Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > The Brothers Quay - Jonathan Romney (essay date March 1992)

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Jonathan Romney (essay date March 1992)

SOURCE: "The Same Dark Drift," in Sight and Sound, Vol. 1, No. 11, March, 1992, pp. 24-7.

[In the following essay, Romney presents an overview of the Quays' career focusing on the technical processes they use to create their films. He also discusses Institute Benjamenta.]

It can be an uncanny experience at the best of times, interviewing the Brothers Quay as they sit at opposite sides of a table, superficially identical in every respect except for the cut of their overalls. It's all the more uncanny when the interview is watched over by a battered doll on a platform, one incongruously flirtatious eye glaring down from under a veiled hat. A baby body with an adult dummy head grafted on, she holds in one hand a mirror or a painted bat, and with the other lifts her skirt to reveal a ragged bush of straw pubic hair, at which an equally ragged rabbit, hugging her ankles, gazes with lovelorn...

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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