He_who_lurks There really isn't too much to the Quay Brothers' Stille Nacht III. It has a very mystic feel to it which makes it uncomfortable to watch. Sad music plays and a narrator mumbles quietly in a foreign language. A bullet fires. Pin cones. A hand floats in mid air. A table is suspended above ground. Weird. In fact, while the Quays were known for their stop-motion imagery, there doesn't appear to be much stop-motion involved here and from what I could see, no creepy cracked china dolls. One reviewer said it wasn't as great as the Quay Bro's other shorts in the Stille Nacht series, but to tell the truth I don't really agree. It's mystic and just plain surreal. I'm not sure why or how I liked it but I did all the same. Don't ask me why. At any rate, this one will appeal to anyone who is an Avant-garde film nut. I am. Maybe that's why I liked it. Anyone who hates Avant-garde filmmaking will not like it. I don't. Maybe that's why I don't hate it.

Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de) "Tales from the Vienna Woods" is the third of five entries from the Brothers Quay's "Silent Night" series. At 4 minutes, it runs slightly longer than the second and considerably longer than the first film of the series. It is black-and-white again and death is a huge topic here. We see a piece of furniture that was apparently made from a tree from the Vienna Woods. In order to emphasize the message of death, we hear gunshots on several occasions. And this is also the first film of the franchise that has a narrator, even if it is virtually impossible understand what he is saying. Maybe this narrator was included to make a link to the "Tales" in the title. Still, all in all, this almost 25-year-old film was not too interesting to watch. Same can be said about the two previous entries. Not recommended.

Foreverisacastironmess Ah-ha, more excellent supreme dark and surreal enchantment for the mind, courtesy of the magicians Quay! In some kind of ancient dusty chamber, an apparition of a disembodied hand flits about in a comically macabre fashion, it presses a kind of switch, a rifle emerges out of the nearby "woods" and fires at the centrepiece of the ethereal shadowy room: a bizarre multi-legged table with antlers that hangs suspended in midair. The bullet hits the object and is then caught by an eerily-long spoon that emerges from the table, which then appears to take it back from whence it came, and then the whole event begins to repeat again.... What the heck do you mean, O strange little beautifully-textured vision I see before me? Was the whole thing some kind of metaphor for an animal that had been shot in the woods-like a deer perhaps? It matters not, because nothing makes sense, and yet everything is somehow perfect that way-wouldn't have it different! Half the fun of the Quay shorts is inventing your own little interpretations of the imagery and what you see happening before you. You have to allow the eye to wander... There's just something about the way they did the animation that positively commands the eye. What you do see admittedly isn't all that much, but there's always something magical and compellingly mysterious in the simplicity. I love the haunting ominous music, and the weird noises that sound like a muted television playing, and I love the lulling sound of a man's distant voice that can be heard. His voice is downright hypnotic, you can only really make out the brooding emotion of it, and not the words themselves. There's something almost fairytale-like about all the Quay's films. They're all undeniably dark, dingy and disturbing, but fascinating in turn-and yet it's not a horrific, frightening kind of darkness, they're not trying to give you nightmares, they're merely playing off your moods and emotions-it's a peaceful shadowed realm, like unto a dark dream.... It's almost like they're trying to show glimpses of a world we only ever half-see when we're sleeping. It resonates with the part of the mind that exists on the level of dreams-or nightmares, or something in between...it's all good! See ya.

Polaris_DiB It's not very often that I find something that is so entirely the work of unique filmmakers and still find it not nearly as good as their other works.The Brothers Quay's Stille Nacht III doesn't have the same engaging presence as their other shorts. The motion of the fired bullet is the only thing that really stands out on it. The rest of the short is darker, much darker even than their usual lighting, and it's hard to see. The movements don't seem as up-to-speed as they usually do, and it's much harder to see what the Quays are trying to do, exactly.Also, as a product of the Stille Nacht series, it has not the repeated imagery and re-workings of the other four segments. It doesn't feel connected at all.Interestingly enough, parts of this short were used as the theatrical trailer for Institute Benjamenta, the Quay Brothers' live-action full-length film. And, amusingly enough, it works better as a commercial for things to come than a stand-alone work.--PolarisDiB