Stille Nacht II: Are We Still Married? (1992)

What makes it different from others?

Lack of good storyline.

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.

This 1992 short film was the second in the Quay Brothers' "Stille Nacht" series. Each installment has nothing to do with the next, and like the previous installment ("Dramolet" from 1988) there is a soundtrack. While the soundtrack in that film didn't add that much to the overall effect, the music for "Are We Still Married?" really made the visuals haunting. Put together this is quite a creepy little movie.The film begins with flickering images of a eye and a bit of face. Later on, there's this handmade stuffed rabbit which moves by itself. A girl/puppet's stocking-covered leg rises and falls as the movie progresses, and a ball flickers. The music, which is literally a voice singing "are we still married" helps emphasize the title but otherwise this doesn't have much to do with what's happening on-screen. Like I said, though, it makes the visuals work well.Fans of surrealism will no doubt want to watch this short. The Quays are little-remembered today, but their work is available on YouTube and is worthwhile for anybody who enjoys Avant-garde filmmaking. If you're not a fan of it, then this won't make much sense otherwise and will come up as a pointless and boring movie.

"Are We Still Married" is the second film from the Quay Twins's "Silent Night" film franchise. There are a whole of 5 films I believe. In my opinion, this was not intended as scary as the first, but more fantastic in the sense of the genre. The cuddly toy rabbit and the girl's legs reminded me of "Alice in Wonderland" for a reason. At 3.5 minutes, it runs roughly twice as long as their first and it is also in black-and-white just like the first entry. Early on, the crying eye was an interesting way to start the film, but things went south fairly quickly after that. All in all, I must say it seems that the Quay's animation style is not really my preferred choice and as whole I do not recommend this movie.

Being in the mood to wrap up the week with the viewing of an animated title,I decided that it would be the perfect time to view a short on a DVD that a DVD seller had kindly given me on my Birthday.The plot:A white ball goes around a number of puppets and turns into a white light.As the white ball/light starts to bring the puppets to life,a young girl and a rabbit begin walking on walls.View on the film:Backed by a shimmering score from His Name Is Alive,co-writers/directors Stephen and Timothy Quay expertly use worn out black & white colours to create a hauntingly faded atmosphere,with the Quay also giving the title an unexpected somber feel,by dipping their toes into Alice's warped Wonderland.

Hmm...interesting! What a wonderful little work of dark fantasy art. I just love everything there is to see and breathe in, it's all so spooky and sad, and the haunting wistful song matches the phantasmagorical cold imagery perfectly. This short may indeed be very short, but it has strange beauty and a great profoundness to it that I found quite brilliant. When I first saw them, I found this and all the other Stille Nachts to be some of the most soul-stirring animations I'd ever seen. This is my favourite of the four. You definitely get your money's worth for the three minutes. Such magicians of their craft, were these Brothers Quay. The humorous anthropomorphic bunny and what is seen of the "girl" instantly brings to mind all of the classic elements of Alice in Wonderland. The tone was absolutely one of darkness but I didn't find it morbid or depressing. It felt more like a lulling, soothing kind of darkness to me. I wonder what it's supposed to mean... Anything? Nothing? Whatever you want it to be? Or just perhaps, it's a window into the mind of some poor terminally damaged soul who for whatever reason, is unwilling, or unable to mature, someone who is not able to put aside childish things and is wholly ignorant of reality hammering to be let in-someone who is so very tired that they desire nothing more than to sleep forever and disappear into nothingness... -Oh my! Might come off as a little maudlin, but that's how I opted to deduce things. I love the beautiful final image of the eyes that so heavily close that are clearly not the eyes of a child. There's such finality there. It's like it's saying: it's time to rest, to drift, to fall, down into the shadows...where you belong.