Customer Reviews

Institute Benjaminta [VHS]

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Okay, so this film has almost no narrative and the characters are as flat as cardboard. I knew that going in and I still enjoyed it. Why? Well, some movies you just can't watch as narrative experiences, they exist by a different set of rules. As I was watching I realised that the most interesting thing was the movement of the actors. There was a lot of choreography involved, so much so, that I came to realise it was more of an elaborate peformance piece than a film (think Pina Bausch). There isn't much to interpret, but then, there usually isn't in a dance, you just enjoy the motion. Also noteworthy is the lighting and the use of moving spotlights to animate the setting. The characters are awash in light of various qualities, some spectral, some soft. The set decoration and production design are also wonderful, always something to look at in every frame. The camera movements are odd and quixotic, just like in any Quay Brothers film. The performances, especially those of Gottfried John and Alice Krige, are nicely articulated, given that they contain only the merest whiffs of character development. All in all, this is a lovely piece of visual poetry. Watch it in bed and let it waft past you.

Sun Ra lived in Germantown. David Lynch was across the street from the Mutter Museum of Pathology (that houses the remains of the original "siamese" twins amongst other oddities). And the brothers Quay obviously were influenced by the Franklin Institute. The commonality seems to be a sense of madness and epiphone that lies within the structure of discipline and study. Institute Benjamenta is not so much a story as an experience, exactly what you'd expect from a private fraternity with a history for specializing in visual abstractions. Only it is now startling to see the activity produced by live actors rather than their usual bits of shop class remnants and broken dolls. The effect is less fascinating, but more disturbing. I have a friend who contacted the distributor of this film when it was still restricted to rental, hoping to get enough friends to cover a screening. Instead, when the video came out, she couldn't sit through it. Yet she still is haunted by it. This is not an easy movie to recommend, but you may not want to take the chance of missing it.

A quiet and softly spoken man arrives at a ghostly building to enrol for the servants class taught there. He rings the doorbell and is greeted by a monkey's face through the small hole in the door. The man's name is Jakob. He enters and meets one of the two owners (a brother and sister). The brother is unpleasant, and informs Jakob that there are no favourites here.

Jakob goes into class to meet the other students. They all announce their names to him and then fall over. The lessons are presumptuous and iterative. They involve the men swaying from side to side and standing on one leg. They really are quite eccentric. The institute seems to be its own little world away from reality, with its low ceiling rooms. The sister soon has a strange fondness for Jakob. This is a very sombre film, but has a unique air to it. The pacing is pedestrian, but you stay with it. The acting is good, and the camerawork is meticulous and probing.

I sought to obtain this film for my collection almost immediately after seeing it. I cannot give it enough praise.

I was quite drawn into the 'perfumery' mythology the Brothers had created for this translation of Walser's work. Of course this mythology has a framework all its own, but is seamlessly fused with the story. Although I have yet to see the rest of the (stille nacht) series, it appears they had built the foundation of the visual largely from their previous pieces "Stille Nacht"(1988) and "The Comb". The photography and animation, as always, commands the highest respect.

Some may have difficulty appreciating the dialoge in this film, but I for one thought it was delivered flawlessly; the unstable vibration in Jakobs voice, the side-saddle yet wanting manner of Lisa...I have no clue as to the extent of engineering that went into the voice track, but it exhibits a clever aesthetic nonetheless.

The soundtrack is spectacular, not only according to its own merit, but also how closely it embraces the ambience and imagery of the film. Lech Jankowski is quite skilled as a composer, and I look forward to hearing more of his work.

If you appreciate the Quay Brothers and have a facination for David Lynch you will love this video. Filled with poetic imagery, and filmed in beautiful black and white, Institute Benjamenta tells a short story of life within the bleak walls of a school for servants. As surreal as they come with a touch of Eraserhead. I found it hauntingly beautiful.

"Institute Benjamenta" has all the positive attributes one would expect from the Brothers Quay: poetic and haunting scenic composition, magnificent photography with ultra-shallow depth of field (a Quay hallmark), and an eerie off-key musical score perfectly mated to the visuals.

What the film lacks -- and lacks quite desperately -- is effective writing. The Brothers' verbal skills are, unfortunately, several orders of magnitude below their compelling visual imagination. The result is that scene after scene is damaged by lines of dialogue that range from pedestrian to downright painful.

While "The Brothers Quay Collection" DVD of (dialogue-free!) short films remains an enthusiastic five-star recommendation, "Institute Benjamenta" is much more hit-or-miss. Fans of the Quays will at least want to take a look; others may be better off skipping this one.

A total dream. Definitely not a film for everyone! This film can truly be called "artsy fartsy". :) If you're familiar with the Brothers Quay short animations, then you'll recognize many of their concepts here. I own this DVD and only watch it every now and then. It's one of those movies you keep around to watch when the mood is right. Warning: you should only buy this movie if you KNOW you can tolerate the bizarre.

I recently bought the DVD of the Quay brother's INSTITUTE BENJAMENTA, or THIS DREAM PEOPLE CALL LIFE. I bought it purely on reviews, which praised its expressionist B & W cinematography and bizarre nature.

To be honest, I've bought many film because of high praise from a dozen or so reviewers and found the films somewhat boring, e.g., THE VIRGIN SUICIDE, GHOST WORLD, etc. Yes, I know I'm a heretic. But German expressionism is a special interest of mine and so I decided to take a chance, preparing to curse my vulnerability to persuasion if I was disappointed.

The film starred Alice Krige (most famous as the Borg queen in STAR TREK, FIRST CONTACT and Mark Rylance, best known for playing William in ANGELS AND INSECTS. This time the reviewers led me to a fine film. Bizarre, to be sure, and much like ERASERHEAD, with a decided noirish atmosphere.

The story concerns a man who applies to a school for servants and learns, through a series of classes, to totally subordinate his ego to the will of an employer. Alice Krige is the sister of the headmaster, who is the catalyst for revolutionary changes------------or is she? The film may be about man's relationship to the State, revolution, class structure, obedience, or a few other things.

The expressionist atmosphere is thick enough to choke on and the possibilities of what's really going on may be as much a puzzle as MULLHOLLAND DRIVE.

If you have a taste for the strange, like noir or expressionism in B & W, or found ERASERHEAD intellectually engaging, you might like to try this film.

Jay F.

Let's appreciate the visual. The brothers Quay are very dedicated to their craft. We need to overlook the obvious and support anyone who dares to make pictures with this kind of quality.

Strangely haunting. If you are mesmerized by Butoh dance, then this movie should appeal--not for fidgeties predisposed to jazz dance.

I haven't seen this feature since it came out in 1996, yet I still have vivid imagery recurrences of the cinematography. Imagine linking a million painstakenly taken sequences of still photographs, printed in sepia-tone, and you'll get an idea what this movie is like to watch. How you view this movie will depend on your state of mind and you're patience for artistic self-absorbtion. Soon I will track it down and reabsorb.