Doc (4 MB/) piano pressbook

‘‘These things never happen but are always.’’
Sallust
synopsis
On the eve of her wedding, the beautiful opera singer Malvina is mysteriously killed and abducted by a malevolent Dr. Droz.
Felisberto, an innocent piano tuner, is summoned to Droz’s secluded villa to service his strange musical automatons. Little by
little Felisberto learns of the doctor’s plans to stage a ‘‘diabolical opera’’ and of Malvina’s fate. He secretly conspires to rescue
her, only to become trapped himself in the web of Droz’s perverse universe...
interview
Interview with Jonathan Romney.
The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes is recognisably a Brothers Quay film in its images and textures, but it’s also a narrative film,
in the high fantastic tradition. What ideas and images inspired it?
Quay brothers: The aim was to make something like poetic science fiction. We were very inspired by the novella The
Invention of Morel, by the Argentinian writer Adolfo Bioy Casares, which merges the fantastic and an element of science
fiction, on a very poetic level. In the end, in fact, the film came to be much closer to Jules Verne’s story Le Château des
Carpathes (Carpathian Castle). It’s about a famous opera singer abducted by an obsessive Baron who takes her to the
Carpathian Mountains. Her lover looks for her and finds out that a voice has been heard in this château. When he goes in,
he sees her singing – but when he tries to save her, he realises it was all projections on glass that shatter.
The other inspiration is Raymond Roussel’s novel Locus Solus, which features these strange machine-like tableaux vivants.
Droz is obviously Canterel, the inventor in Roussel’s Locus Solus, who guides us through his estate, showing off each tableau
vivant and explaining it. We took the name Droz from Pierre Jacquet-Droz, a famous automaton maker of the 1700s - and
by itself, Droz sounded like a science fiction name.
The film starts with a quote from Sallust (c. 86-34 BC), which really encapsulates everything: “These things never happen,
but are always.” It’s the idea that there are powerful forces which are controlling and shaping people’s destinies. Then
there’s this interloper, Felisberto – an innocent who incarnates the liberating Orphic spirit. He arrives to realise that there’s
something powerful being perpetrated by Dr Droz, who’s victimising the innocent Malvina. That’s the Bluebeard’s Castle
element - the innocent wanders into the forest to free the ‘princess’. And Droz sees what he’s doing and interpolates him
into his plan.
Why have you moved into making live action features rather than animation shorts?
The idea was to force more animation into the features and combine it with live action.We wanted to push that further here.
In a sense, it’s like having live actors walk around puppet sets. We want that integration – or disintegration at times, because
there’s also a slippage where you’re hoping that the puppet realm is pushing into the live action realm, or vice versa.We were
going for an in-between state, where you’re not sure which world you’re in.
You’ve always used dolls and automaton figures, and this film is haunted by Droz’s mechanical creations. Why do we find
the old mechanical automata so fascinating and uncanny, when we seem to be blasé about the commonplace science fiction
of robots?
The crucial thing about automata is their enchantment.They can be extremely sophisticated but at the same time very basic
in terms of what they can do.They’re usually condemned to remain in a loop of actions that they can’t go outside.We based
the Woodchopper in this film on an old ex-voto painting: he basically calls out ‘Timber!’ and chops the tree down, but by
accident cuts his leg instead, bleeds into a pool, and then it all starts all over again – he jumps up and he’s chopping again.
It’s a very simple loop but there’s a lot of genuine enchantment.
You usually work with models in your own workshop. Here you worked on a set in Leipzig, with human actors and sets on
a human scale. What were the pleasures and challenges of moving outside your usual domain?
It was a great pleasure and a challenge. It’s like when we design opera decors, working on a scale of 1: 25, and then suddenly
see it on a stage blown up 25 times: bigger there’s a bizarre pleasure in that. In Leipzig, although we were working in a huge
studio, a lot of the decor was only partially built: the rest was green-screened, then digitally blended. We designed it so that
all interiors could be done on one stage: we needed a seafront, and a bit of a forest, and one chapel for the automata, which
became seven, as we shifted the décor round. It was conceived very theatrically.This is the first time we really went for digital
– we shot it in Hi-Def, and simultaneously married the animation, which was all shot on a digital Nikon stills camera.
