LIST CANDIDATE: THE PIANO TUNER OF EARTHQUAKES (2005)

Weirdest!

DIRECTED BY: ,

FEATURING: César Sarachu, , Amira Casar, Assumpta Serna

PLOT: A doctor brings a piano tuner to his remote asylum to prepare automata for an opera he is staging for the benefit of a beautiful, nearly comatose patient who was once a singer.

Still from Piano Tuner of Earthquakes (2005)
WHY IT MIGHT MAKE THE LIST: The general consensus is that The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes is one of the weakest of the Quay Brothers‘ cinematic efforts; on the other hand, there is no question that this fairy-tale of dreams, madness and opera is one of their very weirdest.

COMMENTS: “After a while, you get used to the confusion,” the housekeeper tells the piano tuner, as she explains that they call the silent men who are always scurrying around in the background of Dr. Droz’s estate “gardeners,” although they are really patients. Of course, the declaration is actually meant as a reassurance for the audience—but by the time the housekeeper drops that line, thirty minutes in, confusion-averse viewers will have already fled in terror. Dr. Droz has either killed and resurrected, or simply abducted, an opera diva, and is keeping her on his private island, where Alpine architeture mixes with tropical flora. The doctor needs a legendary piano tuner, who also happens to be  dead ringer for the singer’s lost love, to fix his seven automata, and to take part in an elaborate opera he is staging. The piano tuner flirts with the seductive housekeeper until the beautiful mute patient catches his eye. Each night, he has a dream, which is the Quay brothers’ excuse to indulge in the types of bizarre fantasy sequences that they made famous in their short films (although here with only minimal stop-motion animation). We see grotesque singing teeth, boats piloted by disembodied hands, and scenes where everyone moves backwards. We soon strike a rhythm of dreams interrupted by dialogues between the tuner and the housekeeper or doctor, which explain very little of what is ultimately going on on the island. Instead, the doctor likes to tell little stories about fungi that infect the brains of ants and eventually form spikes which bursts through the insects’ heads to release spores.

Piano Tuner is a stylistically overstuffed film. That is both a strength and a weakness. It’s one of those movies that looks like the filmmakers suspected they were never going to get another chance to work with a budget like this again, and felt pressed to get all their grandiose ideas up on screen while they had the opportunity. Individual frames of the film look like they come from paintings or drawings, but from a very eclectic museum: some scenes exhibit the swarthy classicism of a Carvaggio, others look like they come out of a medieval woodcutting, while still others like storybook illustrations from a Grimm fairy tale. There are luminous grottoes, ghostly animations, and distorting lenses. Much of the film features people and objects half hidden in shadows, making them as difficult to make out as the story is. The overall intent is to force us to give up on trying to process the narrative and imagery in the conventional sense, and simply submit to its beauty.

The Quay Brothers explained that, as a condition of funding, Film 4 demanded that they make a more “accessible” movie than their previous effort, Institute Benjamenta. Other than shooting the film in color, it’s hard to see how Piano Tuner could ever meet that standard. Terry Gilliam came in as executive producer to save the project; his name and reputation allowed the Quays to raise the remainder of the money they needed to film their outrageously odd visions.

WHAT THE CRITICS SAY:

“…the most strangely and subtly variegated march-past of Love’s delirious mechanisms ever committed to film… Absolutely entrancing!”–Guy Maddin, Film Comment (contemporaneous)

(This movie was nominated for review by Kat, who described it as containing “beautiful dreamlike imagery and some all too short sequences of the Quay’s miniature automata.” Suggest a weird movie of your own here.)

YOUR VOTE DETERMINES THE WINNERS OF THE 5TH ANNUAL WEIRDCADEMY AWARDS

As usual, the announcement of the 2015 Academy Awards nominations elicited rounds of finger-pointing over the surprise snubs. Here at the Weirdcademy, we’re no stranger to controversy, either. In the past we have received complaints over us using the “w-word” to characterize Quvenzhané Wallis, leading us to stress that the “Weirdest Actress” award is really just shorthand for “Best Actress in a Weird Movie.” More to the point, just like the Academy Awards, this year we nominated mostly movies made by white males. Only 1/2  of our contending films were directed by women, and we nominated no movies made by African-Americans (though one was directed by an African-Brit). While we are actually quite a bit more diverse than the Academy, we’re still not where we would like to be. Our message to women and minorities: Hollywood doesn’t have your back, direct more weird films!

Although the editors of 366 Weird Movies select the nominees from the pool of available movies, the Awards themselves are a naked popularity contest and do not necessarily reflect the artistic merit of the films involved. The Weirdcademy Awards are tongue in cheek and for fun only. Ballot-stuffing is a frequent occurrence. Please, no wagering.

The Weirdcademy Awards are given to the Weirdest Movie, Actor, Actress and Scene of the previous year, as voted by the members of the Weirdcademy of Motion Picture Arts and Weirdness.

