What if David Lynch had directed The Abominable Dr. Phibes? The result might well have been something along the lines of this Quay Brothers horror art film.
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11/27/06
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The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes (2006)
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Reviews Counted:40
Fresh:17
Rotten:23
Average Rating:5.6/10
Consensus: Though visually stunning and brilliantly original, the film fails to resonate emotionally.
Theatrical Release:Nov 17, 2006 Limited
Synopsis: THE PIANO TUNER OF EARTHQUAKES is a dark and twisted fairytale filled with bizarrely beautiful imagery. The story concerns a doctor who kidnaps a stunning opera singer with desires of keeping her... [More]
Starring: Gottfried John, Assumpta Serna, Amira Casar
Director: Timothy Quay, Stephen Quay
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Reviews for The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes
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05/12/07
Like a dream, this film is wispy and ethereal; like a nightmare, it lodges in your hindbrain and gnaws away with gleeful abandon.
01/04/07
[Piano Tuner of Earthquakes is] one of those rare examples of a completely original environment created for the screen. Then people start talking, and the snoozing soon commences.
11/17/06
One for fans only.
11/01/05
The whole movie feels filmed through the wrong end of a stereopticon: stiff, fascinating, riddled with secrets it doesn't care to divulge.
12/01/06
While The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes is a handsomely mounted production and not an unintelligent one, it’s also emotionally cold and too familiar by half.
11/17/06
As in most of the Quays' fantasias, the narrative is oblique and slow moving but the florid visuals are rife with sexual and psychological overtones.
01/05/07
This opaque tale offers meticulously crafted atmosphere, but rather less passion or drama.
01/05/07
Characters slowly whisper their dialogue to one another in scenes that would put the dead to sleep.
12/07/06
The story proves to be elusive, and the robotic performances of the cast make it hard to care about any of the characters -- or to try to figure out what's supposed to be going on.
02/08/07
What the movie lacks in acting and coherence, it more than makes up for through imagery.
03/02/07
The second feature from Quay Brothers, an uneasy, often intriguing foray into live-action from a tesm known for their animated shorts, is a risk-taking experimental film, but despite startling visuals, it's difficult to follow the unclear narrative
11/20/06
Ingenious use of colour and light, but dramatic inertia makes this an infuriating experience.
04/01/06
"Eraserhead" without the yucks.
11/18/06
blends live action and animation to create a surreal hermetic vision that is as beautifully seductive as it is chillingly inaccessible.
08/02/07
Beyond that? Not much.
01/18/07
The music is gorgeously classical and some of the images are memorable and haunting, but experiencing the film is near-torture.
12/01/06
Brilliant in style but empty in substance.
11/16/06
The film's poetry, playfulness and pictorial contrivances would perhaps work better in a short film, or sequence of short films. Conventional feature length somehow robs [the Quay brothers] of their lightness and digestibility.
02/18/06
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