This is the second feature you’ve made with actors, following Institute Benjamenta. How did you choose your cast, and what
sort of actors fit your unusual film world?
We also like using actors not only when they’re talking, we like to use them for those certain looks that they transmit. They
can get you past dialogue into other realms.
We originally wrote the Assumpta part for Assumpta Serna ten years ago. We wanted a very seductive, entrancing character
for this role: her carnality appealed to us. Amira Casar has this real porcelain beauty: we were fascinated by the idea of her
immobility, which of course, is usually hard for an actress to accept, but she would still her face and centre it. And her mother
was an opera singer - so Amira was very knowledgeable about opera.
We love Gottfried John’s stature, his aloofness and regalness. We saw him for the first time in Fassbinder’s 25-part Berlin
Alexanderplatz, and we cast him in Institute Benjamenta, because we needed someone remote and a bit of an ogre
character.
Cesar Saracho was in Institute Benjamenta, and his character Felisberto is like Jakob in that film, the figure who walks into
the maelstrom. Cesar worked with Theatre de Complicité; he studied under the mime teacher Jacques Lecoq, and looked
into the notion of the clown. He has an innocence, and a real comic turn.
As usual, your film contains a lot of visual references to the art and architecture of the past.
The chief reference is to the painting Island of the Dead (1880), by the Swiss artist Arnold Böcklin. The setting had to be
remote: it had to feel like it really was the Isle of the Dead, or even like the island in Antonioni’s L’Avventura – locked off,
utterly remote. The estate felt like some secluded Portuguese villa. There’s one place in Portugal called Buçaco where we
immediately imagined automata in the form of the stations of the cross. The Portuguese Baroque was a big influence, and
the whole earthquake theme was very pertinent to Portugal, because of the Lisbon earthquake of 1755.
Another reference was the famous Magritte painting The Empire of Light, where it’s daytime in the sky and night down
below. Of course the landscape, when we created it as a model, was made of cork – we matted those images in, and added
sky and water digitally.
For a long time, you worked as a duo, but your cinematographer Nic Knowland seemed to adapt very naturally to your
vision when he worked with you on Institute Benjamenta. How did your collaboration evolve on this film?
We’ve worked with Nic on a couple of commercials and ballets, as well as Institute Benjamenta, so we’ve always been
exploring things with him. We’re merciless about framing, but Nic really loosened up the camera on this film. On Institute
Benjamenta, we had it locked off – here it was more sensuous. Planning with Nic, we knew we were required to shoot in
colour and so we said, “OK, then we’ll design in black and white, then the only colour will be in the costumes, the faces
and the sea and the sky.”
Music has always been important in your films, and this one is particularly operatic. What were your musical ideas here?
For the opera that Droz composes, we needed a unique sound world, a sort of anti-opera because he’s rejected by the
established opera world. So he does his take on the Nissi Domini of Vivaldi - a kind of Schnittke-esque take on opera.That’s
the theme you hear at the beginning and it’s composed by Christopher Slaski.
The other music is by Trevor Duncan, who’s a very agile composer. If you want music for sailing he’s done it, he’s done
thriller music, and you can just buy them off the shelf. We had a plan to use library music and we’ve known for more than
40 years that his was the music that Chris Marker used in La Jetée. We use the same music here - it was originally written
for a ballet in the late 1950s.
It’s not just the music that’s haunting, though: there’s a whole range of sound design that contributes to the uncanny nature
of this film’s universe.
We were looking for the ambience of the remote island – for those states where you felt that the automata realm was
starting to contaminate the human world. We use certain sounds - drones - to create an atmosphere of psychic confusion.
