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langdonallger, January 17, 2005 3:13:55 AM CET
His Name is Alive - "Are We Still Married?"
tagged Brothers Quay


I saw this as part of a collection of short films by these guys called the Brothers Quay. They're supposedly a couple of the best stopmotion people out there, I didn't understand a lot of their work, but I'm pretty ignorant. This music video was my favorite thing on the collection, sorry this is the only copy I could find of it online, I should have looked harder.

Here
         
yeah, quay brothers are one of the best stop motion animators out there. but in my opinion they are completely overrated since they are just copying indiscrimantely Jan Svankmajer. If anyone likes this video and wanna see more stuff, i suguest to check Svankmajer works.
the quay brothers did a long feature film with actors and stuff, i think was called the institute benjamenta. was a pretty disturbing movie.
         
indiscrimenetely i guess, or something like this.
fuck, i hate monday morning.
         
Tss tss it's not just because it's gothic that someone copying it.
I think the Quay brothers are doing a better job than Svankmajer himself.

"Institut B" was less boring than "Alice" IMO.
         
Alice is one of the last pieces of Svankmajer. Check his first short films, Leonardo or Faust to get a better opinion. Besides, i think quay brothers are those american dudes: they are good craftmen without concept behind their work. there is lots of references in Svankmajer that go trough the simple adjectives like "gothic" (then you might think that sigismondi´s work is gothic too?). check Grand Gignol for more references. The dance of death and such universal subjects. references to segundo de chomon and conection with surrealists...
         
Quay brothers are british. And i compared "alice" to "institut benjamenta" because both are feature and were done when their author were mature. Is there really a point bitching if Picasso copied Braque?. I mean Quay brothers universe is coherent and they are quite dedicated to it. It's not because they did one or two stuffs for mtv they were just trendy illustrators. Come on there's room for everybody it's not like Levi ripping of Cunningham for one or two mvideo because is out of juice.

I should add that this video is my favorite piece from Q br.
And that many things surrealism produced are just worth selling perfumes nowdays. These images just faded away a bit. They are not as raw as they supposed to be at the time they were created.
         
Yeah! Picasso copied everybody, not just Braque! But he did it better, that´s why he still a master...
I didn´t knew the Q Bros were british. I just remember the first time i knew about them, some years ago, with a short film in a festival in Spain, called In Absentia or something like this and I thought that was really good and really Svankmajer. I don´t have any problem with people copying people (or re-apropiation as they like to say now). I just thought might be interesting for some people to know about Svankmajer since their works are so connected. I rad an interview where they declare Svankmajer as their spiritual master. In fact i think their first work is called the Cabinet of Svankmajer or something. But as I said, no problem with people ripping people.
And I agree with what you say about suposed surrealist images nowadays. They might be raw images for the viewer in a different social point. The thing is that we live in a very abstract society right now, everything is abstraction, that´s why painters are going back to figuration and such...maybe that´s why surrealism doesn´t work right now.
Sorry, out of the point. Great video anyway.
         
by the way, does anybody know how to download this video?
My "save as movie" option from QTpro just gives me a 4kb qt movie which allows me to the streaming again and again...
         
@eraserhead
ok-about the quicktime i think you can't dl it because it's streaming. Quay brothers released their short films a long time ago on dvd or tape. I saw a "copy" on the donkey a year or two ago.
         
They also have a slew of work that's viewable at academy's site:

www.academyfilms.com
         
the Quay Bros are Americans whom live in London. They are not Brits.

Tool's early music videos are nearly exact copies of the Quays' work.

I love these guys. Their work is fascinating to see in the theater... don't pass up the chance if it comes along.