Research Catalog
Street of crocodiles
- Title
- Street of crocodiles [videorecording] / Keith M. Griffiths; a British Film Institute Production in association with Channel 4 Television.
- Publication
- New York : First Run/Icarus, 1986.
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Status | Format | Access | Call Number | Item Location |
---|---|---|---|---|
Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Offsite to submit a request in person. | Moving image | By appointment only | VTH 666 S | Offsite |
Details
- Additional Authors
- Description
- 1 videocassette (21 min.) : sd., b&w/col.; 1/2 in.
- Summary
- A decrepit caretaker enters a museum and, by accident or design, lets a drop of saliva fall into the eyepiece of an ancient peep-show kinetoscope. Inside the aged projector, mechanisms are activated, wires are drawn by pulleys, hatches open. The puppet figure of a man is conjured into motion. The man severs the wires from which he hangs and begins an exploration of the "Street of Crocodiles," a suite of abandoned rooms where screws turn of their own volition at his approach. In a strange workshop, he observes robotic figures. He is harassed by a small boy and eventually finds himself dissected, remodelled and reclothed. The Quays utilize three-dimensional puppet animation and use the techniques of expressionism and surrealism to capture the echo of Central Europe's wars and the repression of the ruling classes as evoked in a quote from the Schulz story: "In that city of cheap human material, no instincts can flourish, no dark or unusual passions can be aroused. The Street of Crocodiles was a concession of our city to modernity and metropolitan corruption. The misfortune of that area is that nothing ever succeeds there, nothing can ever reach a definite conclusion. Obviously, we were unable to afford anything better than a cardboard imitation, a photo-montage cutout from last year's mouldering newspaper."
- Subjects
- Note
- Based on a story by Bruno Schultz.
- Credits (note)
- Directors, Brothers Quay (Stephen and Timothy Quay); music, Leszak Jankowski.
- Title
- Street of crocodiles [videorecording] / Keith M. Griffiths; a British Film Institute Production in association with Channel 4 Television.
- Imprint
- New York : First Run/Icarus, 1986.
- Credits
- Directors, Brothers Quay (Stephen and Timothy Quay); music, Leszak Jankowski.
- Connect to:
- Added Author
- Quay, Stephen.Quay, Timothy.Schulz, Bruno, 1892-1942. Sklepy cynamonowe. English.Brothers Quay.British Film Institute.
- Branch Call Number
- VTH 666 S