MUBI

Imagine a dream in which you are having a nightmare. Surrealistic objects fly out of the ground, and weird looking creatures capture and experiment on you. This is the stop-motion animation short, “Street Crocodiles” made by Timothy and Stephen Quay. It was adapted from a short novel written by the famed Polish writer Bruno Schultz.

It’s a complicated little film. But it reminded me of Bunuel’s “Un Chien Andalou” and Wiene’s “The Cabinet and Dr. Caligari” mixed together in a wild nightmare. In one scene, men (or aliens) take the main character and throw him down into a chair. They then proceed to take off his head and place a new one on his body. They then place his head on another body. This could relate to how society tries to control how you think. The fact that they want everyone to be alike, and that they want you to confirm and be like them.

It’s nothing short of a masterpiece, and I still don’t quite understand it after multiple views. The fact of the matter is, they rarely make art like this anymore, and it’s beautiful.

5 stars