Stille Nacht I: Dramolet (1988)

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

Stephen and Timothy Quay made quite a few animated shorts, but most of them were much longer than this. In fact, this is no doubt their shortest film. There is not that much to it. It's barely a minute long, and another reviewer said that was too short. Well, actually, I think that might be all the better, to leave the viewer hanging like that. It really doesn't need anymore.The film is very incoherent, and it was meant to be. It consists of a magnet spinning in place, and an animated puppet (which is a little creepy-looking) watching. It's a very simple set-up, yet is quite nightmarish. The Quay Bros made a series of Stille Nacht short films and this is the first. The others I'll definitely have to look at. Their other films are probably better in some regards, but this is an interesting diversion. If you're a fan of these surrealist art shorts like I am, then this little movie will meet your fancy.

"Stille Nacht I" is an American (very) short movie with a runtime of only one minute. It is black-and-white and was shot by the Quay Twins (among America's most famous animators in the first half of the 20th century) as the first of so far five entries to their "Silent Night" short film series. We see creepy dolls, spoons and just feel a general aura of discomfort. The creepy music certainly helps the overall picture. However, I was not scared once and this should usually be the goal of a horror film. It was just strange and weird somehow. All in all, I would not recommend this and I really hope that the next entries to this series will be superior to this forgettable one here.

This rather magnetic and unusual short is a very brief and simple one. Plot-wise, it doesn't have one-but in terms of mood and awe it is very great. Perhaps not so great as to deserve a perfect ten, but I did anyway. Didn't see why not, there's nothing wrong with it and it does everything it's supposed to in the minute space of time afforded it. The way it looks and feels is so hypnotising that the short seems to just whizz by in the span of a breath. It's weird, I've seen short films that were even smaller than this that somehow felt bigger, if you know what I mean. It makes me laugh how even with something as tiny and ungraspable as this some people have to analyse and declare what they think it "means" just so they can feel so much smarter than all the stupid little people who don't. There is nothing to figure out here, it's merely an enchanting flicker of Gothic magic to titillate and play off the senses, and to me it sort of feels like a test run they tried, to show the viewer a sample of the astonishing work they were capable of. ::: Not much to see, but there's so much with so little. There's a chipped and ragged-looking clown doll, and a spoon gathering what I'm guessing is metallic shavings that look like crawling moss. I used to like to magnetise and play with that stuff in woodwork class when I was a kid. I'm very tempted to describe the doll as "creepy", but it's not really. The whole short is alien and bizarre and completely surreal as heck, but it's definitely not frightening. To me, all of the Brothers Quay animations teeter on the edge of being eerie, but right from the beginning I always found all the ghost-like sounds and imagery within to be classy and soothing, in an ethereal kind of way. No, I don't believe it's horror what the Quay's were all about. They're all dark, and beautiful. Art for the eyes, for the mind, for the soul....

This short is utterly delightful. There's not much to it in terms of what is available to be seen and commented on, but there is a lot to it in terms of what was done and how. Instead of flecking their sets with dust and hair, the brothers Quay place a magnet in a field and let the magnet play with all the little magnetic fragments. It's creepy... but it's fun! I honestly don't know what to make of the babydoll that watches the whole thing, eventually to turn and attempt to eat a meal, but it doesn't make me want to eat anything anytime soon! I think this is more something the brothers have done in order to experiment with something they haven't yet put into a longer film, but wanted to do regardless.--PolarisDiB