This is a fascinating little short that tells the tale of two incredibly fleshed out animated characters. One is a winged creature that falls into the trap of the other, a blond monster-person on a tricycle. It's not that simple, however. The imagery, though I don't profess to understand every last bit of it, was striking and surreal. This film targets the unconscious. It seeks to evoke a response through impressions and instinct. The animation is uncanny and beautiful, as these two characters are given grace, ferocity and emotion. The camera itself becomes an implement of the animation as it cuts frantically from side to side, with as much freedom as if a live-action scene were being filmed. This illusion is enhanced further by the deft focusing. This film must have taken such a tremendous amount of vision and effort, and the result is a commendable and evocative short film.
7 Reviews
Peculiarly Familiar
kurosawakira12 January 2014
This was originally meant to be a 52-minute film based on the Epic of Gilgamesh to involve live action, dance and animation. What we have now is a 11-minute film of the segment where Gilgamesh, setting up his traps, succeeds in trapping Enkidu with an elaborate table trap.
I think it's almost a given that if one knows the Quays one is also acquainted with vankmajer. It may be my too strong inclination to project my own subjective theories onto things, but I think his influence looms over this one strongly. While a very interesting film (I don't think the brothers have ever done anything uninteresting), I think the more their films started to swerve to their unknown paths of (often) black-and-white chaos the better.
Not that this doesn't have that trademark sense of not only the surreal, nightmarish kind of dreaming, it already has that strong personal sense that makes one wonder whether these images have been taken from one's own subconscious. In their strangeness they are peculiarly familiar, and isn't that a sign of great art if anything? That we take the images as our own.
This is available on DVD, a collection of their short films, and the brothers did a few audio commentaries for it, this being one of them. They are, personally, as endearing, interesting, intelligent and witty as artists get. And artists they are, and I'm so glad to have them around.
I think it's almost a given that if one knows the Quays one is also acquainted with vankmajer. It may be my too strong inclination to project my own subjective theories onto things, but I think his influence looms over this one strongly. While a very interesting film (I don't think the brothers have ever done anything uninteresting), I think the more their films started to swerve to their unknown paths of (often) black-and-white chaos the better.
Not that this doesn't have that trademark sense of not only the surreal, nightmarish kind of dreaming, it already has that strong personal sense that makes one wonder whether these images have been taken from one's own subconscious. In their strangeness they are peculiarly familiar, and isn't that a sign of great art if anything? That we take the images as our own.
This is available on DVD, a collection of their short films, and the brothers did a few audio commentaries for it, this being one of them. They are, personally, as endearing, interesting, intelligent and witty as artists get. And artists they are, and I'm so glad to have them around.
mysterious and surreal short piece; a brief animated experiment that is of both darkness and amusement
framptonhollis18 May 2017
The opening credits cite this short as a strongly disguised adaptation of the ancient literary classic "The Epic of Gilgamesh", and the key word here is disguised. This film mainly peaked my interest not only because it was directed by the Brothers Quay, (and, having been a massive fan of Jan Svankmajer for a few years) whose work has interested me for quite some time now, but also because of my love for that ancient masterpiece. Readers of all ages: READ THE EPIC OF GILGAMESH AS SOON AS POSSIBLE! It's thin as Hell, and is an action packed adventure epic layered with tragedy and philosophy. It's the earliest known work of literature, and yet its characters are well developed and fascinating.
However, this is barely an adaptation of the classic. Instead, some of the events and characters merely (and mildly) symbolize those shown in the original boo. Instead of Gilgamesh, viewers will be exposed mostly to the eccentric creativity of the Brothers Quay, who fill the cinematic canvas with their unique and often unnerving animations. Sometimes mildly amusing, and other times quite unsettling, this brief short encapsulates the overall mood the Brothers Quay have mastered over the year quite well. The soundtrack is great, fitting the bizarre and enigmatic atmosphere extremely well, and the stop motion animation, as it is always with the work of masters like the Brothers Quay, is creepy, beautiful, and simply top notch!
However, this is barely an adaptation of the classic. Instead, some of the events and characters merely (and mildly) symbolize those shown in the original boo. Instead of Gilgamesh, viewers will be exposed mostly to the eccentric creativity of the Brothers Quay, who fill the cinematic canvas with their unique and often unnerving animations. Sometimes mildly amusing, and other times quite unsettling, this brief short encapsulates the overall mood the Brothers Quay have mastered over the year quite well. The soundtrack is great, fitting the bizarre and enigmatic atmosphere extremely well, and the stop motion animation, as it is always with the work of masters like the Brothers Quay, is creepy, beautiful, and simply top notch!
Merely Technically Impressive
Eumenides_018 March 2009
Warning: Spoilers
This movie left me baffled; and although I don't care for everything to make sense, I just couldn't find an angle from which to start understanding what's going on.
There are two puppets, a monstrous hybrid of man and bicycle, and a winger creature. This one flies down, is wrapped in cloth and the bicycle-man clips its wings. Where can anyone go from here? I like symbolism, allegory, allusion, intertextuality. But this movie just gazes into itself and offers nothing.
