Are We Still Married? (1992) User Reviews

Just Married.

[morrison-dylan-fan · 8/10 · 16 August 2014]

Being in the mood to wrap up the week with the viewing of an animated title,I decided that it would be the perfect time to view a short on a DVD that a DVD seller had kindly given me on my Birthday.

The plot:

A white ball goes around a number of puppets and turns into a white light.As the white ball/light starts to bring the puppets to life,a young girl and a rabbit begin walking on walls.

View on the film:

Backed by a shimmering score from His Name Is Alive,co-writers/directors Stephen and Timothy Quay expertly use worn out black & white colours to create a hauntingly faded atmosphere,with the Quay also giving the title an unexpected somber feel,by dipping their toes into Alice's warped Wonderland.

Stille Nacht II

[Polaris_DiB · 7/10 · 2 March 2007]

The Quay Brother's "Stille Nacht" series is their more commercial work, though one without that knowledge would be hard pressed to see what makes these works any different stylistically and thematically from their "independant" works. This one, Stille Nacht II (or "Are We Still Married" after the song by His Name is Alive) is basically a music video, utilizing some repeated elements from Stille Nacht I.

This short is kind of interesting to look at because it shows what can be done with music videos besides making them three-minute commercials for the band's own song you're already currently hearing. It's use is so effective that the style has been used by the band Tool (of which I am a fan) in their own stunningly claustrophobic stop-motion animation.

However, later inspirations aside, the Brothers Quay unique mise-en-scene sticks out. A sort of Alice in Wonderland characterization changes pace completely into a rabbit that interacts with a ball that came from a woman's tear. Rather than creating the "Tortured soul" effect of a Tool music video, the Brothers Quay entrap the audience into the song itself, from a band I'm not actually familiar with, but which seems to sing about the decay of relationships even as the track itself sounds like it's decaying on an old cassette tape.

--PolarisDiB

Brilliant and haunting

[spookytramp · 19 December 2000]

This is some of the Quay brothers best work. Mavericks of modern stop-motion animation, the Brothers Quay deliver a powerful and creepy vision of lost innocence in this all-too-short short film. The music -by the band His Name Is Alive- is mournful and creepy, and accentuates the somber black and white imagery in a world of dolls, broken toys, and decay. The characters flutter and jerk with unnatural movements while a normally inanimate objects hover and vibrate around them. To try and explain what is happening specifically in this film would be next to impossible, must be see to be believed. This film, as well as all Quay Brothers works, is recommended for anyone who enjoys surrealism or avant-garde film, particularly with a taste for corrosion. For other similar but more light-hearted works, check out the work of Czech animator Jan Svenkmeyer, who was a big influence on the work of the Quays.

Beautiful and haunting

[Rectangular_businessman · 9/10 · 5 March 2012]

It is very hard express with words the unique beauty that the "Stille Nacht" shorts from the Brothers Quay have...

Those brief, little shorts, instead of telling a story, express feelings, thoughts, but not in a ordinary way: Here, the eerie atmosphere and the strangeness is combined with an almost whimsical feeling of innocence and wonder, something that makes those "Stille Nacht" shorts an extraordinary, captivating quality, that could be only done using the animated medium.

Those shorts are pretty much like little visual "poems", where the images serve to recreate the fantastic (and rather ambiguous) world of the dreams.

This is is truly beautiful and fascinating. A must see.

These shadows are beautiful

[Foreverisacastironmess123 · 10/10 · 5 December 2012]

Hmm...interesting! What a wonderful little work of dark fantasy art. I just love everything there is to see and breathe in, it's all so spooky and sad, and the haunting wistful song matches the phantasmagorical cold imagery perfectly. This short may indeed be very short, but it has strange beauty and a great profoundness to it that I found quite brilliant. When I first saw them, I found this and all the other Stille Nachts to be some of the most soul-stirring animations I'd ever seen. This is my favourite of the four. You definitely get your money's worth for the three minutes. Such magicians of their craft, were these Brothers Quay. The humorous anthropomorphic bunny and what is seen of the "girl" instantly brings to mind all of the classic elements of Alice in Wonderland. The tone was absolutely one of darkness but I didn't find it morbid or depressing. It felt more like a lulling, soothing kind of darkness to me. I wonder what it's supposed to mean... Anything? Nothing? Whatever you want it to be? Or just perhaps, it's a window into the mind of some poor terminally damaged soul who for whatever reason, is unwilling, or unable to mature, someone who is not able to put aside childish things and is wholly ignorant of reality hammering to be let in-someone who is so very tired that they desire nothing more than to sleep forever and disappear into nothingness... -Oh my! Might come off as a little maudlin, but that's how I opted to deduce things. I love the beautiful final image of the eyes that so heavily close that are clearly not the eyes of a child. There's such finality there. It's like it's saying: it's time to rest, to drift, to fall, down into the shadows...where you belong.

As forgettable as the first

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 4 August 2015]

"Are We Still Married" is the second film from the Quay Twins's "Silent Night" film franchise. There are a whole of 5 films I believe. In my opinion, this was not intended as scary as the first, but more fantastic in the sense of the genre. The cuddly toy rabbit and the girl's legs reminded me of "Alice in Wonderland" for a reason. At 3.5 minutes, it runs roughly twice as long as their first and it is also in black-and-white just like the first entry. Early on, the crying eye was an interesting way to start the film, but things went south fairly quickly after that. All in all, I must say it seems that the Quay's animation style is not really my preferred choice and as whole I do not recommend this movie.

Alice in Strings

[tedg · 16 August 2002]

Spoilers herein.

I have a more robust comment over on the `Films of the Brothers' page. This is one of 11 films on the DVD. It and its sequel, `Can't Go Wrong Without You,' are the very best of that collection. They are the most personal, based on reverse kabbalah and Alice in Wonderland, and I think the most accessible.

I have never been so visually stimulated as in these two 3-4 minute films.

Ted's evaluation: 3 of 4 -- Worth Watching

Impacting

[Tornado_Sam · 27 March 2018]

Being from the Quay Brothers, this 1992 short film (the second in their "Stille Nacht" series) has obviously nothing to do with it's predecessor--"Dramolet" from 1988 which was several minutes shorter than this. While the soundtrack in that previous film didn't add that much to the overall effect, the music for "Are We Still Married?" really makes the visuals haunting and changes the overall effect you get when you watch it. The result of the music track added to the film is an enchanting work, possibly one of the Quay's most interesting shorts.

The film utilizes some very weird images: flickering images of a eye and a bit of a face, a handmade stuffed rabbit which moves by itself, a girl/puppet's stocking-covered leg which rise and fall as the movie progresses, and a ball which flickers. The music, literally a voice singing "are we still married" over and over again is what gives the film its title, but more importantly it makes the visuals--which are already very surreal--both haunting and beautiful at once. As a result, the impact that watching "Are We Still Married?" gives you will stay with you after you've seen it, and like I did you'll probably also have a difficult time ridding yourself of the beautiful melody.

This Quay film was a music video for a song by "This Name Is Alive" and the short fulfills to perfection what a music video is supposed to do: fit a piece of music to video images. The way the imagery here fits with the music is so brilliant that it seems impossibly so. Mostly for a fan of the Quay Brother's work, but those who love the song itself could probably watch the short for the music alone and still enjoy the beauty of the work.