The sounds float down and multiply and create a sense of depth. We wanted a dream state at times, where you felt that the
automata were dreaming the people.We wanted to create a dirtier sound world, one that was almost deliberately mono, that
pushed out to the limits of ‘Scope.
The most bizarre image in the film is inspired by the ‘Stink Ant’ of the Cameroon (Megaloponera foetens) – one of
the pseudo natural history exhibits in the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles, an exhibition of apocryphal
wonders.
The story is that there rains down a fungus of spores and the poor unsuspecting ant walks along the ground, inhales the
spore, suddenly detours, climbs the stalk and dies, because its brain matter has been eaten by this fungus - which then
excretes a spike that rains further spores for the next unsuspecting ant... It’s all very convincingly documented, but as you
leave that museum you say to yourself, it’s all faked. It’s purely a museum of the imagination. We wrote to David Wilson,
who runs the Museum and asked if we could use it and it became the essential core of The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes. We
wrote it into the script, seeing it as a metaphor for Droz’s world – an allegory of madness.
biography
The Quay brothers are identical twin brothers born outside Philadelphia, in Norristown, Pennsylvania. They studied Film
and Illustration at the Philadelphia College of Art {1965-1969} followed by a Masters Degree in London at the Royal
College of Art {1969-1972} where they continued their studies in Illustration and Film, particularly the latter, where they
made three short animation films. Returning to America they attempted to make a living from free-lance book illustration
out of New York, though economically times were difficult. In terms of their work, there was an increasing frustration with
the two-dimensional graphic realm of drawing and little by little they gravitated towards wanting to create in miniature {in
the manner of Joseph Cornell’s boxes} powerful three-dimensional realms, using puppets and objects through the medium
of film animation. In 1978 they received a National Endowment Grant for the Arts. They travelled throughout England,
Belgium and Holland researching and looking at the craft of puppetry.Whilst in London a former colleague from the Royal
College of Art, Keith Griffiths was working as Deputy Head of Production for the British Film Institute Production Board,
and suggested that they make an application for ‘‘experimental’’ film funding. They promptly drafted a scenario for a short
puppet animation film and then left for Holland. Some months later they received a telegram saying that they had been
awarded the B.F.I. grant.
They returned to London and “a little like James Joyce who, upon his arrival in Paris planned on staying for only two weeks
and instead remained 25 years. In our case, we had planned on staying a mere 9 months in order to execute the film but
similarly have ended up staying some 25 years as well. Our first film lead to a second film, then a third and a fourth, etc” By
this time they had formed a small company “KONINCK” together with producer Keith Griffiths and over the past 24 years
have made a hybrid variety of puppet animation films: Documentaries {Punch and Judy, Stravinsky & Janacek,The Cabinet
of Jan Svankmajer, Anamorphosis, The Phantom Museum}; Interludes & Stings {BBC, MTV}; Commercials {for England
quay brothers
and America}; as well as Fiction Films inspired by the writings of Kafka, Bruno Schulz {Street of Crocodiles}, Robert
Walser {The Comb, Institute Benjamenta - a live-action feature film}. Recently, for Channel Four they have directed as part
of a dance series called «Choreographers and Filmmakers» Duet - an 18 min. ballet by Will Tuckett from the Royal Ballet.
For the BBC as part of its Sound and Image series they collaborated with the composer Karlheinz Stockhausen who wrote
the music for their film In Absentia. They did a further collaboration with the choreographer Will Tuckett, a 40 min. film
based on E.T.A. Hoffmann’s The Sandman.
