Comments by Brian C. Russell

Dirt, dust, and general filth influence me occasionally.

The Brothers Quay when asked ,in an interview, if they would every consider using modern digital media to create their hypnotic animation they responded,(and I paraphrase) "Not until we can find the dirt button."

At a rare question and answer session after the American premiere of The Institute Benjamenta (the Quay's first feature length live action film) at the National Gallery Theater in Washington, DC, the Quays were asked if they have ever used digital technologies in their film. They admitted at the time to using post production digital editing of a few sequences in The Institute Benjamenta to superimpose miniature sets with live distant shots of people in an odd room. They blatantly stated that it was just allot easier and less time consuming to digitally edit the film. I felt they also meant less expensive too.

The computer graphics world is on a holy jihad to recreate the world we live in. Due to the present state of three dimensional modeling the computer world is slick and shiny looking. Clean like an operation room. Not unlike the "modern" designs of computer cases. I 'd even go as far to say that these slick and clean computer graphics are utopian aesthetics that do not represent the world fairly. They are a lie.

Yet this is what makes us so fascinated by them. They are fiction. Our fiction. At our command to mold into anything we can dream up. This is the lure that makes me create. I believe I've found the dirt button. Though honestly it's not just ONE button.

Sampling the dirt that humans live in is the key. Once digital ,exact and massive manipulation is possible.

After watching the Street of Crocodiles short film by The Brothers Quay several times I decided to investigate a possible source of the Quay's inspiration, Bruno Schulz's book The Street of Crocodiles. It contains beautifully detailed descriptions of places and people that seem to have found there way into the Quays films. If not specific scenes then a feeling or an atmosphere. From the chapter The Cinnamon shops,

"These truly noble shops, open late at night, have always been the objects of my ardent interest. Dimly lit, their dark and solemn interiors were redolent of the smell of paint, varnish, and incense; of the aroma of distant countries, Chinese decals, indigo, calaphony from Malabar, the eggs of exotic insects, parrots, toucans, live salamanders and basilisks, mandrake roots, mechanical toys from Nuremberg, homunculi in jars, microscopes, binoculars, and most especially, strange and rare books, old folio volumes full of astonishing engravings and amazing stories."

"I remember these old dignified merchants who served there customers with downcast eyes, in discreet silence, and who were full of wisdom and tolerance for their customers' most secret whims. But most of all, I remember a bookshop in which I once glanced at some rare and lifting this veil on tantalizing and unknown mysteries."

These few paragraphs from the chapter Cinnamon Shops are amazing. They illustrate in so few precious words the visual depth of thousands of years of collecting of things, dirt, ware and tear. According to Schultz the title Cinnamon Shops was a description of the color of the walls inside these shops. These beautiful descriptions would be a great basis for creating a set. If one of my movies could begin to create the baroque ancient splendor of these above worlds, I would be eternally happy. I almost would not care for the written word if I could just create the exotic environs that float through fairy tales. Who would need words when this mysterious place would be incarnate to provide a living dream hallucination and send even the most skeptical of souls into blissful confusion.

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