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The Comb
The Comb is a 17-minute-long stop-motion animation short subject directed and produced by the Brothers Quay. It is featured in both color and black and white and was released in 1990

It was produced by Keith Griffiths with Koninck Studios and had music by Leszek Jankowski. It starred Joy Constantinides who played the role of the Sleeping Woman and Witold Schejbal who did the voices.

Plot
The film opens up to a black and white scene that quickly changes focus from a package, to a comb, to a vanity, then to a woman lying in a bed. It then quickly switches to color, focusing on an oddly colorful landscape and begins to pull away. The scene focuses back in on the colorful landscape, revealing a forest and a doll who is slowly moving a ladder back and forth. The doll suddenly stops and its hands come off, still clutching the ladder. The hands then carry the ladder off. Very quickly a multitude of ladders begin to appear and the scene focuses on a doll lying in bed before switching back to black and white. The film begins to switch back and forth between black and white and color, focusing on a dolls finger movement (in color) and the woman’s (in black and white).

It then switches back to color and the original ladder makes its way back to the first doll. The doll begins to observe the ceiling above him before picking a place for his ladder. The scenes begin to change again from color to black and white. Observing moments of the doll and the woman and how ones actions influence the other. The doll then falls slack for a second time and the hands climb the ladder. They soon return back down to their owner and attach again. The doll begins to climb up the ladder but soon starts to fall as it becomes unhinged. Switching back to black and white, the woman begins to get up from her bed. She reaches for the comb that was shown in the beginning and begins to brush her hair, but quickly stops to play with the bristles of the comb. The scene focuses on her lips pulling into a smile, then fading to black.

Themes
This particular film uses a variety of items, mainly ladders, to add to its overall effect.

Release Details
The Comb has been released in four different countries. It was released first in the United States on October 11th, 1991. A few months later in Portugal in February of 1992. In France on February 23rd, 2000, and in the Czech Republic on December 12th, 2004.

It is available on the Quay Brothers: The Short Films 1979-2003 DVD