My experiment with an experimental film

“And to the anonymous anatomical specimen—to the single still dreaming hair on his brow with its desires to disturb the wallpaper.”

With these words, the Brothers Quay "Rehearsals for Extinct Anatomies" begins and throws the viewer into a whirlwind world of dancing barcodes and bouncing balls. The 14 minute video begins by showing a grotesque "anatomy" attempting to rub away a hair on his forehead while his eyeball frantically looks around the room, keeping a watchful eye over all of the buzzing objects around him. Just as the hair pops off from his forehead, the orchestra of the objects begins and the story moves from a quirky little symphony of various objects to a statement about society.

The camera shifts into a darkly lit and ominous space where two figures, apparently struck with leprosy, are lounging. The man is laying in the bed while the woman leans against the wall rubbing her own forehead in imitation of the anatomy outside the door. As the story, and the orchestra, move forward to the climax and end of the video, the camera moves back and forth between the dark and well lit rooms, demonstrating the juxtaposition between the two sides.

The point that the Brothers Quay are trying to make in this short are unclear, of course, because that’s how these types of the “experimental” films go—they are designed to be purposely vague and make little sense. That being said, the point that I thought they were trying to make with the film was this: curiosity is something that controls us and turns us into something else. Let's walk through the "plot" again to illustrate my point.

The film opens with the grotesque anatomy rubbing at the stray hair on his temple. He is the god of this world; everything he does creates a reaction from all the other objects (and the lepers) in the room. If he had just left the hair alone, we would have seen a completely different short, full of puppies and meadows. But he just couldn’t leave it well enough alone because curiosity is a driving force in our lives. He had to keep going, and the consequences of his actions are shown through the woman in the room who is imitating his actions. Enough of those tired old tales about curiosity killing cats, the Brothers Quay are clearly showing the audience that it will give you leprosy.  Now, that’s a statement.

It has been my experience that experimental films try too hard to make statements, and this one was no exception. If you want to say that ugly, crazy-eyed creatures are gods that control our lives and that curiosity is going to give you an incurable, contagious disease, I am of the opinion that you should just say that instead of making a 14 minute video of string/wire people dancing around to some violin music. But maybe that’s just me.