I tend to find that when people review shorts of this type with prior knowledge of the makers (The Brothers Quay), they tend to talk about how the makers still manage to put their own distinct style into someone else's project. This time it feels like it's the other way around, that a professor (with a comically accented voice) is providing meaning to a Brother Quay film. It seems nothing's out-of-the-ordinary (except of course that the Quay brothers aren't ordinary) in this film.
The topic is Anamorphosis, a visual trick of painters to hide meanings in paintings by requiring a person change their focal point for it. A painting of the countryside from the front looks like a painting of a person praying under a tree from the side. An odd painting-like segment within a painting of vice and greed turns out to be a skull.
The producers of this work couldn't have picked anyone better than the Brothers Quay. It's obvious seeing most of their works that these two artists are well versed in not only art, but issues of perspective and hidden meaning. Most of their films could be considered like semiotic Anamorphoses themselves. Their doll-hero-figure makes a perfect protagonist to explore around this world of pre-cinematic animation.
--PolarisDiB
The topic is Anamorphosis, a visual trick of painters to hide meanings in paintings by requiring a person change their focal point for it. A painting of the countryside from the front looks like a painting of a person praying under a tree from the side. An odd painting-like segment within a painting of vice and greed turns out to be a skull.
The producers of this work couldn't have picked anyone better than the Brothers Quay. It's obvious seeing most of their works that these two artists are well versed in not only art, but issues of perspective and hidden meaning. Most of their films could be considered like semiotic Anamorphoses themselves. Their doll-hero-figure makes a perfect protagonist to explore around this world of pre-cinematic animation.
--PolarisDiB