- Brothers Quay
Infobox actor
name = The Brothers Quay
(Timothy Quay, left, and Stephen Quay)
caption = The Brothers Quay in October 2006
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birthdate = June 17, 1947 (identical twins)
birthplace =Norristown ,Pennsylvania
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occupation =film director animators
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awards =Stephen and Timothy Quay (born
17 June 1947 inNorristown, Pennsylvania ,United States ), are American identical twin brothers better known as the Brothers Quay or Quay Brothers. They are influential stop-motion animators.Careers
They reside and work in
England where they moved in 1969 after studying illustration at the Philadelphia College of Art, now the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, to study at theRoyal College of Art cite web| last =Marlow | first = Jonathan | title =Tales from the Brothers Quay | publisher =GreenCine | date= 2006-11-17 | url =http://www.greencine.com/article?action=view&articleID=365 ] There, they made their first short films, which no longer exist after the only print was irreparably damaged.Fact|date=April 2007 They spent some time in theNetherlands 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. The trio formedKoninck Studios in 1980, which is currently based inSouthwark , southLondon .The Quays' works (1979-present) show a wide range of often esoteric influences, starting with the Polish animators
Walerian Borowczyk andJan Lenica and continuing with the writersFranz Kafka ,Bruno Schulz , Robert Walser andMichel de Ghelderode , puppeteersWladyslaw Starewicz andRichard Teschner and composersLeoš Janáček ,Zdeněk Liška andLeszek Jankowski , the last of whom has created many original scores for their work. Czech animatorJan Švankmajer , for whom they named one of their films ("The Cabinet of Jan Švankmajer "), is also frequently cited as a major influence, but they actually discovered his work relatively late, in 1983, by which time their characteristic style and preoccupations had been fully formed.cite web| last =Quay| first = Brothers| title =Introduction to 'The Cabinet of Jan Švankmajer' | publisher =BFI DVD Publishing | date= 2007-06-26 | url =http://filmstore.bfi.org.uk/acatalog/info_4543.html ]Most of their films feature dolls, often partially disassembled, in a dark, moody atmosphere. Perhaps their best known work is "
Street of Crocodiles ", based on the short novel of the same name by the Polish author and artistBruno Schulz . This short film was selected by director and animatorTerry Gilliam as one of the ten best animated films of all timecite web| last=Gilliam | first=Terry | title=Terry Gilliam Picks the Ten Best Animated Films of All Time | publisher=The Guardian | date=2001-04-27 | url=http://film.guardian.co.uk/features/featurepages/0,,479022,00.html ] , and criticJonathan Romney included it on his list of the ten best films in any medium (forSight and Sound 's 2002 critics' poll).cite web| last =Romney | first = Jonathan | title =Sight and Sound Top Ten Poll 2002 | publisher =Sight and Sound| date= September, 2002 | url =http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/topten/poll/voter.php?forename=Jonathan&surname=Romney ] They have made two feature-length live action films: "Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream People Call Human Life " and "The Piano Tuner Of Earthquakes ". They also directed an animated sequence in the filmFrida .With very few exceptions, their films have no meaningful spoken dialogue—most have no spoken content at all, while some, like
The Comb (1990) include multilingual background gibberish that is not supposed to be coherently understood. Accordingly, their films are highly reliant on their music scores, many of which have been written especially for them by the Polish composerLeszek Jankowski . In 2000, they contributed a short film to theBBC 'sSound On Film series in which they visualised a 20-minute piece by theavant-garde composerKarlheinz Stockhausen . Whenever possible, the Quays prefer to work with pre-recorded music, thoughGary Tarn's score forThe Phantom Museum had to be added afterwards when it proved impossible to licence music by the Czech composerZdeněk Liška .They have created
music video s forHis Name Is Alive ("Are We Still Married", "Can't Go Wrong Without You"),Michael Penn ("Long Way Down (Look What the Cat Drug In)") and16 Horsepower ("Black Soul Choir"). Some people mistakenly believe that the Quays are responsible for several music videos for Tool, but those videos were created byFred Stuhr and memberAdam Jones , whose work is influenced by the Quays. Although they worked onPeter Gabriel 's seminal video "Sledgehammer" (1986) as animators, this was directed byStephen R. Johnson and the Quays were unhappy with their contribution, believing it to be more imitative ofŠvankmajer's work than truly distinctive in its own right.Their work also includes decors for the Theatre and Opera productions of director Richard Jones: Prokofiev's "The Love for Three Oranges"; Feydeau's "A Flea in Her Ear"; Tchaikovsky's "Mazeppa"; and
Molière 's "Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme.". Their set design for a revival of Ionesco's "The Chairs" was nominated for aTony Award in 1998.Before turning to film, they worked as professional illustrators. The first edition of Anthony Burgess' novel "The Clockwork Testament, or Enderby's End", features their drawings before the start of each chapter. Nearly three decades before directly collaborating with Stockhausen, they designed the cover of the book (ed. Jonathan Cott, Simon & Schuster, 1973).
Filmography
Feature Films
*"Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream People Call Human Life " (1995)
*"The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes " (2006)
*"Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass " (TBA)Short Films
*"Nocturna Artificialia " (1979)
*"Punch And Judy (Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy) " (1980)
*"Ein Brudermord " (1981)
*"The Eternal Day Of Michel de Ghelderode (1981)
*"Stravinsky - The Paris Years " (1983)
*"" (1983)
*"The Cabinet of Jan Švankmajer " (1984)
*"The Epic of Gilgamesh, or This Unnameable Little Broom " (1985) aka "Little Songs of the Chief Officer of Hunar Louse"
*"Street of Crocodiles " (1986)
*"" (1988)
*"Rehearsals For Extinct Anatomies " (1988)
*"Ex-Voto/The Pond " (1989)
*"The Comb (From The Museums Of Sleep) " (1990)
*"De Artificiali Perspectiva, or Anamorphosis " (1991)
*"The Calligrapher " (1991) - an ident commissioned for the BBC2 television channel, but never broadcast
*"" (1991)
*"Long Way Down (Look What The Cat Drug In) " (1992)
*"" (1992)
*"" (1993)
*"The Summit" (1995)
*"In Absentia" (2000)
*"The Sandman" (2000)
*"Duet" (2000)
*"" (2001)
*"" (2003)Appearances
*"The Falls " (1980)References
External links
* [http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/directors/04/quay_brothers.html Senses of Cinema: Great Directors Critical Database]
* [http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/01/19/quay.html Through a Glass Darkly] Interview with the Quay Brothers
* [http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/498256/index.html BFI Screenonline] comprehensive survey of their major films
*imdb name|0703029|Timothy Quay
*imdb name|0703028|Stephen Quay
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