Cebalord
Very best movie i ever watch
BootDigest
Such a frustrating disappointment
Maidexpl
Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast
CrawlerChunky
In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.
Kirpianuscus
for atmosphere. and for the performances. for the fragile border between dream and reality. and for the details. a dark story , an obscure institute . a parable about communication and desire and school and skills and expectations. after its end, not the story remains as memory but crumbs of scenes who seems be words of a prophecy. because the ladder air is the only significant piece of a story about nothing. sure, the memories about similar stories are many. important is the small detail who defines this film - the ambiguity of things, gestures and words.like a huge illusion. so, a film remembering Kafka.
kurosawakira
I am a great admirer of the brothers' work, "Rehearsals for Extinct Anatomies" (1989) and the "Stille Nacht" films among my favourites of all-time. Their world is esoteric; it's organic and all the same strangely inviting with a clear hint of heartfelt humor, far from sardonic that one might expect, considering how bleak their films seem at first glance.But I've struggled with "The PianoTuner of Earthquakes" (2005), their second endeavor to long-form filmmaking. This led me to shun "Institute Benjamenta" at first, and only this spring did I man up, largely thanks to the wonderful Blu-ray edition released by the British Film Institute.Perhaps due to my skewed expectations, I didn't warm up to it the first time around. But the second time I liked it a lot more already, and now that I'm slowly starting to appreciate certain aspects of it, I think next visits will be even more enjoyable and rewarding.That said, there are two things I like about it more than anything. The first is the play on the number zero, that is, nothingness. It goes deep into Shakespearean territory of absolute darkness manifested in "King Lear", and of course carries through the centuries, sometimes playfully ("Alice's Adventures in Wonderland"). There's a well-written essay on the subject in the booklet for the Blu-ray released by the British Film Insitute, written by Samuel Frederick called "Redemption of the Miniature: The Quay Brothers and Robert Walser". This nothingness in the form of the number zero becomes a visual motif that runs throughout the film, reverberating in the very fabric of the visual design.The other utterly masterful aspect of the film is the lighting. It's animated, fleeting, foreboding, sometimes resting on the characters' faces tiredly, sometimes dancing around them and on "everyday" objects (as if there were such things in a Quay film). It's this means of expression wherein the abnormal-seeming beautiful nightmare that is their cinematic world really lives and breathes.
RotwangsGirl
In reading the comments, it occurred to me that many who have watched this film have missed the point. There are some very thoughtful comments to be sure and this is a very thought provoking film. I think that the analogy between this film and Eraserhead is a valid one but not for the reasons stated. Institute Benjamenta and Eraserhead are both films that to my mind are not to be viewed in the same way as Hollywood fare where plot and story is everything. These films are meant to be appreciated in the same way you would go to a museum and look at something by Van Gogh or Dali. These films are cinema paintings designed to wash over you and envelope you in a way that a plot-based film traditional film seldom does. Most filmmakers are strapped tightly into a box which is the "Hollywood Formula". That form is very rigid and if you want to make films consistently in Hollywood you have to conform. The Brothers Quay have paid dearly for their invention and artistry. It's very hard for them to get money to make these films. They don't need to fix "Institute" by being better, we need to fix ourselves for being too limited in our acceptance of what a film can be. This film is a work of unbridled genius. I only say "God Bless them and give us MORE!
Afracious
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.
