‘Travel Always Leads Us Back to Art’: An Interview With the Quay Brothers

brothers_quay_4.jpg, default, Bracia Quay, photo: Piotr Wołodźko / IAM, center, #000000

What is the favorite place on earth for famous animated film directors? And what can we expect from their newest film project around Bruno Schulz?

Based on a collection of short stories by Bruno Schulz, Sanatorium Under The Sign Of The Hour Glass is a combination of stop-motion animation and feature film. Stephen and Timothy Quay's latest film premiered at the Venice Film Festival, where it received a special Musa Cinema & Arts Award for interdisciplinary artists. This is the third feature-length work by the Quay brothers; their last feature-length production was 2005's The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes. The cinematographer of Sanatorium Under The Sign Of The Hour Glass is Bartosz Bieniek. The music for the film was composed by Timothy Nelson, and works by Alfred Sznitke were also used. The feature part features Tadeusz Janiszewski, Wioletta Kopańska and Andrzej Kłak. The Adam Mickiewicz Institute is a co-producer of the film.

Filip Lech: I suppose you have already said almost everything there is to say about Bruno Schulz and Polish culture. Nonetheless, I want to ask how your interpretation of Schulz’s works has changed since you made your first film based on his work – Streets of Crocodiles?

The Quay Brothers: When we finished working on ‘Street of Crocodiles’, we immediately started thinking about the script for ‘Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass’. For years we weren't able to move on, we were standing still. Not a single day passes by when we don’t talk about Schulz… A basic tenet of our approach is that there’s literature and there’s film. Cinema uses visual language so to stay faithful to the oneiric quality of Schulz’s work, we explore images rather than trying to make a literal version of Sanatorium… We use his work as a theatrical framework to push the imagery through. There’s a lot of subjectivity to it. We avoid questioning ourselves too much, the process is impulsive and instinctive.

FL: Did your parents read you fairy tales when you were a child?

TQB: No. When we were children, Disney was the closest thing to a fairy tale that we’d be familiar with. I think that was something we rejected at the appropriate age.

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A still from the Quay brothers' 'Sanatorium Under The Sign Of The Hour Glass', photo: promotional material

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FL: Would you, as twins are said to often do, tell each other stories?

TQB: As kids we were focused on visual sensations rather than words. When we went to college, we discovered The Diaries of Franz Kafka which really opened us up to literature. It was like discovering an intense and subjective secret universe. As for Schulz, we were first introduced to his work much later, when we first visited Poland.

FL: So it was Kafka’s diaries that became the first book to influence you.

TQB: Yes. When we were in college in Philadelphia, we saw an article that described a certain poster as ‘Kafkaesque’. In our naïveté, we went to the library and asked the librarian what ‘Kafkaesque’ meant. He told us to look it up in the dictionary. But the word was not listed in the dictionary.

Two weeks later, we looked under the letter ‘K’ in the library and found Kafka’s books. This also demonstrates how backward Philadelphia was – even the librarian had no idea who Kafka was… For us, it was a perfect discovery.

FL: What does the word ‘Kafkaesque’ mean to you?

TQB: It is one of those things you always say when you arrive at a certain moment. ‘Kafkaesque’ is something that you can't really put a finger on. It describes a strange atmosphere, something unpredictable, haunting. It’s very mysterious. I guess it's a bit like déjà vu, it's a very private moment, a sensation that is very hard to articulate verbally.

FL: Kafka's Journal is a book that you can read again and again…

TQB: You can just go to any page. A new translation of Kafka’s complete diaries was published recently (editor’s note: the interview dates back to 2023). It includes material previously censored by Max Brod. We haven’t had the chance to read it yet but we’re looking forward to it.

Book of Idolatry by Bruno Schulz - Image Gallery

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FL: Coming back to Schulz, have you ever been to Drohobycz?

TQB: Yes. We were extremely disappointed because there is nothing left of Schulz. It's not the Ukrainians’ fault – he was a foreign person. They don't need Schulz today.

