Classical avant-gardeists The theme of the avant-garde has always been and remains another reality, surreality, subconscious dynamics and psychological movements.
With the help of animation, it is much easier to convey such complex states than in movies. But the Quay brothers in this work combined two techniques - filming and animation.
What is filmed remains black and white. This is a real room where a person sleeps on the bed. It's a girl. In the room there is a mirror with a dresser, on which lies a comb. Then the image becomes colored and we see the dreamer.
Immediately it is worth saying that the directors are masters of the state of the viewer, which is called suspense. You enter this state from the very first frames. Firstly, because of the black and white image with minimal interior filling, in which all the details are read. By the way, it aesthetically resembles shots from avant-garde paintings. Secondly, the dream itself is filmed in red and dark colors, with a dimmed light. This already conveys mystery and invites you to travel to the subconscious. Thirdly, this is music, it envelops and immediately drags into an anxious, intriguing state. Fourth, these are occasionally whispered words. Whispering in general is a strong acting artistic medium, but in the context of the collection of these funds it acquires even greater weight. A whisper is always something secret.
The dream itself is the hero's attempt - a dilapidated man - to climb the stairs. The hands are separated from it, which live their lives and do not allow to lift.
This imaginative dream is interrupted by shots from allegedly real life: we see a tossing man, his restless hands. Every movement is given in a dream. When the girl wakes up, the ladder, which has almost reached the character, collapses. The girl goes to the mirror and starts combing her hair. She remembers her dream by looking at the pillow. In close-up, we see her touching her combs. This gesture is read as a continuation of the ladder, on which the character, after all, will climb, albeit not in a dream, but he will finish the climb.
Subconscious play is transmitted through games with expressive means. This is a play of light in black and white frames and a light solution of sleep - red tones, half-darkness. This is a decision of texture, because the character is an old shabby doll with falling limbs. These are defocus games. These are visual references to Bosch’s paintings, as well as smooth panoramas and hypnotizing departures and raids on these images. This camera motion solution is sometimes as careful as an animal: it waits and watches somewhere, and sometimes it becomes detached-narrative. And finally, these are meaningful images-symbols, such as a ladder, tree roots, reflections in the water, hands, a comb with its cloves.
It is difficult and not always objective to analyze avant-garde work. After all, the most important thing in it is not even to reveal the meaning, and the main thing is to catch the state that the authors have prepared for the viewer. And all conclusions and meanings will remain far from the surface of the perceiving this immersion.