"We decided to write something more original or more associative." Few filmmakers are as accomplished at reaching into the outer reaches of the subconscious as . The American-born, UK-based twins began as remarkably precise illustrators and thereafter found their way into animation in the 1970s while attending college in London.
They have since crafted an entire career out of their curious obsessions. Formally, their work reflects the influence of the Eastern European avant-garde of the 1940s to late 1960s, making their creations characteristically out-of-step with the present. Their commercials, music videos and films are abundantly scattered with direct and indirect references to the works of others that they admire -- , and, perhaps most significantly, , whose writings serve as the source for their most famous featurette, , and their current work-in-progress, Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass.
They share a particular kinship with , whose work they discovered long after their cinematic traits (as evidenced by their earliest extant film, Nocturna Artificialia) were already established. In their legendary shorts and pair of features, they pursue a particular "Quaysian" thread of narrative less concerned with traditional storytelling. Instead, they operate within the realm of dreams.
To fully appreciate their efforts, it is necessary to experience these extraordinary films projected in a darkened theatre. Their popularity in the U.S.
unsurprisingly surged when a touring package from allowed these "dramolets" to be seen extensively in cinemas. On television, their work suffers from the inevitable distractions that surround such viewing. In a motion picture theatre, one can become fully and completely immersed in their world.
Fortunately, Zeitgeist is presenting two distinct opportunities to do exactly that. They have orchestrated the theatrical release of the Quays' stunning , currently making a gradual pathway across the country. Starting in January, a new program of their short films will once again tour throughout the Americas.
The following conversation occurred one afternoon in February, 2006, at their studio near the London Bridge. To be clear, unlike most interviews with the Quay brothers, this piece notes them individually rather than as the singular "Quays." Should you reason that, in every instance below, the associated answer is accurately attributed to the correct brother?
Probably not. In large part, this "rediscovery" of [Robert] , [Bruno] and others in this work is an integral part of what you're doing. Timothy Quay: In the Gilgamesh film, , originally we had dedicated it to three mad painters.
At the last minute we withdrew it. I noticed in The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes a number of subtle references. For instance, the story that tells about the inhaling of the spore, which is also visually represented at the end of the film, comes from the remarkable .
I was rather amazed to find you working this tale into the script. Stephen Quay: You know who introduced us to MJT? .
When you did the video for Look What the Cat Drug In [aka ]? Did you shoot the video in Los Angeles? Stephen Quay: No, we shot it here but we had to go out there.
When we first met, for some reason he said, "I must take you to this museum." Obviously, with you were working from a novella [ ]. It's not literal, but you have that as a basis.
also has a literary basis, has a basis, but in Piano Tuner you're pulling from various strands and pulling it together...
Do you prefer working with a single text or with multiple sources? Timothy Quay: In a sense, the film is an homage to [Adolfo] and his [The Invention of Morel, which also served as the inspiration behind the script for ]. Even though we wrote to him and he said we could have the rights, he wrote back the next day and said, "I forgot, I've already given the rights away.
" So we decided to work around it and make it an homage. We'd never read it in English, only bits in French. My French isn't particularly good.
I tried to tackle it one day and I went, "This is tough, I can't be bothered." Stephen Quay: We read an outline and said, "Great, if that's the opera singer." After working in theater and the opera, we thought it would be nice to do something related.
The composer for Piano Tuner [ ] is one that you hadn't used in the past. Timothy Quay: Such a shame. He wrote 70 minutes of beautiful music.
.. But the music is quite beautiful in the film.
Timothy Quay: Do you know where it's from? It has the air of familiarity about it..
. Timothy Quay: Yes, another strand. Since the story was about memory, we always had this music in the back of our brain, even before Lech had written his 70 minutes.
We knew to fall back on it instantly if disaster hit. I had no idea. Timothy Quay: This music was originally written for a boy-meets-girl ballet way back in the 1950s and stayed in the Boosey Hawkes library.
Because they had an office in Paris, Chris Marker likely went to the library one day looking for cheap music and probably found this, releasing it to the world as La Jet?e. When we met , which was really his pseudonym [he was otherwise known as Leonard Charles Trebilco], he said, "Yes, I've heard about this film," so.
.. Stephen Quay: .
..we finally showed it to him, on DVD.
I imagine that it was a bit odd for him to hear his music used in this way. In what way did you approach writing the script with ? Timothy Quay: For this feature, we decided to write something more original or more associative, dealing with a lot of the scenes that we dearly loved and wanted to play with.
Was it always clear that the integration of the automata would allow you to insert the animated sequences? Stephen Quay: Actually, it was always there. There was initially animation throughout the film.
Timothy Quay: We cut so much out. We had to cut tons out because the film was massively over-length in the first cut. Timothy Quay: We were told that it could only be 95 minutes, max.
This was by decree of Keith [ ]? Stephen Quay: No, the German funders [at ]. Timothy Quay: Along with the French and the English [ was also an executive producer on the film].
Keith was sort of pulling his hair out, like we were, in a way. He was very supportive, of course, but it wasn't a great experience. Stephen Quay: We were talking with Jan [ ] the other night and we asked him, "How many days did you have to shoot [ ]?
" He said, "60 days for the live action, 70 for the animation." We had only 30 days to shoot the live action and it was just so rushed. Keith said, "Do you want to do it or don't you?
" And we said, "Of course we want to do it!" Timothy Quay: He had a crew of basically, at most, 30 people, including the drivers, but the majority of the shoot was about ten or eleven people. We had 44 every day to motor about with.
And where was the live-action photography done? Timothy Quay: All in Leipzig. We worked in a wonderful studio there.
We had no complaints at all because they were fabulous. We were working exclusively with students all the time. Stephen Quay: A lot of them.
No pay at all. We ended up in Leipzig because of the German connection, you know. Timothy Quay: It had to be in the Leipzig region.
All of the gardeners were from Leipzig, for instance. The condition was that you had to be born there or be a resident to be considered for the crew. That way we would have to employ the people of the region.
We were allowed to bring our cameraman over and our gaffer. Under these multi-country financing pacts, I wager it is possible that you might be forced to bring people in that you may or may not actually want? Timothy Quay: Well, we originally wrote the part of Dr.
Droz for Gottfried [John]. We originally wrote the script for Assumpta [ ] and for C?sar [ ] as well, but then all of the [production] companies wanted us to get bigger stars.
Timothy Quay: We considered until he said that his wife had some huge illness. He said, "I can't leave the country. I'm sorry.
" Timothy Quay: We tried to get , who claims that she never got our letter. Her agent, I suppose..
. Stephen Quay: Nobody would take the role. Then we suddenly put our foot down and said, "You know, we wrote it for Gottfried.
Let's send it to Gottfried. And we wrote it for Assumpta, who was always open to do it. Let's do it that way.
" Stephen Quay: Again, our casting agent [ ] who chose Alice [ , for Institute Benjamenta] suggested Amira. In addition to his persistence in acquiring obscure films for GreenCine, Marlow is a writer, filmmaker, curator and occasional critic. Not necessarily in that order.
He is also a dedicated skeptic. December 15, 2006. by John Esther December 13, 2006.
by Jeffrey M. Anderson December 8, 2006. by Jonathan Marlow December 7, 2006.
by Michael Atkinson December 4, 2006. by David D'Arcy December 1, 2006. by Jonathan Marlow December 1, 2006.
by Hannah Eaves November 30, 2006. by Michael Atkinson November 28, 2006. by Tiffany Harker November 22, 2006.
News RSS