Much has already been said about this piece, but I am currently reading "Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass" by Bruno Schulz--a Polish Jew (author, artist, teacher) indiscriminately killed buying a loaf of bread by the Gestapo during the Second World War. After completing "The Street of Crocodiles" in 1934 and "Sanatorium [...}" in 1937 (currently rumored to be the Quay Brothers' next and third feature film after "Institute Benjamenta" and "The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes"), along with the lost manuscript of "The Messiah", the hallucinatory imagery of the books, where metaphor almost supersedes its subject, is captured exquisitely by the Brothers. My recommendation, having seen this film in two versions of the Brothers Quay collected short films, is to get the Region 2 BFI collection from Britain if possible. It features a more comprehensive body of their works in general along with excellent interviews and commentary (i.e. down to discussions regarding the logistics of working with thick layers of dust on the elaborate "Street of Crocodiles" set, while maintaining the illusion of seamless movement in single-frame animation). Parts of it are like a film course in themselves, regarding topics such as lighting, set building, and ball-joint armatures. Even in other Regions, it's worth getting a special player for the BFI Collection, if you are a serious fan or creator of stop-motion animation, art, experimental or surreal filmmaking.
Review of Street of Crocodiles