Apart from the films, their work also includes designing the scenography for Theatre, Opera and Ballet productions both in
London and Europe.
filmography
1979 NOCTURNA ARTIFICIALIA {British Film Institute}
1980 PUNCH & JUDY {Arts Council of Great Britain}
EIN BRUDERMORD {GLAA}
1981 THE ETERNAL DAY OF MICHEL DE GHELDERODE {Arts Council of Great Britain}
1983 IGOR: THE PARIS YEARS {Channel Four}
LEOS JANÁCEK: INTIMATE EXCURSIONS {Channel Four}
quay brothers
1984
1985
1986
1987
1988
1989
1990
1991
1992
1993
1994
1995
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2005
THE CABINET OF JAN SVANKMAJER {Channel Four}
THIS UNNAMEABLE LITTLE BROOM {Channel Four}
STREET OF CROCODILES {British Film Institute}
REHEARSALS FOR EXTINCT ANATOMIES {Channel Four}
STILLE NACHT I: ‘‘DRAMOLET’’ {MTV}
EX VOTO {MTV}
THE COMB: From the Museums of Sleep {Channel Four}
DE ARTIFFICIALI PERSPECTIVA, or ANAMORPHOSIS {J Paul Getty Trust}
THE CALLIGRAPHER: Parts I, II, III {BBC}
STILLE NACHT II: ‘‘Are We Still Married?’’ {4AD}
STILLE NACHT III: ‘‘Tales from Vienna Woods’’ {Atelier Koninck QBFZ}
STILLE NACHT IV: ‘‘Can’t Go Wrong Without You’’ {4AD}
INSTITUTE BENJAMENTA, OR THIS DREAM PEOPLE CALL HUMAN LIFE {Channel Four/Image
Forum/British Screen/Pandora Films} Feature Film
DUET:Variations on the Convalescence of ‘‘A’’ {Film Ballet} {Channel Four}
IN ABSENTIA Music by Karlheinz Stockhausen {BBC}
THE SANDMAN {Film-Ballet} {Channel Four}
STILLE NACHT V {Atelier Koninck QBFZ}
«Day of the Dead» {Dream Sequence} for the Film ‘‘FRIDA’’ by Julie Taymor
THE PHANTOM MUSEUM {The Wellcome Trust}
SONGS FOR DEAD CHILDREN Music by Steve Martland {Tate Modern}
THE PIANO TUNER OF EARTHQUAKES {Germany/France/UK} Feature Film
filmography
2005
2004
2004
2004
2003
2003
THE PIANO TUNER OF EARTHQUAKES - Brothers Quay
PEINDRE OU FAIRE L’AMOUR - Arnaud et Jean-Marie Larrieu
LA CLOCHE A SONNÉ - Bruno Herbulot, Adeline Lecallier
ANATOMY OF HELL - Catherine Breillat
MARIÉES MAIS PAS TROP - Catherine Corsini
SYLVIA - Christine Jeffs
amira casar
2002
2002
2001
2000
2000
2000
2000
1998
1998
1998
1998
1996
1996
1996
1995
1995
1994
1989
UNDER ANOTHHER SKY - Gaël Morel
HYPNOTIZED AND HYSTERICAL - Claude Duty
RIEN,VOILÀ L’ORDRE - Jacques Baratier
LA VÉRITÉ SI JE MENS 2 - Thomas Gilou
BUNUEL AND KING SOLOMON’S TABLE - Carlos Saura
ONCE WE GROW UP - Renaud Cohen
HOW I KILLED MY FATHER - Anne Fontaine
WHY NOT ME? - Stéphane Guisti
SOONER OR LATER - Anne-Marie Etienne
LE DERRIÈRE - Valérie Lemercier
LE COEUR À L’OUVRAGE - Laurent Dussaux
WOULD I LIE TO YOU? - Thomas Gilou
MARIE BAIE DES ANGES - Manuel Pradal
MIRADA LIQUIDA - Rafaël Moleon
SHARPE’S SIEGE - Tony Glegg
TIRE À PART - Bernard Rapp
AINSI SOIENT-ELLES - Patrick Alessandrin
ERREUR DE JEUNESSE - Radovan Tadic
filmography
assumpta serna
2005
2003
2003
2003
2001
2000
1998
1998
1997
1996
1996
1996
1996
1995
1995
1994
1994
1994
1994
1992
1992
1992
THE PIANO TUNER OF EARTHQUAKES - Brothers Quay
TERESA TERESA - Rafael Gordon
