Guy Maddin Retrospective Double Bill
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Sun 12 September 2004 // 19:30
Sun 19 September 2004 // 19:30
GUY MADDIN RETROSPECTIVE DOUBLE BILL
(Sun 12th & 19th / 7.30pm / £6/5)
As part of the national touring program The Cube presents two of Maddin's features and a short, in the wake of his latest film THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD shown here in August.
TALES FROM GIMLI HOSPITAL
(Maddin / Canada / 1988 / 72 mins / DVD / 12A)
A deadly pestilence rages through the idyllic Manitoba town of Gimli, some time in the late nineteenth century. Maddin’s amusingly nonsensical first feature focuses on Einar and Gunnar, two patients in the local hospital who discover they have something in common: sexual relations with Gunnar’s late wife. It was shot in black and white, and the film was purposely damaged in order to give it an antiquated, early 20th century feel. The narrative is intersected with dreamlike sequences that reinforce the strangeness of the ensemble.
This is perfect example of Guy Maddin's cinema, a work soaked with black humor but difficult to approach, both for the form and the content. One inevitably thinks of Buñuel and Lynch for his surrealist side and also of film pioneers with his aesthetic approach that banishes the superficial aspect of the technological advances and pushes the audience into a corner.
COWARDS BEND THE KNEE
(Maddin / Canada / 2003 / 60 mins / Beta SP / ctba)
Sordid family secrets spawn unintentional murder most foul in this jam-packed uncategorisable feature with enough action to seem like a never-ending cliffhanger. The plot concerns Guy Maddin, hockey player for the Winnipeg Maroons, who takes his pregnant girlfriend to a clinic for a termination and then leaves her (literally in the middle of the procedure) for the
brothel-keeper's beautiful daughter,
Told in ten chapters of six minutes apiece, this was intended as a gallery installation but it works just fine as a movie. As long as you don't mind a regular dose of jawdropping strangeness and a large splash of shocking, unfathomable directorial masochism.
+ HEART OF THE WORLD (2000 / DVD / 6 mins), the tale of two brothers in love with the same scientist. It referances the style of Metropolis, Aelita Quees of Mars, as well as Häxan. Highly rated. Special thanks to Soda Pictures for support in bringing these films together at Cube.
(Sun 12th & 19th / 7.30pm / £6/5)
As part of the national touring program The Cube presents two of Maddin's features and a short, in the wake of his latest film THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD shown here in August.
TALES FROM GIMLI HOSPITAL
(Maddin / Canada / 1988 / 72 mins / DVD / 12A)
A deadly pestilence rages through the idyllic Manitoba town of Gimli, some time in the late nineteenth century. Maddin’s amusingly nonsensical first feature focuses on Einar and Gunnar, two patients in the local hospital who discover they have something in common: sexual relations with Gunnar’s late wife. It was shot in black and white, and the film was purposely damaged in order to give it an antiquated, early 20th century feel. The narrative is intersected with dreamlike sequences that reinforce the strangeness of the ensemble.
This is perfect example of Guy Maddin's cinema, a work soaked with black humor but difficult to approach, both for the form and the content. One inevitably thinks of Buñuel and Lynch for his surrealist side and also of film pioneers with his aesthetic approach that banishes the superficial aspect of the technological advances and pushes the audience into a corner.
COWARDS BEND THE KNEE
(Maddin / Canada / 2003 / 60 mins / Beta SP / ctba)
Sordid family secrets spawn unintentional murder most foul in this jam-packed uncategorisable feature with enough action to seem like a never-ending cliffhanger. The plot concerns Guy Maddin, hockey player for the Winnipeg Maroons, who takes his pregnant girlfriend to a clinic for a termination and then leaves her (literally in the middle of the procedure) for the
brothel-keeper's beautiful daughter,
Told in ten chapters of six minutes apiece, this was intended as a gallery installation but it works just fine as a movie. As long as you don't mind a regular dose of jawdropping strangeness and a large splash of shocking, unfathomable directorial masochism.
+ HEART OF THE WORLD (2000 / DVD / 6 mins), the tale of two brothers in love with the same scientist. It referances the style of Metropolis, Aelita Quees of Mars, as well as Häxan. Highly rated. Special thanks to Soda Pictures for support in bringing these films together at Cube.