Country: Kazakhstan
Year: 2010
Duration: 24'
the mask ‘It’ is an automaton created piece by piece, limb by limb, that takes suddenly the shape disguised of a beautiful female, Duenna. She is sent on a mission by an authoritarian king with the order to seduce and kill a prince who opposed him. Although she is programmed to kill, she is also capable simultaneously of questioning this programation and it is this friction between the soul and the machine that keeps one suspended between belief and disbelief. “Initially it was a commission from the Polish Cultural Institute in London. They were going to be doing a retrospective of Stanislaw Lem and we were asked to contribute a small film around one of his robot stories. In the American edition which we had they appended two other stories, one being The Mask. I think we were attracted by the idea that there was a creature created limb by limb that slowly gathers a consciousness, realises it has been created to be a killing machine, and more or less falls in love with the person it’s meant to kill.”
Biography
film director
Stephen Quay
Stephen and Timothy Quay (Norristown, PA, USA, 1947), twin brothers, studied at the Philadelphia College of Art, then later moved to London, where he attended the Royal College of Art. In 1980 the formed Koninck with colleague Keith Griffiths and during a thirty-year career thay have produced a hybrid variety of puppets animation film work. Their work also includes decors for opera and theatre productions.
FILMOGRAFIA
filmografia essenziale/essential filmography
Nocturna Artificialia (cm, anim., 1979), Punch & Judy: Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy (coregia/codirectors Keith Griffiths, Larry Sider, mm, anim., 1980), The Eternal Day of Michel De Ghelderode (coregia/codirector Keith Griffiths, cm, anim., 1981), Ein Brudermord (cm, anim., 1981), Stravinsky: The Paris Years (cm, anim., 1983), The Cabinet of Jan Svankmajer (coregia/codirector Keith Griffiths, cm, anim., 1984), This Unnameable Little Broom (coregia/codirector Keith Griffiths, cm, anim., 1985), Street of Crocodiles (cm, anim., 1985), Rehearsals for Extinct Anatomies (cm, anim., 1988), The Comb (cm, anim., 1990), De Artificiali Perspectiva (cm, anim., 1991), Tales from the Vienna Woods (cm, anim., 1992), Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream People Call Human Life (1995), The Sandman (cm, TV, 2000), In Absentia (cm, anim., 2000), The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes (2005), Inwentorium ?ladów (cm, anim., 2009), Maska (cm, anim., 2010).
Timothy Quay
Stephen and Timothy Quay (Norristown, PA, USA, 1947), twin brothers, studied at the Philadelphia College of Art, then later moved to London, where he attended the Royal College of Art. In 1980 the formed Koninck with colleague Keith Griffiths and during a thirty-year career thay have produced a hybrid variety of puppets animation film work. Their work also includes decors for opera and theatre productions.
FILMOGRAFIA
filmografia essenziale/essential filmography
Nocturna Artificialia (cm, anim., 1979), Punch & Judy: Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy (coregia/codirectors Keith Griffiths, Larry Sider, mm, anim., 1980), The Eternal Day of Michel De Ghelderode (coregia/codirector Keith Griffiths, cm, anim., 1981), Ein Brudermord (cm, anim., 1981), Stravinsky: The Paris Years (cm, anim., 1983), The Cabinet of Jan Svankmajer (coregia/codirector Keith Griffiths, cm, anim., 1984), This Unnameable Little Broom (coregia/codirector Keith Griffiths, cm, anim., 1985), Street of Crocodiles (cm, anim., 1985), Rehearsals for Extinct Anatomies (cm, anim., 1988), The Comb (cm, anim., 1990), De Artificiali Perspectiva (cm, anim., 1991), Tales from the Vienna Woods (cm, anim., 1992), Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream People Call Human Life (1995), The Sandman (cm, TV, 2000), In Absentia (cm, anim., 2000), The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes (2005), Inwentorium ?ladów (cm, anim., 2009), Maska (cm, anim., 2010).
Cast
& Credits
regia, montaggio, animatori, scenografia/directors, film editing, animators, production design
Stephen Quay, Timothy Quay
soggetto/story
dall’omonimo racconto di/from the short story of the same title by Stanis?aw Lem
costumi/costume design
Dariusz Kalita
musica/music
Krzysztif Penderecki
suono/sound
Janusz Czubak
interprete/cast
Magdalena Cielecka (voce narrante/Narrator)
produttori/producers
Marlena ?ukasiak, Zbignienew ?mudzki
produzione/production
Se-Ma-For Film Production, Polish Cultural Institute in London, Adam Mickiewicz Polska!Year, National Audiovisual Institute
coproduttori/coproducers
Pawe? Potoroczyn, Micha? Merczynski, Wojciech Juszczak, Roland Chojnacki
vendita all’estero/world sales
Atelier Koninck Qbfz
