Guy Maddin

[Michael]

Guy Maddin (1956- )



Filmography
Features
Tales From the Gimli Hospital (1988)
Archangel (1990)
Careful (1992)
Twilight of the Ice Nymphs (1997)
Dracula: Pages From a Virgin's Diary (2002)
Cowards Bend the Knee AKA The Blue Hands (2003)
The Saddest Music in the World (2003)
Brand Upon the Brain! (2006)
My Winnipeg (2007)
Keyhole (2011)
The Forbidden Room (2015)
The Green Fog (2017)

Shorts
"The Dead Father" (1986)
"Mauve Decade" (1989)
"BBB" (1989)
"Tyro" (1990)
"Indigo High-Hatters" (1991)
"The Pomps of Satan" (1993)
"Sea Beggars" AKA "The Weaker Sex" (1994)
"Sissy Boy Slap Party" (1994) [lost]
"Odilon Redon, or The Eye Like a Strange Balloon Mounts Toward Infinity" (1995)
"The Hands of Ida" (1995)
"Imperial Orgies" AKA "The Rabbi of Bacharach" (1996)
"Chimney Workbook" (1997)
"Rooster Workbook" (1997)
"Zookeeper Workbook" (1997)
"Maldoror: Tygers" (1998)
"The Hoyden" (1998)
"The Cock Crew" (1998)
"Hospital Fragment (1999)
"The Heart of the World (2000)
"Fleshpots of Antiquity (2000)
"Fancy, Fancy Being Rich (2002)
"Sissy Boy Slap Party" (2004)
"A Trip to the Orphanage" (2004)
"Sombra dolorosa" (2004)
"My Dad is 100 Years Old" (2005)
"Fuseboy" (2005)
"Audition One" (2005)
"Audition Two" (2005)
"Nude Caboose" (2006)
"Odin's Shield Maiden" (2007)
"Footsteps" (2008)
"Spanky: To the Pier and Back" (2008)
"It's My Mother's Birthday Today" (2008)
"Glorious" (2008)
"97 Percent True" (2008)
"Send Me to the 'Lectric Chair" (2009)
"Night Mayor" (2009)
"The Little White Cloud That Cried" (2009)
"How to Take a Bath" (2009)
"Sinclair" (2010)
"Gato Colorido" (2012) [segment, Invisible World]
"Only Dream Things" (2012)
"The Hall Runner" (2014)
"Puberty" (2014)
"Elms" (2014)
"Color's" (2014)
"Cold" (2014)
"Once a Chicken" (2015)
"Bring Me the Head of Tim Horton" (2015)
"Lines of the Hand" (2015)
"Seances" (2016)
"Acceidence" (2018)
"Stump the Guesser" (2020)
"The Rabbit Hunters" (2020)
"Haunted Hotel: A Melodrama in Augmented Reality" (2022)

Forum Discussions
The Saddest Music in the World
Brand Upon the Brain!
440 Brand Upon the Brain!
741 My Winnipeg
Death of the Reel

[domino harvey]

You left out the best Maddin thread

[mfunk9786]

Did he announce his retirement?

Oh man, bravo. Granted, now that I enjoyed Brand, I have to see a few more of his films before I can create my own overall opinion, but that still made me laugh out loud.

[Michael]

You left out the best Maddin thread

Added now.

.... Granted, now that I enjoyed Brand, I have to see a few more of his films before I can create my own overall opinion...

I don't know if that's going to make any differences but I have to say that I'd be fully contented to base my overall opinion of Maddin on just one film - Brand Upon the Brain!. His early films didn't do anything for me - pretty to look at but no soul, no depth. But it was the Criterion label that brought me back to Maddin. I remain lost in awe and melancholy from Brand Upon the Brain! which I saw a couple of days ago. The film continues blooming and evolving in my mind. I relate very profoundly to the film on a deep level and I can't even articulate that myself. It just keeps steeping into the very core of my guts.

If it wasn't for Brand Upon the Brain!, I would not even bother composing this thread. That's how much I love the crazy, beautiful, knock out masterpiece.

[bunuelian]

I really enjoyed Archangel.

I thought Twilight of the Ice Nymphs was ghastly beyond belief.

I still am having trouble reconciling the two.

[bigP]

My next stop = My Winnipeg.

(I was going to reply in the Brand on the Brain! thread, but my comments were more generalised to Maddin, so I hope you don't mind me transferring your quote to here)

Hope you like it Michael. It was one of the best movies I've seen in a long, long time. I caught it in London with Maddin performing a live narration and it just floored me. I've yet to see Brand on the Brain! (although I have it ready to be watched), so I can't comment on those that found much of what was in My Winnipeg to be a re-hash (so to speak) of Brand on the Brain, but frankly, if he can dazzle me again in any way, thats good enough for me.

