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Brand Upon the Brain!

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In the weird and wonderful super-cinematic world of Canadian cult filmmaker Guy Maddin, personal memory collides with movie lore for a radical sensory overload. This eerie excursion into the Gothic recesses of Maddin’s mad, imaginary childhood is a silent, black-and-white comic science-fiction nightmare set in a lighthouse on grim Notch Island, where fictional protagonist Guy Maddin was raised by an ironfisted, puritanical mother. Originally mounted as a theatrical event (accompanied by live orchestra, foley artists, and assorted narrators), Brand upon the Brain! is an irreverent, delirious trip into the mind of one of current cinema’s true eccentrics.

Special Features

• New, restored high-definition digital transfer
• Optional narration tracks by Isabella Rossellini, Laurie Anderson, John Ashbery, Guy Maddin, Louis Negrin, Crispin Glover, and Eli Wallach
• 97 Percent True, a new documentary featuring interviews with the director and his collaborators
• Two new short films directed by Maddin exclusively for this release: It's My Mother’s Birthday Today and Footsteps
• Deleted scene
• Trailer
• PLUS: A new essay by film critic Dennis Lim

Criterionforum.org user rating averages

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Nice to see they are including a selection of narrators - what was the full list of narrators during the theatrical run?

FANTASTIC news! I never would have dreamed we'd get more than Rossellini's narration (though I'm sure it's superb, anyway).

Here we go, I knew it was around here somewhere!

A full list of screenings and live narrators lies ahead, and director Maddin himself will appear at the New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles events.

Narrators by city:

San Francisco screening (at Castro Theater):
05-07 Joan Chen (8 p.m.)

New York screenings (at Village East Cinemas):
05-09 Crispin Glover (7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.)
05-10 Anne Jackson (7 p.m.)
05-10 Eli Wallach (9:30 p.m.)
05-11 Joie Lee (7 p.m.)
05-11 Crispin Glover (9:30 p.m.)
05-12 Laurie Anderson (7 p.m.)
05-12 Lou Reed (9:30 p.m.)
05-13 Justin Bond (3 p.m.)
05-13 John Ashbery (7 p.m.)
05-13 Tunde Adebimpe (9:30 p.m.)
05-14 Edward Hibbert (7 p.m.)
05-14 Peter Scarlet (9:30 p.m.)
05-15 Isabella Rossellini (7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.)

Chicago screenings (at Music Box Theatre):
05-18 Crispin Glover (7:30 p.m.)
05-19 Crispin Glover (2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.)
05-20 Crispin Glover (2:30 p.m.)

Los Angeles screenings (at Egyptian Theatre):
06-08 TBA (7:30 p.m.)
06-09 TBA (7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.)
06-10 TBA (7:30 p.m.)

So Joan Chen, Anne Jackson, Joie Lee, Lou Reed, Justin Bond, Tunde Adebimpe, Edward Hibbert and Peter Scarlet are not included but Louis Negrin seems to have been added (though he might have been one of the LA narrators!).

I would have liked to have had Lou's narration, but so long as we have Laurie's...

And John Ashbery's! The best of all!

That's got to be a record number of audio tracks.

Louis Negrin narrated for the world premiere at TIFF06. For those that missed out on the live experience, here's one producer's account of said premiere. The foibles and delays added to the fun and novelty of the event (however, I missed half of my next show because of the late start... but no hard feelings.)

I like Maddin's shorts a lot better than his features but the quick editing and kinetic feel sustain this film better than most. Still seemed long but I was already pretty sleep deprived despite having seen this day two of the festival.

Doctor Sunshine wrote:That's got to be a record number of audio tracks.

I was actually thinking about that, Rules of Attraction has it tied with six commentaries plus the regular Dolby track making 7.

LA narrators included:

Udo Kier
Barbara Steele
Mike Watt
Daniel Handler

I saw the Handler show.

when it showed in Portland, its narrator was Stephan Malkmus.

I think that was because the Portland city bylaws dictate that any public performance must in some way involve Malk

Wow, Crispin Glover! But I wish it included all of the readings, now that I know there are more...shouldn't they all be included? If this gets a Blu Ray release, would it be easy to fit all of them?

denti alligator wrote:I would have liked to have had Lou's narration, but so long as we have Laurie's...

And John Ashbery's! The best of all!

There was a time when I would have liked to have anything by Lou in connection with anything...but he's become such an asshole in his old age that I pretty much avoid anything having to do with him....except for Laurie Anderson.

