capo on May 21, 2006 23:26:17 GMT
Nice one. It's showing at my cinema this week for two days. I don't think I can make it.
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RNL
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Post by RNL on Aug 2, 2006 19:06:56 GMT
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RNL
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Post by RNL on Aug 2, 2006 19:24:40 GMT
I think these guys are visual artists without peer in cinema.
Someone needs to finance their feature-length puppet film.
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Capo
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Post by Capo on Aug 2, 2006 22:25:16 GMT
1. Street of Crocodiles 1986 2. Are We Still Married? (Stille Nacht II) 1991 3. Dog Door (Stille Nacht V) 2001 4. Dramolet (Stille Nacht I) 1988 5. Can't Go Wrong without You (Stille Nacht IV) 1993
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Capo
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Post by Capo on Aug 3, 2006 18:30:41 GMT
From the Proview thread...They seem to reject all other notions of Art; How do you mean? I don't see that streak in them at all. Well, like I said, surrealism is a better term. But I see a love for puppets more than animation...which I find very crude, and not gorgeous at all. They have a randomness to them, and because I failed to make a connection between these random images, to bridge their individual contexts, I had trouble labelling them Surrealists more than Dadaists. It was more a reflection of the fan, not the films; Halliwell's dismisses Eraserhead as "surrealist nonsense". You could just as easily praise the film using exactly the same words. And I feel that any criticism I might have of the films can be countered by that "Surrealist" label. I kind of feel the same way about those two films as you do about Godard's Two or Three Things I Know About Her. Whereas with Dog Door I felt like they had one idea and made a short out of it, with Dramolet and Are We Still Married?, despite the former's length, they were skirting over images which could fill a short alone. I'd like to see them in another format, not on YouTube. It's amazing what a bigger screen and better sound quality does to your appreciation of a film. I'm serious, too; I feel like what I just said was some kind of contradictory back-foot akin to our old friend Anasazie, who used to dig deep holes for himself and then want you to pour the water in so he could swim out. Hmm.
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RNL
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Post by RNL on Oct 2, 2006 2:32:41 GMT
Sorry, I somehow missed your response in this thread. I guess I don't really have much to add, except to say that I think their puppetry is deeply beautiful, and that , if you don't, you might prefer The Comb or Extinct Anatomies, or Stille Nacht III, which contains nothing more than some trees, a levitating table and a bullet. Plus their live-action stuff, obviously, which is also wonderful.
BFI and Zeitgeist Films are collaborating on a new 2-disc DVD entitled The Quay Brothers: The Short Films 1979-2003, which will include the eleven shorts that were presented on the now out-of-print Kino DVD. Those shorts only covered a period from 1979 to 1993, though, and it was only a single disc, so hopefully the second disc of this new edition contains their as-yet-unreleased movies, like In Absentia and The Phantom Museum. There's reportedly going to be a lot of extras, too.
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RNL
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Post by RNL on Oct 9, 2006 22:39:26 GMT
BFI and Zeitgeist Films are collaborating on a new 2-disc DVD entitled The Quay Brothers: The Short Films 1979-2003, which will include the eleven shorts that were presented on the now out-of-print Kino DVD. Those shorts only covered a period from 1979 to 1993, though, and it was only a single disc, so hopefully the second disc of this new edition contains their as-yet-unreleased movies, like In Absentia and The Phantom Museum. There's reportedly going to be a lot of extras, too. Okay, if you follow that link you'll see they've updated the page with details. The DVD contains all eleven shorts that were on the Kino release: Nocturna Artificialia The Cabinet of Jan Svankmajer The Epic of Gilgamesh Street of Crocodiles Rehearsals for Extinct Anatomies Dramolet The Comb Anamorphosis Are We Still Married? Tales from the Vienna Woodsand Can't Go Wrong Without You. Plus four previously unreleased: The Calligrapher The Summit In Absentiaand The Phantom Museum. There's some interview included, which may or may not be the same one that was on the Kino disc. There's some stills (oh the excitement) of their appearance in Greenaway's The Falls. And there's a mention of commentaries, but on what and from whom is unspecified. It looks like it's just a spruced-up repackaging of the Kino disc that I already have, with that handful of extra shorts (a cumulative 45 minutes or so) being the only reason for me to buy it - which I probably will.
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Post by bobbyreed on Oct 9, 2006 22:51:20 GMT
Time to buy a region-free DVD player... There's some stills (oh the excitement) of their appearance in Greenaway's The Falls. And there's a mention of commentaries, but on what and from whom is unspecified. What's their appearance in The Falls like? Are they acting in it or is only a photograph of them shown?
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RNL
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Post by RNL on Oct 9, 2006 23:07:11 GMT
Nobody really acts in The Falls, they all just sit there looking into the camera while the narrator talks about them.
Zeitgeist will be handling a Region 1 release of this same DVD, I would think.
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RNL
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Post by RNL on Oct 12, 2006 22:59:22 GMT
Anyone with Sky Digital might want to keep an eye on the Artsworld schedule for the coming weeks, they'll be airing most of these guys' films, along with stuff by Greenaway, Godard and Derek Jarman.
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Capo
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Post by Capo on Oct 13, 2006 16:36:18 GMT
Fantastic. Not that I have Sky Digital, but it's good to hear attention being paid to these directors. Any special reason why they are?
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RNL
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Post by RNL on Oct 13, 2006 17:02:17 GMT
Part of their HD-TV promotion, I think. The BFI have remastered the movies in HD and leased the rights to the prints to Artsworld for a year from September.
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