Saturday, July 12, 2008

Crocodiles and Combs

Yesterday, I saw a customer reading Bruno Schulz's The Street of Crocodiles. Though I have never read the text, I have long been a fan of the Brothers Quay and of their rendition of Shulz's work. Once, I was lucky enough to see a collection of their work on the big screen at Richmond's historic Byrd Theatre. I was blown away. The Brothers attended the screening and fielded questions from the audience. It was amazing.

Unsurprisingly, YouTube has these animations in their entirety, albeit tiny and low quality. I highly recommend getting your hands on a DVD version, because the powerful imagery suffers under the degradation of YouTube-- but, hey, it's free! I also recommend checking out more of the Brothers' work, much of which can also be found on YouTube.

I'm looking forward to reading Schulz's writing... just as soon as I clear my massive backlog of library fines.

The Street of Crocodiles: Part 1



The Street of Crocodiles: Part 2



Originally, I had intended to post just the Street of Crocodiles. While poking around, however, I came upon (read: hunted down) my favorite Quay brothers animation. It is called the Comb. In addition to being wonderfully colored, it has the moebius strip feeling that permeates many of my restless dreams. Enjoy.

The Comb: Part 1


The Comb: Part 2

2 comments:

Jenny Kendler said...

Oh wow, you've been to the Byrd? I grew up in Richmond and have for many years been trying to explain how all movie theatres should look like the Byrd to my friends in Chicago. We have the Music Box theatre here, but it's not quite as magical and doesn't have enormous color-changing chandeliers and baroque still lives in the opera boxes.

By the way, if you'd like to trade blog links, I am linking to you from Wunderkammer. I've really enjoyed reading your posts and will be sure to return...

Michael McDevitt said...

Have I been to the Byrd? Hell, my clothes still smell funny from those soiled, old, horse-hair seats. Do you remember the anti-littering trailer? What a great place. I had a neighbor that worked there, and she used to let me in free. Aw, I miss it.
As for the links, sure thing. I confess that I've just been slacking on adding links. I get on it.