Weren't these live readings? Are these soundboard recordings or are these the people who were able to come into the studio to record their take?

Tribe wrote:

denti alligator wrote:I would have liked to have had Lou's narration, but so long as we have Laurie's...

And John Ashbery's! The best of all!

There was a time when I would have liked to have anything by Lou in connection with anything...but he's become such an asshole in his old age that I pretty much avoid anything having to do with him....except for Laurie Anderson.

Wait, when was he not an asshole? Did I miss that?

I still buy every Lou album, even though out of something like 30 records only 5 of them are any good. But those are really, really good.

You'd have to get Lou into a studio to re-record his narration since reports indicate he fell asleep half way thorugh the performance.

Mind you with all the Castrati, music and effects going on at the same time I'd assume everyone's narration was re-recorded later.

denti alligator wrote:

Tribe wrote:

denti alligator wrote:I would have liked to have had Lou's narration, but so long as we have Laurie's...

And John Ashbery's! The best of all!

There was a time when I would have liked to have anything by Lou in connection with anything...but he's become such an asshole in his old age that I pretty much avoid anything having to do with him....except for Laurie Anderson.

Wait, when was he not an asshole? Did I miss that?

I still buy every Lou album, even though out of something like 30 records only 5 of them are any good. But those are really, really good.

True, but way back he used to be a cool asshole. Now he's just annoying. Ditto on the records, Denti. I haven't liked anything of his since Magic and Loss...and even that was somewhat weak coming on the heels of New York.

domino harvey wrote:

Doctor Sunshine wrote:That's got to be a record number of audio tracks.

I was actually thinking about that, Rules of Attraction has it tied with six commentaries plus the regular Dolby track making 7.

I was just going to mention that. I am still scratching my head about the 6 commentaries for that movie, including one by Carrot Top!? Wow.

Well, the ball's in your court, Criterion. A Carrot Top narration to take the record.

I was slightly alarmed by this announcement:

Brand upon the Brain! is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1. Black bars at the top and bottom of the screen are normal for this format. This new high-definition digital transfer was created on a Spirit 4K from a 35 mm duplicate negative. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, and scratches were removed using the MTI Digital Restoration System. To maintain optimal image quality through the compression process, the picture on this dual-layer DVD-9 was encoded at the highest-possible bit rate for the quantity of material included.

Quite aside from the fact that the film is so recent that it shouldn't have picked up much in the way of dirt or debris, isn't it a key feature of Maddin's aesthetic that his films look as though they've been rotting on a shelf for five or six decades?

That said, I'm assuming this is just a careless cut-and-paste job - I can't believe Criterion would deliberately "correct" intentional damage!

MichaelB wrote:Quite aside from the fact that the film is so recent that it shouldn't have picked up much in the way of dirt or debris, isn't it a key feature of Maddin's aesthetic that his films look as though they've been rotting on a shelf for five or six decades?

That said, I'm assuming this is just a careless cut-and-paste job - I can't believe Criterion would deliberately "correct" intentional damage!

I think it was a cut and paste mistake, because you're right, generally Maddin wants most of his films to look a bit like nitrate rot. On the other hand, when I saw this at the Detroit Institute of Art last year, I remember it having a "cleaner" look than most of his previous movies. Anyone else's recollection better than mine?

You're correct Tribe, there isn't nearly the same amount of 'decay and detritus' in Brand as there is in something like Archangel or Heart of the World. Maddin seems to have opted for emphasizing the grain and what he calls 'neurological editing' over artificial aging. I have a preview DVD (from a friend of a friend of Maddin) with the Rosselini v/o, but it is interlaced, so I'm looking forward to this, especially with the other audio tracks. I can imagine a very different viewing experience with each interlocutor, and I'm especially looking forward to the Ashbery and Anderson tracks. Anyone know what happened to the project that Maddin and Ashbery were reported to be collaborating on?

I can attest that Lou Reed fell asleep during the performance of Brand Upon the Brain!

The Crispin Glover narration track has been removed from the specs.

And Rules of Attraction retains its crown/the only reason anyone even remembers it exists.

domino harvey wrote:And Rules of Attraction retains its crown/the only reason anyone even remembers it exists.

And a large part of that is due to Carrot Top's commentary... as if he were watching the film for the first time (wait... maybe he really was)... anyways, it's COMIC GOLD I TELL YOU!!!!