Eclectic Shorts by Eric Leiser

This collection of works will be treasured as the early work of two young Visionaries- a must for any connoisseur of the Avant-Garde. What emerges in it- through it- is a unique and powerful synthetic Vision that vibrates with positive intent- that of Wonder. We need not compare it to Burton or any of the 'Masters' because what emerges here is no mere mimicry of previous filmmakers- but a sensitive and skilled adaptation and elaboration of film language- crafted and emerging as its own unique voice or I should say duet- maybe chorus? Burton and Svankmejer- even the Brothers Quay did not have such collaboration- such cohesion with their soundtracks, and indeed Jeffery Leiser's soundtracks are intimately linked with the images of his brother- adding levels and depths of motion, color and life through sound. And as for my own tastes- indeed the Leiser Brothers are far less tritely morbid, serialized and clichéd as Burton and far more symbolically sophisticated. Eric Leiser's work is far more joyfully mystical and whimsical than Svankmejer- but it contains within it similar eerie and uncanny boundaries crossed between animate and inanimate; animal, vegetable and mineral. The Quay Brothers Animate a dead world- a world of identification with objects and dead matter- nothing is ever quite alive. The Leiser Brothers see a world in which everything is deeply infused with life and light- a Vision, it could be said, which is highly infectious- in a good way.