Who makes up the Weirdcademy, you ask? Membership is open to all readers of 366 Weird Movies. The rules for joining the Weirdcademy of Motion Picture Arts and Weirdness are as follows. To officially join the Weirdcademy, locate an official online ballot (such as the one below) and hover your mouse pointer over the radial button representing the choice of movie you would like to see win any award in any category. Then, simply depress the left button of your mouse to make your selection. Selections made using the right mouse button will be disregarded, and you will be forced to reapply. If your application for membership is approved, a dot will appear next to your choice. You are not done with the application procedure yet, so continue reading. To be certified as a voting member of the Weirdcademy, at some point subsequent to making your selection, you must navigate your mouse button to the box marked “vote.” Now, again depress your left mouse button to confirm your membership as a voting member of the Weirdcademy.

(Vote as many times as you like, but only once per day, please. We’ll keep voting open until February 22 at 1:00 PM EST, so we can announce our results before the Academy Awards and steal their thunder).

There is no requirement that you’ve have to actually see all the movies in any category before voting.

Be sure to also vote for Weirdest Short Film of the Year. To watch all five nominees and to cast your vote, please click here.

Without further delay, here are the nominees for the 2013 Weirdcademy awards:

(Weirdest Actor, Actress and Scene ballots after the jump) Continue reading YOUR VOTE DETERMINES THE WINNERS OF THE 5TH ANNUAL WEIRDCADEMY AWARDS

WEIRDEST SHORT FILM OF 2014

We’ve collected all five nominees for 2014′s Weirdest Short of the Year together in one place, for ease of voting.  Just click “continued” for a mini film-festival of weirdness. Be sure to vote for your favorite! (You can cast a vote once every 24 hours). Polls close February 22  at 1:00 PM EST.  A special thanks goes out to Cameron Jorgensen, 366 Weird Movies under-appreciated shorts Czar, who discovered most of these films through his own research. This year’s lineup includes cigar-smoking angels, killer worms, Sammy Davis Jr. impersonators, philosophical lessons, and a viral sensation. Click below to view all the nominees and vote.

Continue reading WEIRDEST SHORT FILM OF 2014

WEIRD HORIZON FOR THE WEEK OF 1/16/2015

Our weekly look at what’s weird in theaters, on hot-off-the-presses DVDs, and on more distant horizons…

Trailers of new release movies are generally available on the official site links.

IN DEVELOPMENT:

Routines (est. 2015): A stand-up comic goes off the rails when he witnesses his lover’s murder. We mention it because the director describes it as “David Lynch meets early Lindsay Anderson and has a baby named Celebrity von Trier.” To be crowdfunded it needs to raise $4730 in 49 days on Kickstarter. Routines Kickstarter page.

NEW ON DVD:

Bird People (2014): Two-parter set at a hotel by the De Gaulle airport: in the first segment, and American businessman abandons his career, and in the second something magically real happens to a hotel maid (no one wants to spoil the surprise). Reviews of this French drama have been love-it-or-hate-it, and it comes with a “slow” warning. Buy Bird People.

Memphis (2013): Impressionistic portrait of a near-homeless, eccentric-genius blues singer (played by musician Willis Earl Beal) wandering the streets of Memphis. Distributor Kino says it’s “steeped in folklore, music, surrealism, and the abstract search for glory.” Buy Memphis.

Wetlands (2013): Read our review. Be sure to order a pizza to eat while watching this one! (P.S. don’t order a pizza to eat while watching this one, and don’t blame us if you do). Buy Wetlands.

Young Ones (2014): Family melodrama set on a parched post-apocalyptic ranch. Critics seem unable to figure out exactly what to make of this strange melange of genres from Jake (brother of Gwyneth) Paltrow, but they acknowledge it’s unique. Buy Young Ones.

NEW ON BLU-RAY:

Memphis (2013): See description in DVD above. Buy Memphis [Blu-ray].

Wetlands (2013): See description in DVD above. Buy Wetlands [Blu-ray].

Young Ones (2014): See description in DVD above. Buy Young Ones [Blu-ray].

TELEVISION:

“Danger 5″ (2012, 2015): We rarely mention TV shows in this space, but this bizarre alternate-history Australian comedy series about five spies trying to take down Hitler demands an exception. Series 2 just started Down Under and features Mr. H hiding out in a 1980’s-inspired high school. Season 1 (which ran in 2012) had a 1960s James Bond/”Get Smart” (on acid) feel to it. The first season is available in the U.S. to Hulu Plus subscribers. We sure would like to see this on DVD. Danger 5 official page at SBS TV.

What are you looking forward to? If you have any weird movie leads that I have overlooked, feel free to leave them in the COMMENTS section.

Celebrating the cinematically surreal, bizarre, cult, oddball, fantastique, strange, psychedelic, and the just plain WEIRD!