MIFF 2025 Film Review - Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass
Many films could be described as dream-like, but few embody the truly indecipherable logic of the subconscious like Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass, the first feature film in nearly two decades from directorial duo the Quay Brothers. Taking place in a hospice, we follow - and I use that term loosely here - Jozef, a top hatted fellow on the way to visit his father who has recently passed away, only to find that apparently this death has not yet happened. Framing this baroque tale of bizarre proportions is the “Marquette for the Sepulchre of a Dead Retina”, a box that, when light shines through it at a specific angle, projects the seven last things the previous owner of said retina witnessed before their passing.
If this all sounds like confusing and esoteric gobbledygook, that's because it is. In attempting to condense a novel like Bruno Schulz’s Sanatorium into a 76-minute stop motion fever dream, the Quays have scraped away anything remotely affecting from the optics of the story, leaving only style and astoundingly little substance. The result is less dreamy and more like an awful acid trip, colourless, digging directly into the cortex in a manner that feels not dissimilar to the barbaric medical practice of trepanning. Brief moments loop for what feels like a small eternity, and the rough, German expressionist-inspired stop motion visuals are thrown into a digital blender that distorts edges of the frame with dated (yet admittedly neat) ripple effects. There's a segment where a woman puts her shoe on over 20 times in a row that I found incredibly difficult to stay awake during - as did various other members of the audience, one man snoring through at least half the runtime.
Having signed on to review this because of my deep affection for the stylistically queer, nonsensical stories, and anything that features stop motion, I found myself in deep regret by the halfway point, as if I had wished for a film like this by way of cursed monkey paw. There is shockingly little to dive into beyond what's visible on the surface, a veneer that might entrance other audience members, but feels like less an intellectual engagement with the source material and more a punishment for daring to consider one's self a cinéphile in any capacity. As a reviewer who thoroughly enjoys artsy fare like Antichrist, Guadagnino’s Suspiria remake, and the films of Terrence Malick, I absolutely loathe how often the term “pretentious” is generously lobbed at films that are even the slightest bit obtuse, but it's my honest reaction to Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass, a cinematic experience that - in contrast with its unwieldy title - comes up frustratingly short.
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Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass screened as part of the 2025 Melbourne International Film Festival. For more info, click here.