LE INTERMITTENZE DEL CUORE - Fabio Carpi
SINGLE AGAIN - Joyce Buñuel
THE JOURNEYMAN - James Crowley
BULLFIGHTER - Rune Bendixen
WHY NOT ME? - Stéphane Guisti
SUBJUDICE - José María Forn
STOLEN MOMENTS - Oscar Barney Finn
COMO UN RELAMPAGO - Miguel Hermoso
TOT VERI - Xavier Ribera
THE CRAFT - Andrew Fleming
MANAGUA - Michele Taverna
HIDDEN ASSASSIN - Ted Kotcheff
A HUNDRED AND ONE NIGHTS - Agnès Varda
SHORTCUT TO PARADISE - Gerardo Herrero
NOSTRADAMUS - Roger Christian
GREEN HENRY - Thomas Koerfer
BELLE AL BAR - Alessandro Benvenuti
CHAIN OF DESIRE - Temístocles López
THE FENCING MASTER - Pedro Olea
LA NUIT DE L’OCEAN - Antoine Perset
1992
1992
1992
1991
1991
1990
1990
1988
1988
1987
1987
1987
1987
1986
1986
1986
1986
1985
1985
1985
1984
1984
1984
1983
ADELAIDE - Lucio Gaudino
A QUOI TU PENSES-TU? - Didier Kaminka
HAVANERA 1820 - Antoni Verdaguer
ROSSINI! ROSSINI! - Mario Monicelli
L’HOME DE NEO - Albert Abril
I, THE WORST OF ALL - María Luisa Bemberg
WILD ORCHID - Zalman King
QUI T’ESTIMA, BABEL? - Ignasi P. Ferré
VALENTINA - Giandomenico Curi
LA BRUTE - Claude Guillemot
BALADA DA PRAIA DOS CÃES - José Fonseca e Costa
LA FURIA DE UN DIOS - Felipe Cazals
LA VERITAT OCULTA - Carlos Benpar
LOLA - Bigas Luna
MATADOR - Pedro Almodóvar
LULU BY NIGHT - Emilio Martínez Lázaro
LUCKY RAVI - Vincent Lombard
THE OLD MUSIC – Mario Camus
CRONICA SENTIMENTAL EN ROJO - Francisco Rovira Beleta
EXTRAMUROS - Miguel Picazo
EL JARDIN SECRETO - Carlos Suárez
BAJO EN NICOTINA - Raúl Artigot
LA JOVEN Y LA TENTACION - François Mimet
CIRCLE OF PASSIONS - Claude d’Anna
1983
1983
1983
1982
1982
1981
1981
1981
1981
1980
1980
1979
1979
1978
SUPERMARKET - José María Sánchez Álvaro
COTO DE CAZA - Jorge Grau
SOLDADOS DE PLOMO - José Sacristán
LA REVOLTA DELS OCELLS - Lluís Josep Comerón
DULCES HORAS - Carlos Saura
LA CRIPTA - Cayetano Del Real
DOS Y DOS, CINCO - Lluís Josep Comerón
VECINOS - Alberto Bermejo
PATRIMONIO NACIONAL - Luis García Berlanga
PEPI, LUCI, BOM AND OTHER GIRLS ON THE HEAP - Pedro Almodóvar
EL CRIMEN DE CUENCA - Pilar Miró
POLVOS MAGICOS - José Ramón Larraz
SALUT I FORÇA AL CANUT - Francesc Bellmunt
L’ORGIA - Francesc Bellmunt
filmography
cesar sarachu
2005
2004
2003
2002
2000
2000
1995
1995
1991
THE PIANO TUNER OF EARTHQUAKES - Brothers Quay
BABYLONSJUKAN - Daniel Espinosa
EXPRESO NOCTURNO - Imanol Ortiz López
MOTE MED ONDSKAN - Reza Parsa
FORE STORMEN - Reza Parsa
TO BE CONTINUED... - Linus Tunström
INSTITUTE BENJAMENTA, OR THIS DREAM PEOPLE CALL HUMAN LIFE - Brothers Quay
SALVATE SI PUEDES - Joaquín Trincado
SANTA CRUZ, EL CURA GUERRILLERO - José María Tuduri
filmography
2005 THE PIANO TUNER OF EARTHQUAKES - Brothers Quay
2004 COWGIRL - Mark Schlichter
2003 SAMS IN GEFAHR - Ben Verbong
2002 NANCY & FRANK - A MANHATTAN LOVE STORY - Wolf Gremm
2000 PROOF OF LIFE - Taylor Hackford
1999 ASTERIX ET OBELIX VS CESAR - Claude Zidi
1998 BIN ICH SCHÖN? - Doris Dörrie
gottfried john
1996 DER UNHOLD - Volker Schlöndorff
1995 GOLDENEYE - Martin Campbell
