SFIFF '06~!: The Heart of Guy Maddin [festival note]
Case in point: how to capture Maddin's cinephilia without making him sound like just another weirdo. I'll try listing the shorts shown.
Odilon Redon or The Eye Like a Strange Balloon Mounts Toward Infinity: Inspired by this image, this apparently had a plot in the five minute version, but that got lost in the cut to four minutes. The surrealism is mostly harmless.
It's a Wonderful Life: Video for the Sparklehorse song. IYL Sparklehorse, obv.
Sissy Boy Slap Party: This director's cut features six whole minutes of sissy boys slapping each other. Precisely as entertaining as it sounds!
Sombra dolorosa: Widow Paramo must defeat the masked El Muerto to save her daughter... from suicide! Uneasy, but it makes more sense than most lucha movies.
A Trip to the Orphanage: More saddest music. Sad.
Zookeeper Workbook: Footage from Maddin's lost Melville adaptation. You'd never guess.
The Heart of the World: The fourth time I've seen this on film, a record. It's the best five and a half minute movie since Chuck Jones's heyday. Why? Because it's KINO KINO KINO.
So none of this is very useful, is it? And I don't even have a one-liner to finish with. Well let's see, I like his work for different reasons than most people seem to: not for his weirdness, not even for his undeniable technical mastery, but because he love Expressionist melodrama and doesn't feel guilty about it. Guess that puts me far from the Maddin crowd.
Eh.
***
Also seen:
Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela (Thomas Allen Harris): filmmaker reconstructs his stepdad's buddies lives in the ANC. Well-meaning.
Will write about Three Times as soon as someone tells me the name of the actress who played the first snooker hall girl.
Odilon Redon or The Eye Like a Strange Balloon Mounts Toward Infinity: Inspired by this image, this apparently had a plot in the five minute version, but that got lost in the cut to four minutes. The surrealism is mostly harmless.
It's a Wonderful Life: Video for the Sparklehorse song. IYL Sparklehorse, obv.
Sissy Boy Slap Party: This director's cut features six whole minutes of sissy boys slapping each other. Precisely as entertaining as it sounds!
Sombra dolorosa: Widow Paramo must defeat the masked El Muerto to save her daughter... from suicide! Uneasy, but it makes more sense than most lucha movies.
A Trip to the Orphanage: More saddest music. Sad.
Zookeeper Workbook: Footage from Maddin's lost Melville adaptation. You'd never guess.
The Heart of the World: The fourth time I've seen this on film, a record. It's the best five and a half minute movie since Chuck Jones's heyday. Why? Because it's KINO KINO KINO.
So none of this is very useful, is it? And I don't even have a one-liner to finish with. Well let's see, I like his work for different reasons than most people seem to: not for his weirdness, not even for his undeniable technical mastery, but because he love Expressionist melodrama and doesn't feel guilty about it. Guess that puts me far from the Maddin crowd.
Eh.
***
Also seen:
Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela (Thomas Allen Harris): filmmaker reconstructs his stepdad's buddies lives in the ANC. Well-meaning.
Will write about Three Times as soon as someone tells me the name of the actress who played the first snooker hall girl.
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