before you sleep | The Brothers Quay Film Fest Catalog
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Careers
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Awards and honours
Partner Hotel
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/ schedule
/ films
/ workshop
Opening Gala
16 short films
stop motion animation
films playing
/director
| Careers Filmography Awards and honours
> Careers Filmography Awards and honours
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Stephen & Timothy Quay (1947-) are American identical twin brothers who are better known as the Brothers Quay or Quay Brothers. They are influential stop-motion animators. The Brothers Quay reside and work in England, having moved there in 1969 to study at the Royal College of Art, London after studying illustration and film at the Philadelphia College of Art, now the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. In England they made their first short films, which no longer exist after
the only prints were irreparably damaged. They spent some time in the Netherlands in the 1970s and then returned to England where they teamed up with another Royal College student, Keith Griffiths, who produced all of their films. In 1980 the trio formed Koninck Studios, which is currently based in Southwark, south London. The Brothers' works show a wide range of often esoteric influences, starting with the Polish animators Walerian Borowczyk and Jan Lenica and continuing
with the writers Franz Kafka, Bruno Schulz, Robert Walser and Michel de Ghelderode, puppeteers Wladyslaw Starewicz and Czech Richard Teschner and Czech composers Leoš Janáček, Zdeněk Liška and Polish Leszek Jankowski. Most of their animation films feature puppets made of doll parts and other organic and inorganic materials, often partially disassembled, in a dark, moody atmosphere. With very few exceptions, their films have no meaningful spoken dialogue—most have no spoken content
at all. Accordingly, their films are highly reliant on their music scores, of which many have been written especially for them by the Polish composer Leszek Jankowski.
“What happens in the shadow, in the grey regions, also interests us – all that is elusive and fugitive, all that can be said in those beautiful half tones, or in whispers, in deep shade. ” – The Brothers Quay
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Careers > Filmography Awards and honours
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/ Feature films Institute Benjamenta (1995) The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes (2005) / Short films Nocturne Artificialia: Those Who Desire Without End (1979) Punch And Judy: Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy (1980) Ein Brudermord (1980) The Eternal Day Of Michel de Ghelderode (1981) Igor, The Paris Years Chez Pleyel (1983) Leoš Janáček: Intimate Excursions (1983) The Cabinet of Jan Svankmajer (1984) This Unnameable Little Broom (1985) Street of Crocodiles (1986) Rehearsals For Extinct Anatomies (1988) Stille Nacht I: Dramolet (1988) Ex-Voto (1989) The Comb (From The Museums Of Sleep) (1990) Rain Dance (1990) – a short film for Sesame Street De Artificiali Perspectiva, or Anamorphosis (1991) The Calligrapher (1991) Stille Nacht II: Are We Still Married? (1991)
Stille Nacht III: Tales From Vienna Woods (1992) Stille Nacht IV: Can't Go Wrong Without You (1993) The Summit (1995) Duet (2000) The Sandman (2000) In Absentia (2000) Stille Nacht V: Dog Door (2001) Frida (2002) - animated contribution (dir: Julie Taymor) Songs For Dead Children (2003) The Phantom Museum (2003) Alice in Not So Wonderland (2007) Eurydice: She, So Beloved (2007) Inventorium of Traces (2009) Maska (2010) Bartók Béla: Sonata for Solo Violin (2011) Through the Weeping Glass: On the Consolations of Life Everlasting (Limbos & Afterbreezes in the Mütter Museum) (2011) The Metamorphosis (2012) Unmistaken Hands: Ex Voto F.H. (2013) The Doll's Breath (2019)
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Careers Filmography > Awards and honours
/ Film Punch And Judy: Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy Street of Crocodiles
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/ Awards Annecy Prix Émile Reynaud (1983) Cannes International Film Festival, nominated for the Golden Palm (1986)/ Zagreb World Festival of Animation Films, 3 awards (1986) Catalan International Film Festival, Sitges: Caixa de Catalunya (Best Film SF) (1986) MFF w Odense: Grand Prix for Best Fairytale Film (1986) Festival International Du Film & De Science Fiction, Bruksela: Grand Prix (1986) San Francisco International Film Festival: Grand Prix, Best Short Film (1986) MFF Fantasporto, International Fantasy Film Award (1987)
Rehearsals for Extinct Anatomies
San Francisco: Best Experimental Film (1988)
The Comb
Oberhausen International Short Film Festival: Grand Prix (1990)
De Artificiali Perspectiva Or Anamorphosis
Nominated for BAFTA Film Award (1992)
Institute Benjamenta
IFF Special Mention Locarno Main Competition & Youth Jury: The Second Prize (1995)/ Stockholm International Film Festival: Grand Prix (1995)
