Below are the four movies screened at the U of Chi's pre-show for the Student Conference in Cinema Studies, the highlights of which are reviewed at Scarlett Cinema.
Swing You Sinners (1930)
The Mascot (1934)
Street of Crocodiles (1986)
Faust(1994)
For the record, I am a virgin to all Quay Brothers' films, but my bloated expectations of them were met when I finally saw Street of Crocodiles. It bears a striking resemblance (at least from my memory) to the Nine Inch Nails "Closer" video seen here:
Images like the heart connected to electrical mechanisms are probably the closest comparison to the creaking structure in Street, and they both take place within a contained space, the subjects moved invisibly by an external source--or at least it seems. The mechanisms take on a life of their own (they are animated, somehow), but taking a look at "Closer" for the first time in years it's clear the music video is far more concerned with carnal instincts and images of the flesh--and is punctuated affectionately by Trent Reznor's lyric "I want to fuck you like an animal." Yeah. Street of Crocodiles doesn't quite go down that route, but they both have a frightening quality that's enabled by the domains they inhabit; both pictures have a surgical look to them, with the Quay Brothers' film being the more precise vivisection of mechanical movement. The NIN video is decidedly computerized in comparison. The humid meat locker that Reznor stands in is interrupted with pictures of other humans, or at least subjects that resemble the human form, making it not nearly as Closterphobic as Street. There is a definite roof over our heads in the miniature room of Street of Crocodiles, not so with "Closer," but it evoked the memory just the same.
To see for yourself, here's clip of the Quays' film--it's much colder, and a lot creakier. (turn the sound off---that's a Tool song in the background!):
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