TIFF Review: Brand Upon the Brain!
Guy Maddin's new movie is not just a film, it's an experience. With 11 members of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, an original score, foley artists, a narrator and a singer, Maddin took the stage and declared this a formal attempt to bring silent film back.
Overacted in the classic silent film style, the story is about a boy who owns an island, Guy to be exact, who goes home to reminisce his strange childhood at his mother's request. Shot over 9 days in Seattle in beautiful high contrast black and white cinematography, and camera work like an experimental film, lively and full of movement, Maddin creates an aura that reminds me of the Maritimes. The memories of Guy's boyhood are presented in 12 chapters, each one more absurd than the last.
The story follows young Guy going back to the island and orphanage his family once owned and trying to relive and resolve the eerie and odd memories of his childhood. From his overbearing mother, who sits in a lighthouse to spy on her kids; the aerophone, a device which runs on the fuel of emotions that Guy's dad invented for the family to keep in touch; his wilting flower sister, Sis, with whom Guy is in the bermuda triangles of romantic triangles involving a young detective with ambiguous sexuality.
I think what I liked the most about Maddin's film is that it speaks to the value of memory. Though viewers can laugh and see the holes in Guy's childhood, young Guy cannot. Thus at the climatic moments, it is simply "too much for Guy!" As Maddin presents his most-likely fictitious childhood, he along with the audience can see in hindsight the obvious oversight of our once young naive and tragic self. He even laughs about it (now), squeezing every last giggle out in the most absurd situations: most memorably when a block of butter gets stuck to the wall.
Like other Maddin's film, it is erotic and distinctly Canadian, delicious and bold. Get tickets now for the New York performance, when Isabella Rossellini will be the narrator during the New York Film Festival. Those in Sydney, Australia might also be in luck, as I overheard a couple high power executives banter about bringing the performance there.
UPDATE: Just got this week's Time magazine in the mail, there is a fun piece on Maddin in their TIFF coverage.
Guy Maddin's new movie is not just a film, it's an experience. With 11 members of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, an original score, foley artists, a narrator and a singer, Maddin took the stage and declared this a formal attempt to bring silent film back.
Overacted in the classic silent film style, the story is about a boy who owns an island, Guy to be exact, who goes home to reminisce his strange childhood at his mother's request. Shot over 9 days in Seattle in beautiful high contrast black and white cinematography, and camera work like an experimental film, lively and full of movement, Maddin creates an aura that reminds me of the Maritimes. The memories of Guy's boyhood are presented in 12 chapters, each one more absurd than the last.
The story follows young Guy going back to the island and orphanage his family once owned and trying to relive and resolve the eerie and odd memories of his childhood. From his overbearing mother, who sits in a lighthouse to spy on her kids; the aerophone, a device which runs on the fuel of emotions that Guy's dad invented for the family to keep in touch; his wilting flower sister, Sis, with whom Guy is in the bermuda triangles of romantic triangles involving a young detective with ambiguous sexuality.
I think what I liked the most about Maddin's film is that it speaks to the value of memory. Though viewers can laugh and see the holes in Guy's childhood, young Guy cannot. Thus at the climatic moments, it is simply "too much for Guy!" As Maddin presents his most-likely fictitious childhood, he along with the audience can see in hindsight the obvious oversight of our once young naive and tragic self. He even laughs about it (now), squeezing every last giggle out in the most absurd situations: most memorably when a block of butter gets stuck to the wall.
Like other Maddin's film, it is erotic and distinctly Canadian, delicious and bold. Get tickets now for the New York performance, when Isabella Rossellini will be the narrator during the New York Film Festival. Those in Sydney, Australia might also be in luck, as I overheard a couple high power executives banter about bringing the performance there.
UPDATE: Just got this week's Time magazine in the mail, there is a fun piece on Maddin in their TIFF coverage.
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Sunday, September 10, 2006.
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