/ Film
/ Awards
In Absentia
Official Selection – Directors Fortnight, Cannes International Film Festival (2000)/ Nominated for the Prix Italia, Best Music Film for Television (2000) Lipsku International Film Festival: Golden Dove Award (2000) Tampere International Film Festival: Special Jury Award (2000) Montreal International Film Festival: Special Jury Mention (2000) Prague International Film Festival: Golden Prague Award (2000) Kraków Film Festival: Honorary Diploma Award 50th Melbourne International Film Festival: Best Short Film Turkey International Film Festival: Grand Prix {Ex Aequo} Sitges International Film Festival - Festival Internacional de Cinema de Catalunya: Best Short Film (2001) British Animation Awards – Best Film: Cutting Edge (2002) Palmars, Classique en Images, Prix Sacem, Paris (2002)
The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes
Locarno International Film Festival: Special Mention, Main Competition & Jury des Jeunes (2005)/ Sitges International Film Festival - Festival Internacional de Cinema de Catalunya (for Best Special Effects) (2005)
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/navigating
| Ticketing Venue Partner Hotel
> Ticketing Venue Partner Hotel
exquisitedarkness.com / 1-800-544-2787 / exquisitedarkness@film.org
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Ticket Prices general admission Seniors(65+) Students Educators Youth(12 & under)
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Ticketing > Venue > Partner Hotel
Venue 100 Station Avenue Oaks, PA 19456 / (484) 754-EXPO
Partner Hotel
Hilton Garden Inn of Valley Forge
(610) 650-0880
Homewood Suites of Valley Forge
(610) 539-7300
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/schedule
| Opening Gala Films Playing
> Opening Gala Films Playing
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| Film theme music by Lech Jankowski
1985 Street Of Crocodiles (Street Of Crocodiles)
Lech Jankowski (1956-) Polish painter, composer of theatre and film music, director of his own performances combining music, theatre and visual arts; ethnologist. He presented his paintings, which are in private collections in Poland and abroad, in several solo exhibitions. He has created many original scores for the Brothers Quay's work.
1988 Rehearsals For Extinct Anatomies (Rehearsals For Extinct Anatomies) 1989 The Pond (The Pond) 1990 Ex Voto (Unmistaken Hands) 1990 The Comb (The Comb) 1991 De Anamorphosis (De Artificiali Perspectiva) 1995 Benjamenta Institute (Benjamenta Institute) / 25
Opening Gala > Films Playing
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(1986) Street of Crocodiles
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(1979) Nocturna Artificialia
(1990) The Comb
(2000) In Absentia
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Opening Gala > Films Playing
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Worrkshops Stop motiom film
(1896) Rehearsals for Extinct Anatomies
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(1985) This Unnameable Little Broom
(1991) The Calligrapher
(2003) The Phantom Museum
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Opening Gala > Films Playing
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(1984) The Cabinet of Jan Svankmajer
(1988) Stille Nacht I: Dramolet
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(1991) Stille Nacht II: Are We Still Married?
(1992) Stille Nacht III: Tales FromVienna Woods
(1993) Stille Nacht IV: Can't Go Wrong Without You
(1994) Stille Nacht V: Dog Door
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/films
| 16 short films directed by the Brothers Quay
/ 1986
/ Street of Crocodiles
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/ 22 min
(1986) Street of Crocodiles “The Street of Crocodiles” was originally a short story written by Bruno Schulz, from a story collection published under that title in English translation. Rather than literally representing the childhood memoirs of Schulz, the animators used the story’s mood and psychological undertones as inspiration for their own creation. / Plot A man closes up a lecture hall; he reaches into a box and snips the string holding a gaunt puppet. Released, the puppet warily explores the darkened rooms
about him. The desolate ambience and haunting musical score are meant to convey a sense of isolation and futility. As the short continues, the mute protagonist explores a realm of what are described by the director as "mechanical realities and manufactured pleasures". As the protagonist chooses to join this world, the camera slowly reveals how unfulfilling the surroundings actually are. / Themes Although heavily metaphorical, the piece also exemplifies the
experimental and curious nature of the Quays' work. Rather than examining the potential symbolism of such props as screws, dust, string, and wind-up monkeys, many shots seem to focus on the movements and inherent characteristics of the materials. As they do in most of their films, the Brothers Quay employ a more musically grounded structure in place of a straightforward literal narrative in Street of Crocodiles.