I personally love his entire catalogue, even Sissy Boy Slap Party - which, honestly, even by Maddin's standards could be considered odd. I also find it a true testament to his work that each DVD release i've seen of his has had nothing but effort and love poured in from their individual distributor (Kino (R1) for Tales of Ghimli; Zeitgeist (R1) for Archangel, Twilight of the Ice Nymphs and Heart of the World; Soda (R2) for Saddest Music in the World; Tartan (R2) for Dracula Pages from a Virgin's Diary) each featuring excellent prints and collectively, a substantial amount of features, interviews and short films (I have only Careful and Brand on the Brain! to see, but I doubt either will fall short on the presentation and extras).

Michael, have you seen Heart of the World, produced for the 2000 TIFF? It is quite possibly the best short film I have ever seen (alongside Alexander Payne's entry into Paris Je T'aime, 14th Arrondissement), and was actually given the honour of receiving a US theatrical release despite it's six minute running time (paired up with Pawel Pawlikowski's incredible Last Resort). Alongside Saddest Music in the World and My Winnipeg, it ranks as one of my favourite Maddin creations, although, based on your glowing reactions, I feel Brand... may take the crown.

Anyway, back to my original point:

My next stop = My Winnipeg.

I hope you like it.

[Michael]

I've yet to see Brand on the Brain! (although I have it ready to be watched), so I can't comment on those that found much of what was in My Winnipeg to be a re-hash (so to speak) of Brand on the Brain, but frankly, if he can dazzle me again in any way, thats good enough for me.

What are you waiting for?! Having read your previous post, I'm now super curious what your reaction to Brain! would be like. You seem to be more of a Maddin fan than I am so please report back once you've seen Brain!.

The Heart of the World is one of the greatest shorts ever made. It's right up there with Anger.

And by the way... HerrSchreck, did you read what zedz said about Brand Upon the Brain!:

The narrative is as demented as ever, and powerfully overloaded - very rapid montage, flashed intertitles, plus narration, all piling on simultaneous layers. Stylistically, its primary model is French Impressionism (particularly Kirsavov and Epstein), but it's equally indebted to the mid-century American avant-garde (Deren, Broughton, Brakhage, Mekas, Anger). It's a mile-a-minute blast!

Epstein and Kirsanoff. Your favorite artists. I wonder what the silent film purist in you would think of Brain!.

[MichaelB]

I really enjoyed Archangel.

I thought Twilight of the Ice Nymphs was ghastly beyond belief.

I have very fond memories of Maddin apologising for Ice Nymphs on stage at the now defunct Lux Cinema in London. I only have it on DVD because of Zeitgeist's generosity in triple-billing it with Archangel and the sublime The Heart of the World - I haven't watched it again since its original release and don't plan to.

Tales From The Gimli Hospital is also ropey in the extreme, as Maddin cheerfully admits - but Archangel and Careful are much more substantial works. In fact, Careful was my favourite Maddin for ages.

[zedz]

HerrSchreck, did you read what zedz said about Brand Upon the Brain!:

The narrative is as demented as ever, and powerfully overloaded - very rapid montage, flashed intertitles, plus narration, all piling on simultaneous layers. Stylistically, its primary model is French Impressionism (particularly Kirsavov and Epstein), but it's equally indebted to the mid-century American avant-garde (Deren, Broughton, Brakhage, Mekas, Anger). It's a mile-a-minute blast!

Epstein and Kirsanoff. Your favorite artists. I wonder what the silent film purist in you would think of Brain!.

The older I get, the more I think that pastiche is an underrated mode of artistic creation and that so-called originality for its own sake is not necessarily any recommendation.

Which is not to say that I love Maddin's work unconditionally. Twilight of the Ice Nymphs was an utter drag, and I thought that The Saddest Music in the World fell decisively the wrong side of self-parody (and boy, did it seem to run for days!), but Cowards, Brand and Winnipeg were great, and different enough from one another to suggest that he's still evolving as a filmmaker, even if he's still more like himself than anybody else.

[MichaelB]

I don't think Maddin's films work very well on YouTube (faux-damage and rapid editing are just about the toughest things to encode digitally), but here are a few of his shorts:

• The Eye Like A Strange Balloon
  Fuseboy
  The Heart of the World
  Hospital Fragment
  It's A Wonderful Life (Sparklehorse video)
  Rooster Workbook
  Sissy Boy Slap Party (director's cut/shorter cut)
  Sombre Dolorosa
  Spanky: To the Pier and Back
  A Trip to the Orphanage
  Zookeeper Workbook

[Michael]

The older I get, the more I think that pastiche is an underrated mode of artistic creation and that so-called originality for its own sake is not necessarily any recommendation.

