''The Doll's Breath'' is a 2019 British short

stop-motion Stop-motion (also known as stop frame animation) is an animation, animated filmmaking and special effects technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appe ...

animated film written and directed by Stephen and Timothy Quay. Based on the short story "Las Hortensias" (1949) by Felisberto Hernández, the film follows Horacio as he sets up complicated charades where women and life-sized dolls change places in a web of jealousy, betrayal and murder. The film premiered at the 25th L'Étrange Festival in Paris, France, on 11 September 2019, by

Zeitgeist Films Zeitgeist Films is a New York, New York, New York-based distribution company founded in 1988 which acquires and distributes films from the U.S. and around the world. In 2017, Zeitgeist entered into a multi-year strategic alliance with film distr ...

Premise

Horacio, a former window dresser, sets up complicated charades where women and life-sized dolls change places in a web of jealousy, betrayal and murder.

Production

In 2015, Syncopy and

teamed up to distribute several short films directed by Stephen and Timothy Quay. In 2016, Syncopy owners and executive producers

Christopher Nolan Sir Christopher Edward Nolan (born 30 July 1970) is a British and American filmmaker. Known for his Cinema of the United States, Hollywood Blockbuster (entertainment), blockbusters with complex storytelling, he is considered a leading filmma ...

and

Emma Thomas Dame Emma Thomas, Lady Nolan (born 9 December 1971) is a British-American film producer. She has produced all of the feature films directed by her husband Christopher Nolan, which have grossed more than $6 billion worldwide and are regarded a ...

commissioned ''The Doll's Breath'' from Stephen and Timothy Quay, with the stipulations that it would be "no longer than 30 minutes and shot on

35mm 35 mm may refer to: Film * 135 film, a type of still photography format commonly referred to as 35 mm film * 35 mm movie film, a type of motion picture film stock * 35MM, a "musical exhibition" by Ryan Scott Oliver that features music ...

". Nolan also requested the Quay Brothers to script the short, which initially "followed the course of the story pretty strictly, but—as always when we work—at some point you have to just put the script down, and as you start to build the puppets, it takes its own course. You just guide it a little bit: shorten some things, get rid of some things". Nolan had previously written and directed a documentary short about the Quay Brothers, titled ''

Quay A wharf ( or wharfs), quay ( , also ), staith, or staithe is a structure on the shore of a harbour or on the bank of a river or canal where ships may dock to load and unload cargo or passengers. Such a structure includes one or more Berth (mo ...

'' (2015). ''The Doll's Breath'' contains no dialogue, as it "tells the story purely with images and music, even if it became abstract". It is based on the short story "Las Hortensias" (1949) by Felisberto Hernández. The Quay Brothers had previously adapted Hernández's work for their short film ''Unmistaken Hands: Ex Voto F.H.'' (2013).

Release

''The Doll's Breath'' had its world premiere at the 25th L'Étrange Festival in Paris, France, on 11 September 2019, by

. The film also played at the 63rd

BFI London Film Festival The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival held in London, England, in collaboration with the British Film Institute. Founded in 1957, the festival runs for two weeks every October. In 2016, the BFI estimated that around 240 fe ...

on 13 October 2019, the 62nd International Dok Leipzig Festival on 2 November 2019, the 49th International Film Festival Rotterdam on 24 January 2020, and the 21st

Jeonju International Film Festival Jeonju International Film Festival (JIFF, ) is an Asian film festival based in South Korea. It was launched in 2000 as a non-competitive film festival seeking to introduce independent and experimental films to the general public and focusing ...

, as part of the "Quay Brothers: Welcome to the Dormitorium" exhibition, from 21 July 2020 to 4 October 2020. In January 2020, the film also debuted on the streaming service

Mubi Mubi (; stylized as MUBI; the Auteurs before 2010) is a global streaming platform, production company and film distributor. MUBI produces and theatrically distributes films by emerging and established filmmakers, which are exclusively available ...

for a limited time, as part of a partnership with the 49th International Film Festival Rotterdam. In March 2025, the stop-motion puppets used for ''The Doll's Breath'', as well as other films from the Quay Brothers, were put on display at the "Dormitorium – The Film Décors of The Quay Brothers" exhibition, at

Bloomsbury Bloomsbury is a district in the West End of London, part of the London Borough of Camden in England. It is considered a fashionable residential area, and is the location of numerous cultural institution, cultural, intellectual, and educational ...

Swedenborg House The Swedenborg Society was founded in 1810 to translate and publish the works of Emanuel Swedenborg in English. Its original name was the London Society for Printing and Publishing the Works of Emanuel Swedenborg. The Society's headquarters, Swe ...

, as part of the 23rd

Polish Film Festival The Gdynia Film Festival aka FPFF (until 2011: Polish Film Festival, Polish: ''Festiwal Polskich Filmów Fabularnych w Gdyni'') is an annual film festival first held in Gdańsk (1974–1986), now held in Gdynia, Poland. It has taken place every ...

Critical response

Geoff Andrew Geoff Andrew (born 1954) is a British writer, lecturer, teacher, film programmer and occasional broadcaster. Born in Northampton, he studied at Northampton Grammar School and went on to gain a First in Classics at King's College, Cambridge. And ...

gave a positive review of the film's puppetry, writing "the fantastic, enigmatic tableaux of grotesque characters (some more or less human, some not at all, some impressively weird hybrids) ... such is the meticulous, almost absurdly detailed assemblage of the hand-crafted figures in their likewise painstakingly hand-crafted landscapes that one is overtaken by a strange sense of life not extinguished but temporarily put on pause". Alex Dudok de Wit of ''Move Madly'' praised Bokanowski's score, specifically how "its dissonant jabs and sub-auditory rumbles speak jealousy and paranoia in the absence of any dialogue".

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Doll's Breath, The 2019 films 2019 animated short films 2019 drama films 2010s British films 2010s English-language films 2010s stop-motion animated films Animated films based on short fiction Animated films without speech British animated drama films British animated short films British drama short films English-language short films Films about dolls Films about murder Films directed by the Brothers Quay Films scored by Michèle Bokanowski Films using stop-motion animation Syncopy Inc. films Zeitgeist Films films