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(1979) Nocturna Artificialia “Nocturna Artificialia� is the first credited film directed and produced by the Brothers Quay, Timothy and Stephen. Rather than dialog, this film uses shadows and music to create the dream-like state of the main character and his journey on a red tram at night. / Plot An enigmatic story told in seven chapters, each introduced by an elliptical sentence on a title card. A man is in an apartment. He goes outside where a red tram runs beside a cathedral. He can see religious art. In his / 38
apartment and workshop, his nearly colorless life does include a cloth of rich, red brocade. He works amid constructs of straight lines, planks, wires, and scaffolding. He falls from a chair in his flat. He's not dead... / Themes There are many different themes seen throughout the short film. These themes include impressions of a man, a tram and an unidentified city at night. Much of it seems to be a dream that comes from his fixation with specific objects on the tram. There is a
more general view of the streets he wanders at night, but even when he seems to wake up at the end of the film, he finds tramlines running through the middle of his room. Everything in the film is glimpsed and only half-heard by sound and music, as there is no dialogue. Suspense is created through movement of the tram and angles of the camera.
/ 1979
/ Nocturna
/ 21 min
Artificialia
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(1990) The Comb The comb opens in the shadowy bedroom of a sleeping beauty and seems to enter her mind and burrow into her dreams. Based on a fragment of text by the Austrian writer Robert Walser, the comb is an exploration of thesubconscious visualized as a labyrinthine playhouse haunted by a doll-like explorer...
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/ The Comb
/ 17 min
/ 2000
/ In Absentia
/ 17 min
(2000) In Absentia 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...
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/ 1986
/ Rehearsals for
/ 14 min
Extinct Anatomies
(1986) Rehearsals for Extinct Anatomies Oscillating hands each hold a pen; a man made of wire has a malevolent look and an oscillating eye as he pokes at a bump on his forehead. Op-art stripes are in the fabric. Lines become jumbles that become balls that oscillate, bounce, or stay suspended in air...
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(1985) This Unnameable Little Broom Loosely based on the Mesopotamian "Epic of Gilgamesh", here Gilgamesh is portrayed as a grotesque, Picassoesque being who uses a tricycle to patrol his box-shaped kingdom that hovers above a dark abyss...
/ 1985
/ This Unnameable Little Broom
/ 11 min / 43
(1991) The Calligrapher With harpsichord music in the background, a dandy, seated at a table, plucks a quill pen from a ceiling full of them above him, dips it in ink, thinks, then draws a straight line down the page in front of him, out of which sprout six more quill pens, each held by a hand...
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/ The Calligrapher
/ 1 min
/ 2003
/ The phantom museum
/ 11 min
(2003) The Phantom Museum A look inside one of the world's most extraordinary museum collections: Sir Henry Wellcome's unique trove of medical curiosities...
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/ 1991
/ Stille Nacht II:
/ 3 min
Are we still married?
(1991) Stille Nacht II: Are We Still Married? A tear falls from the eyes of a veiled face. A white ball whips around a heartshaped paddle. A mournful voice sings, “Are we still married?�
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(1992) Stille Nacht III: Tales From Vienna Woods Near an extraordinary chair with many legs, a hand is visible gripping an edge. The hand is weathered, the fingers cracked and scarred...
/ 1992
/ Stille Nacht III:
/ 4 min
Tales From Vienna Woods
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(1993) Stille Nacht IV: Can't Go Wrong Without you Can't go wrong without you is part of the quay brothers' stille nacht series which includes dramolet (stille nacht I), are we still married? (stille nacht II) and tales from the vienna woods (stille nacht III).
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/ Stille Nacht IV: Can't go wrong without you
/ 4 min
/ 1994
/ Stille Nacht V:
/ 5 min
Dog door
(1994) Stille Nacht V: Dog Door In this clip their puppets go on a sexual adventure to the song “Dog Door,” featuring lyrics by Tom Waits.
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/workshop
| stop motion animation
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| Worrkshops Stop motiom animation
Stop Motion Animation Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion when the series of frames is played back as a slow sequence.
/ We Provide Nails, clothes, wires, strings, button, the elements that can give you a "Brothers Quay" feeling. / What you can do Use the elements we provide(or you can bring your own!) to create a creepy character and use our app to make it into your very own version stop motion animation! / Download the app exquisitedarkness.com
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“You can't mollycoddle madness, and say, “Let's make it accessible.” With us, it was just a gut reaction one equaled the other, and go with it, and try to score that realm, and tell it in a language that was highly visual.” – The Brothers Quay
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