We met with Alfred Schreyer there, he was a student of Schulz. Schreyer was 85 years old at the time. It was extremely hard for him to articulate his childhood memories related to Schulz since such a long time has passed. He did remember that Schulz would tell them fairy tales.

There’s this one photograph of Schulz in the classroom, surrounded by around 15 children. It’s an extraordinary photo, showing him earning his daily bread. He was an art teacher. It’s amazing how this mundane situation of teaching the kids woodwork would transform into a mesmerizing moment once he began telling his students fantastic stories.

FL: What is the Quay brothers' favourite place on Earth?

TQB: We’ve never been asked this question… While writing the script for our latest film, Sanatorium…, we did the best work in Rome. It just somehow clicked, being in Rome greatly helped us open up. We couldn’t do it in London.

FL: Where in Rome did you stay?

TQB: We were staying in the area around Piazza Navona, Campo de Fiori. It was very convenient. We would always go to this one wine bar, put out the notes, order some wine and just talk. Then at night we’d go back to the apartment, and do more purposeful, specific work.

FL: What do you like about Rome?

TQB: We were invited there to teach for one day and decided to stay for a few additional days. Once a year, we’re invited to teach American students from Temple University in Philadelphia. We show some of our work and talk to the students. That was the main reason we went to Rome but we also used it as an excuse to continue writing. It’s freeing not to be in London, having a different city to explore. There’s nothing better than walking the streets of a city. It opens up the imagination, when we see something, we pull it in and discuss it.

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A still from the Quay brothers' 'Sanatorium Under The Sign Of The Hour Glass', photo: promotional material

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FL: I infer you prefer cities to nature.

TQB: Absolutely, very much so. The serendipity is exciting, you turn the corner and then something bizarre is happening, you get to see something you’ve never expected. Nature doesn’t really give you such moments. You can’t turn a corner into nature because it’s already there right in front of you.

FL: What about London? Do you like it?

TQB: It’s where our studio is, where we do all of the elaborate physical work with the puppets. Back when we were studying, we felt at home there. We didn’t like America and only spoke English so London it was. We also liked that England was on the edge of Europe. Now it isn’t on the edge of anything.

FL: London is a huge city.

TQB: Yes, but we’re in the studio non-stop, for almost 18 hours a day, so it becomes our entire universe. That's where everything is fabricated. The studio becomes larger than life, so to speak.

FL: Does this mean you don’t have a favourite pub in London?

TQB: We don’t. There’s one pub that we go to that has a lot of Belgian beers to choose from, we don’t like English beer.

FL: What about the Irish beer Guinness?

TQB: Oh, we can do Guinness.

FL: Do you like to travel?

TQB: Yes, very much. This is the first time we have traveled in 3 years because of COVID. A lot of times you are invited to show, for instance a little retrospective, so you might go to Paris. Paris is a great city to explore. While working on Institute Benjamenta, we visited Switzerland, Zurich, Bern, Baal... We enjoyed exploring the Walser universe. Now you can go to Vienna and follow the traces of Bruno Schulz.

We've been to a lot of places in Poland, too. We like Łódź, its industrial side is fascinating.

The Hour-Glass Sanatorium's Set Photographed by Wojciech Plewiński – Image Gallery

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FL: It sounds like you’re extremely devoted to your work... Do you ever go on holiday?

TQB: Sometimes (laugh). We sometimes go and explore a place, just the two of us on our own. We went to northern Italy, to Bolzano. You know, a place has to be a playground for the mind, you need to have a set of certain specifics to be able to focus. For some reason, Bolzano has it. Italy also has some remarkable museum collections, which we enjoy as we’re very keen on Quattrocento.

FL: Do you ever dream of traveling?

TQB: No, not really. Travel always leads us back to art, pushing us back into the studio. Traveling to a foreign country is like journeying through libraries. Those are the best two things in the world. Cinema and music are means of travel, too. Art allows you to be in a permanent process of discovery.

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bruno schulz