This movie has a stream of surreal, gripping imagery from start to finish, and I can't deny it's a technically impressive movie. The Quay brothers have a gift for the bizarre and the terrifying. They're darker and more hopeless than their master, Jan Svankmaker. I just wish their shorts had the same playfulness and logic of his movies.
There are two puppets, a monstrous hybrid of man and bicycle, and a winger creature. This one flies down, is wrapped in cloth and the bicycle-man clips its wings. Where can anyone go from here? I like symbolism, allegory, allusion, intertextuality. But this movie just gazes into itself and offers nothing.
This movie has a stream of surreal, gripping imagery from start to finish, and I can't deny it's a technically impressive movie. The Quay brothers have a gift for the bizarre and the terrifying. They're darker and more hopeless than their master, Jan Svankmaker. I just wish their shorts had the same playfulness and logic of his movies.
How far can I get without using the word "dream"?
Polaris_DiB10 May 2006
Warning: Spoilers
The Brothers Quay seem, to me, to be of an elite type of film-making that tend to exploit the visual aspects rather than the sound or the narrative aspects of film-making. This is a key proof of that, wherein one can still find something of a narration but all told the movie seems to be an almost deja vu or ineffable series of movements and events.
It's easy to call stuff like this "dreamlike", which I guess it is, but it seems cheap to just stop there. One of the key aspects about this particular short is that it has two characters that are both, in a reserved and quiet way, terrifying. One who has grown up on a diet of protagonist/antagonist will probably try desperately to relate to one character's fight against the other, but if you take a moment to think about it, what really is going on here, and who is doing what? There seems to be something of a fetishism here, some approach to sexualized objects. Without any real basis in reality, all fantasy and imagery, we can just take it as it is, which is a lot. The Brothers Quay have started to have defining control over their tools and I have a lot of faith in seeing the rest of their works as I delve further into this collection.
--PolarisDiB
It's easy to call stuff like this "dreamlike", which I guess it is, but it seems cheap to just stop there. One of the key aspects about this particular short is that it has two characters that are both, in a reserved and quiet way, terrifying. One who has grown up on a diet of protagonist/antagonist will probably try desperately to relate to one character's fight against the other, but if you take a moment to think about it, what really is going on here, and who is doing what? There seems to be something of a fetishism here, some approach to sexualized objects. Without any real basis in reality, all fantasy and imagery, we can just take it as it is, which is a lot. The Brothers Quay have started to have defining control over their tools and I have a lot of faith in seeing the rest of their works as I delve further into this collection.
--PolarisDiB
Don't try to understand it...just watch instead.
planktonrules20 May 2020
Since the mid-1960s, the Czech filmmaker Jan Svankmajer has been making very strange stop-motion films that simply defy anyone explaining them. Instead, it's best to see his often weird and occasionally very funny films for yourself. You may dislike them, you might not...but it almost certainly will mean your watching several of his pictures before you're sure what you think of them!
Well, it's very obvious when you watch some of the films by Keith Griffiths and the Quay Brothers that they are fans of Svankmajer's work. Several of their films look almost exactly like Svankmajer shorts, though for me they lack the same level of weirdness and artistry of the originals. Here in "This Unnameable Little Broom" they make a Svankmajer-like film....but one which seems much more incomprehensible. It's supposedly some re-imagining of the "Epic of Gilgamesh" (a story written thousands of years ago that almost no one has actually read apart from archaeologists and literature majors)...but I found the story pretty much non-existent. And, for me, while I respect all the work they did to do this stop-motion picture, it just isn't as good as watching Svankmajer's own films.
Well, it's very obvious when you watch some of the films by Keith Griffiths and the Quay Brothers that they are fans of Svankmajer's work. Several of their films look almost exactly like Svankmajer shorts, though for me they lack the same level of weirdness and artistry of the originals. Here in "This Unnameable Little Broom" they make a Svankmajer-like film....but one which seems much more incomprehensible. It's supposedly some re-imagining of the "Epic of Gilgamesh" (a story written thousands of years ago that almost no one has actually read apart from archaeologists and literature majors)...but I found the story pretty much non-existent. And, for me, while I respect all the work they did to do this stop-motion picture, it just isn't as good as watching Svankmajer's own films.
Animation with suspense
Horst_In_Translation28 February 2016
Warning: Spoilers
"This Unnameable Little Broom" or "The Epic of Gilgamesh" is a 10-minute short film by the Brothers Quay, a pair of animated filmmakers that defined the genre in terms of short films in the 1980s and 1990s, especially in terms of darker animation and you can somehow see them as the American equivalent to Jan Svankmajer in terms of style. Sadly, I cannot say I am a great fan of their work and this one here does not change it a bit sadly. Very underwhelming watch about the story of a little broom. The music was probably still the nicest thing to it as it did a lot in terms of suspense and atmosphere. However, this cannot make up for the very forgettable story. I do not recommend checking it out. Thumbs down.
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