Synopsis

The Quays’ masterpiece, Street of Crocodiles is adapted from a short story by Polish writer Bruno Schulz, and was their first film shot on 35mm. A museum keeper spits into the eyepiece of an ancient peep-show and sets the musty machine in motion, plunging the viewer into a nightmarish netherworld of bizarre puppet rituals among the dirt and grime.

Quay Brothers

The twins Timothy and Stephen Quay (1947, USA) studied at the Philadelphia College of Art, then later in London at the Royal College of Art. In 1980 they formed Koninckstudio with colleague Keith Griffiths and since then they have produced a hybrid variety of puppet animation film work: documentaries on Stravinsky, Janáček, interludes, commercials, as well as films inspired by the writings of Kafka, Bruno Schulz and Robert Walser. Their extensive filmography brings out dreamlike and fantastic worlds. Besides the renowned films from the 80s, The Cabinet of Jan Švankmajer (1984), Street of Crocodiles (1986), their recent films are Inwentorium śladów (2009), Eurydice... She, So Beloved (2007), The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes (2005), The Phantom Museum (2002), In Absentia (2000), The Sandman (2000), Institute Benjamenta or This Dream People Call Human Life (1995).