Institute Benjamenta, or This Dream People Call Human Life
1995 · 104 MIN · IMDB 7.0 · 2,110 VOTES · DIR. Timothy Quay, Stephen Quay
Overview
Jakob arrives at the Institute Benjamenta (run by brother and sister Johannes and Lisa Benjamenta) to learn to become a servant. With seven other men, he studies under Lisa: absurd lessons of movement, drawing circles, and servility. He asks for a better room. No other students arrive and none leave for employment. Johannes is unhappy, imperious, and detached from the school's operation. Lisa is beautiful, at first tightly controlled, then on the verge of breakdown. There's a whiff of incest. Jakob is drawn to Lisa, and perhaps she to him. As winter sets in, she becomes catatonic. Things get worse; Johannes notes that all this has happened since Jakob came. Is there any cause and effect?
Dialogue Timeline — 493 lines
A SAMPLE ACROSS THE RUNTIME — EVERY LINE IS SEARCHABLE
00:03:48 Still.
00:09:39 Eintausend, zweitausend, dreitausend, viertausend
00:11:44 Ja...ein kapitaler Zwölfender.
00:15:07 Schilinski. Nyepertatikva.
00:17:42 The woeful opposite is his annihilating hell.
00:21:49 Class commences at eight. Kraus will collect you.
00:25:57 ..in such an immense...
00:38:18 Sir, I have rescued the cat from the tall tree in the garden.
00:42:32 He behaves as if he plans staying here for another century.
00:46:17 The way they live here with us students...
00:49:05 Like we are almost related.
00:50:57 I'm asking you...Jakob.
00:55:48 to concern himself with?
00:58:55 Lisa...
01:04:40 How it waits.
01:06:58 She stroked my cheeks.
01:10:45 The chapter headed The Divine Duty of Servants.
01:15:05 Often the Fräulein stares out of the window, as if she were already living somewhere else.
01:20:56 ..those who could have seen and held me.
01:24:22 Couldn't we...
01:26:55 Just once.
01:31:23 And it seemed to me that she must live for eternity...
01:38:37 I hated it all.
01:41:48 In us the sound of thy voice shall live on.