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‘Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass’ Review: The Quay Brothers’ Surreal Stop-Motion Fantasia Is a Mouthful, an Eyeful and a Mind-Melt
'Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass,' the first feature in 20 years from the Quay Brothers, is alluring, confounding and fully sui generis.
This dark, densely nested fairytale of life, death and what comes in between is inspired by the writings of Polish literary titan Bruno Schulz, but with entirely its own collapsing, free-form model of storytelling — driven less by logic than intuitive feeling and ambience, which is where the Quays’ distinctively ethereal visuals come in. Those more acquainted with the Quays’ work — notably their influential 1986 short “Street of Crocodiles,” also freely adapted from Schulz — will be better prepared for the baroque eccentricities and inscrutabilities of their latest, which premiered in this year’s Venice Days sidebar and is destined for extensive festival play, sparse arthouse distribution and a cultish afterlife. Intense grief, terror and desire are all palpable as Jozef spirals into the void, felt through the claustrophobic beauty of the animation — all exquisitely spindly, fragile puppet forms in aged shades of pewter and dust, each frame resembling a long-forgotten steampunk diorama, as reflected in a foxed mirror — and the brittle, haunted-lullaby quality of the score by Timothy Nelson (credited with “music and soundscapes”).
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