Sanatorium Under The SIgn Of The Hourglass (2024) starts Friday at the Film Forum

With SANATORIUM UNDER THE SIGN OF THE HOURGLASS Timothy and Stephen Quay have turned several stories from writer and painter Bruno Schulz into a waking dream that takes us into another world. A mix of animation and live action this is a film that only the Quays could have made.

The plot, and I use that term loosely, has a chimney sweep trying to sell a magical box that has many lens. when you look through the lens on a certain day the cornea contained inside it will allow the viewer to see seven final moments from the life of the owner. In this case it reveals the story of a man named Josef, who takes an etherial train to a Santaorium that is out of sync with time. Its so out of sync that Josef's father who is dead, is still alive.

This film is its own world. It is a world that is best described in a dream world. Reality is subjective. Images repeat. Things shift from Quay style feral animation to real life. Things are cinematic one moment, theatrical at another. Aspect rations go from standard cinema ratios to ultra wide screen. Sone time the images are angular and sometimes something else. Everything exists only for the moment.

This is cinematic magic of the highest order. While the film may remind you of other filmmakers (Jiri Trnka, Peter Greenaway, Hans-Jurgen Syberberg , Walerian Borowczyk and others)  this film is actually more the work of the Quays. Their palette and sensibilities are all over this. 

And I am in awe of the the marriage of image and music. this has to be one of the greatest marriages of image and music that has ever been put on film. Rarely has any film used music so perfectly from start to finish. Neither lifts more than the other and the result is an emotional punch that leaves us haunted at the end.

While I think this film is possibly one of the best films of the year and of the Quays, I will freely admit that the pacing can be considered slow in the second half. I say this because I felt myself drifting off a bit. While normally that might has had me disengage, something that happened to some of my fellow writers, I stayed connected. The reason was the feeling that the whole affair is a dream. The drifting had me merging cinema and dream in the cheap seats.

Quibble aside, this is grand cinema. This is a true work of art and a masterpiece by two of cinema's masters. I highly recommend this film when it plays by you.