Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > The Brothers Quay - The Brothers Quay with Chris Petit (interview date June 1986)

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The Brothers Quay with Chris Petit (interview date June 1986)

SOURCE: "Picked-up Pieces," in Monthly Film Bulletin, Vol. 53, No. 629, June, 1986, pp. 164-65.

[In the following excerpt from an interview, the Quays discuss puppet animation, its tradition as an art form, and its significance to their films. Note that the interviewer's questions were deleted in the original publication.]

In an interview with Chris Petit, the Quay brothers (Steve & Tim, b. 1947), dark twins of the puppet film, open up unknown worlds …

Preserving the Spirit

[Brothers Quay]: Puppet animation is a footnote to cinema, so we invariably find ourselves drawn to literary and musical figures outside the mainstream in our search for source material. What worries us most in the early stages of any work is that the puppets will become tamed by the weight of the text. You must remember there is a strong spirit of anarchy in puppet history. At the...

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1. Introduction
2. ∗Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. Mark Le Fanu (essay date Spring 1984)
   2. Tony Rayns (review date June 1986)
   3. The Brothers Quay with Chris Petit (interview date June 1986)
   4. Julian Petley (review date June 1986)
   5. Raymond Durgnat (review date June 1986)
   6. Michael O'Pray (review date June 1986)
   7. Peter Greenaway (review date Summer 1986)
   8. Richard Combs (review date July 1986)
   9. Roger Noake (review date July 1986)
   10. Vincent Canby (review date 29 April 1987)
   11. David Edelstein (review date 5 May 1987)
   12. Amos Vogel (review date May-June 1987)
   13. Terrence Rafferty (essay date June 1987)
   14. Georgia Brown (review date 2 April 1991)
   15. Jonathan Romney (essay date March 1992)
   16. Jonathan Romney (review date May 1992)
   17. Denise Tilles (essay date January 1993)
   18. Michael Atkinson (essay date September-October 1994)
   19. The Brothers Quay with Ryan Deussing (interview date 9 February 1996)
   20. Stephen Holden (review date 13 March 1996)
   21. J. Hoberman (review date 19 March 1996)
4. Further Reading
5. Copyright