‘The Doll’s Breath’

11th September 2019

Thrilling news from our friend and colleague Keith Griffiths, who writes the followingon his Facebook page:

After three years of painstaking animation and production, tonight, Wednesday 11 September, sees the world premiere ofThe Doll’s Breath, the new 22-minute animated film from the Brothers Quay. It will be a Special Screening at the 25th Edition of theL’ÉTRANGE Festival held at the Forum Des Images, Paris. 

There will be a repeat screening on Friday and the Brothers are attending both, and conducting a Q&A afterwards. The film is inspired byFelisberto Hernández’sLas Hortensias and is the second time that the Brothers have based a film on his fantastical stories. In this one Horacio, a former window dresser, sets up complicated charades where women and life-sized dolls change places in a web of jealousy, betrayal and murder.

The film was commissioned bySyncopy Films Inc, the production company owned and run by Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas, both acting as very involved and engaged Executive Producers. The film was shot on 35mm film and will be presented in Scope. The Brothers write:

For over 15 years now, since we last shot on 35mm film, we have had two classic 35mm Mitchell cameras being casually used as doorstops here in the studio. So it was particularly pleasing when Christopher Nolan should arrive on the scene to commission a new animation short film from us ‘on condition that we shoot on 35mm film’. Now we have reason to have one less doorstop and one resurrected camera.”

The film was processed and patiently guided throughCinelab London by Adrian Bull and grader Paul Dean, who did an extraordinary job with a web of startling images. The mesmerising 20-minute music track is byMichèle Bokanowski, whilst Joakim Sundstrom and Doug Cooper supervised the soundtrack atW.B. De Lane Lea.

After the Paris screenings the film will start a journey through other festivals worldwide.