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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StatusFormatAccessCall NumberItem Location
Moving imageBy appointment only VTH 666 SOffsite

Details

Additional Authors
  • Quay, Stephen
  • Quay, Timothy
  • Schulz, Bruno, 1892-1942.
  • Brothers Quay
  • British Film Institute
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.
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Added Author
Quay, Stephen.
Quay, Timothy.
Schulz, Bruno, 1892-1942. Sklepy cynamonowe. English.
Brothers Quay.
British Film Institute.
Branch Call Number
VTH 666 S
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