He_who_lurks This 1992 short film was the second in the Quay Brothers' "Stille Nacht" series. Each installment has nothing to do with the next, and like the previous installment ("Dramolet" from 1988) there is a soundtrack. While the soundtrack in that film didn't add that much to the overall effect, the music for "Are We Still Married?" really made the visuals haunting. Put together this is quite a creepy little movie.The film begins with flickering images of a eye and a bit of face. Later on, there's this handmade stuffed rabbit which moves by itself. A girl/puppet's stocking-covered leg rises and falls as the movie progresses, and a ball flickers. The music, which is literally a voice singing "are we still married" helps emphasize the title but otherwise this doesn't have much to do with what's happening on-screen. Like I said, though, it makes the visuals work well.Fans of surrealism will no doubt want to watch this short. The Quays are little-remembered today, but their work is available on YouTube and is worthwhile for anybody who enjoys Avant-garde filmmaking. If you're not a fan of it, then this won't make much sense otherwise and will come up as a pointless and boring movie.

Foreverisacastironmess Hmm...interesting! What a wonderful little work of dark fantasy art. I just love everything there is to see and breathe in, it's all so spooky and sad, and the haunting wistful song matches the phantasmagorical cold imagery perfectly. This short may indeed be very short, but it has strange beauty and a great profoundness to it that I found quite brilliant. When I first saw them, I found this and all the other Stille Nachts to be some of the most soul-stirring animations I'd ever seen. This is my favourite of the four. You definitely get your money's worth for the three minutes. Such magicians of their craft, were these Brothers Quay. The humorous anthropomorphic bunny and what is seen of the "girl" instantly brings to mind all of the classic elements of Alice in Wonderland. The tone was absolutely one of darkness but I didn't find it morbid or depressing. It felt more like a lulling, soothing kind of darkness to me. I wonder what it's supposed to mean... Anything? Nothing? Whatever you want it to be? Or just perhaps, it's a window into the mind of some poor terminally damaged soul who for whatever reason, is unwilling, or unable to mature, someone who is not able to put aside childish things and is wholly ignorant of reality hammering to be let in-someone who is so very tired that they desire nothing more than to sleep forever and disappear into nothingness... -Oh my! Might come off as a little maudlin, but that's how I opted to deduce things. I love the beautiful final image of the eyes that so heavily close that are clearly not the eyes of a child. There's such finality there. It's like it's saying: it's time to rest, to drift, to fall, down into the shadows...where you belong.

Polaris_DiB The Quay Brother's "Stille Nacht" series is their more commercial work, though one without that knowledge would be hard pressed to see what makes these works any different stylistically and thematically from their "independant" works. This one, Stille Nacht II (or "Are We Still Married" after the song by His Name is Alive) is basically a music video, utilizing some repeated elements from Stille Nacht I.This short is kind of interesting to look at because it shows what can be done with music videos besides making them three-minute commercials for the band's own song you're already currently hearing. It's use is so effective that the style has been used by the band Tool (of which I am a fan) in their own stunningly claustrophobic stop-motion animation.However, later inspirations aside, the Brothers Quay unique mise-en-scene sticks out. A sort of Alice in Wonderland characterization changes pace completely into a rabbit that interacts with a ball that came from a woman's tear. Rather than creating the "Tortured soul" effect of a Tool music video, the Brothers Quay entrap the audience into the song itself, from a band I'm not actually familiar with, but which seems to sing about the decay of relationships even as the track itself sounds like it's decaying on an old cassette tape.--PolarisDiB

spookytramp This is some of the Quay brothers best work. Mavericks of modern stop-motion animation, the Brothers Quay deliver a powerful and creepy vision of lost innocence in this all-too-short short film. The music -by the band His Name Is Alive- is mournful and creepy, and accentuates the somber black and white imagery in a world of dolls, broken toys, and decay. The characters flutter and jerk with unnatural movements while a normally inanimate objects hover and vibrate around them. To try and explain what is happening specifically in this film would be next to impossible, must be see to be believed. This film, as well as all Quay Brothers works, is recommended for anyone who enjoys surrealism or avant-garde film, particularly with a taste for corrosion. For other similar but more light-hearted works, check out the work of Czech animator Jan Svenkmeyer, who was a big influence on the work of the Quays.