Interesting comment, zedz. Don't you think just about every film is "pastiche"? I don't bother using that word anymore. I watched The Night of the Hunter last night for the 100th time but anyway, it can be considered as "pastiche" since it borrowed techniques heavily from silents and Universal Horror. But it's still completely new and original. I feel the same way about Brand Upon the Brain!.

[Mr Sausage]

The older I get, the more I think that pastiche is an underrated mode of artistic creation and that so-called originality for its own sake is not necessarily any recommendation.

Interesting comment, zedz. Don't you think just about every film is "pastiche"? I don't bother using that word anymore. I watched The Night of the Hunter last night for the 100th time but anyway, it can be considered as "pastiche" since it borrowed techniques heavily from silents and Universal Horror. But it's still completely new and original. I feel the same way about Brand Upon the Brain!.

More or less, Michael. Many of the people on here have this strange notion that films--or at least good films--are created in some kind of artistic vacuum. Art does not come out of life, it comes out of other art, and film is no different. Every film, including the most original, reflects some sort of cinematic origin--and tracing its mode of representation back to certain precursors from which the makers of the subsequent film learned their 'grammar' does not devalue the movie. It enriches it. The only problems come when the influences are so strong that they swallow up any individual voice entirely, so that you get the sense that you're watching someone else's film.

Bit of a tedious lecture, I know, but I want to make the point that influence will always be there; and whether or not the influence is on display consciously (ie. Maddin) or unconsciously is irrelevant in terms of quality. Pastiche has long been a viable mode of expression (hell, T.S. Eliot built his poetic reputation on it). If you want to judge quality, look for how powerfully the older material is being organized, controlled, and mediated for you; don't just look for older material and stop there.

[zedz]

The older I get, the more I think that pastiche is an underrated mode of artistic creation and that so-called originality for its own sake is not necessarily any recommendation.

Interesting comment, zedz. Don't you think just about every film is "pastiche"?

In a sense, but what I was referring to was works, like Maddin's, which actually cleave very close to their influence, or which consciously build upon / mess around with specific models. This realisation came to me initially in terms of music, great songs that are very selfconsciously derivative, or imitations that build on and sometimes exceed the strengths of their models.

Your Night of the Hunter is a great example. Even though you can easily trace the genealogy of its constituent elements, the way in which Laughton combines them creates something rich and strange.

[dadaistnun]

Maddin talks about his latest short film. "We dialed down the violence of the electric chair until it more or less stimulated Isabella instead of blasting her violently through the roof."

[Antoine Doinel]

Maddin begins work on a short film commissioned by the National Film Board of Canada on March 9. For now, his next feature Keyhole - "a film noir battle of the sexes" - is temporarily on hold with permission from the key backer of the film, Victoria's Secret.

[Edward Hall]

Sorry for dragging this up but does anybody know where I can see some Guy Maddin scripts?

Thanks!

[McCrutchy]

Pretty sure Maddin makes his Blu-ray debut with Keyhole (2011), out this week in the USA from Monterey Video:

Blu-ray.com review

DVDBeaver review

[Matt]

There's some real poetry in that Blu-ray.com review: "sweat-based reactions," "dense hairstyles," "nursing a moist sense of chaos."

[kidc85]

Not heard anything about KEYHOLE. Has anyone here seen it?

[swo17]

I watched it last night. Not sure what I saw but I liked it! I think. :-k It's unmistakably a Maddin film, though it does look a lot "cleaner," i.e. not manipulated to look like a silent film (but still edited that way to some extent). It's probably not going to make any new Maddin fans, but there's a lot to like here if you already are one.

Also, I look forward to future Maddin films featuring the remainder of the cast of The Kids in the Hall (or at the very least, Bruce McCulloch).

[tarpilot]

I was always disappointed that McCulloch wasted his time directing shit like Dog Park while he could have been giving us feature-length versions of the delirious sketches he directed himself. I mean, if Bruce McDonald can get funding to be incoherent for 90 minutes, then surely they could toss a bone to our little Brucio...

[domino harvey]

Aw come on, Dog Park's cute (and much better than anything Guy Maddin ever did, but you could pretty much say that about anything)

[knives]

Isn't he primarily working for South Park anyway?

[swo17]

That I'm aware, Bruce McCulloch has no connection to South Park whatsoever.

[knives]

I was thinking of Kyle McCulloch it seems.