1995 INSTITUTE BENJAMENTA, OR THIS DREAM PEOPLE CALL HUMAN LIFE - Brothers Quay
1992 DIE VERFEHLUNG - Heiner Carow
1992 DIE ZEIT DANACH - Jürgen Kaizik
1991 ICH SCHENK DIR DIE STERNE - Jörg Graser
1990 WINGS OF FAME - Otakar Votocek
1986 CHINESE BOXES - Christopher Petit
1985 OTTO - DER FILM - Xaver Schwarzenberger & Otto Waalkes
1985 DIE MITLÄUFER - Eberhard Itzenplitz & Erwin Leiser
1985 MATA HARI - Curtis Harrington
1984 SUPER - Adolf Winkelmann
1983 ENTE ODER TRENTE - Rigo Manikofski
1981 LILI MARLEEN - Rainer Werner Fassbinder
1980 BERLIN - Alexander Platz (TV) & Rainer Werner Fassbinder
1979 THE MARIAGE OF MARIA BRAUN - Rainer Werner Fassbinder
1978 IN A YEAR OF THIRTEEN MOONS - Rainer Werner Fassbinder
1978 FEDORA - Billy Wilder
1978 DESPAIR - Rainer Werner Fassbinder
1975 MOTHER KÜSTERS’ TRIP TO HEAVEN - Rainer Werner Fassbinder
1971 CARLOS - Hans W. Geissendörfer
1962 CAFE ORIENTAL - Rudolf Schündler
cast
Malvina van Stille............Amira Casar
Dr. Emmanuel Droz........Gottfried John
Assumpta........................Assumpta Serna
Filesberto / Adolfo..........Cesar Sarachu
Gardener Holz................Ljubisa Lupo-Grujcic
Gardener Marc................Marc Bischoff
Gardener Henning..........Henning Peker
Gardener Echeverria....... Gilles Gavois
Gardener Volker...............Volker Zack
Gardener Thomas ........... Thomas Schmieder
crew
Producers............................................................ Keith Griffiths
Alexander Ris
Hengameh Panahi
Executive Producer............................................. Terry Gilliam
Executive Producer for UK Film Council........... Paul Trijbits
Senior Executive for the New Cinema Fund....... Emma Clarke
Co-Producers for Mediopolis.............................. Alexander Ris & Jörg Rothe
Associate Producer for MCA............................... Michael Becker
For Arte France Cinema ..................................... Michel Reilhac & Rémi Burah
For ZDF/Arte..................................................... Meinolf Zurhorst & Eva Kammerer
Line Producer......................................................Björn Eggert
Scenario.............................................................. Alan Passes & Quay Brothers
Costume Designer............................................... Kandis Cook
Editor..................................................................Simon Laurie
Director of Photography......................................Nic Knowland BSC
Music..................................................................Trevor Duncan & Christopher Slaski
Director of Sound ..............................................Larry Sider
Direction Design Animation................................Quay Brothers
Casting................................................................Irene Lamb (UK)
Cornelia Mareth (GER)
Choreographer.....................................................Kim Brandstrup
UK/Germany/France 2005 99’ color 2 :35 Dolby SRD
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