The work of Canadian film maker Guy Maddin are almost impossible to describe. He new work has taken historical imagery from many Winnipeg archives to create "My Winnipeg".
Guy Maddin is beyond dark and confounding. His films are often done in black and white and have the look of melodramatic films from the German Weimar Republic or agit prop films from old Rusian archives. He plays with stories and myths from a prairie context and from an isolated but more European Canadian community and pushes his imagery into very internal places. The films look as if they were made in the 1920's or 30's. His images of cold are jagged. His images of pain are wrenching and wretching. His portrayal of fear and anxiety become almost unbearable and extremely melodramatic. The sparce and impoverished environments transport me to the other wordly.
His understanding of the Icelandic and Norse imagination that has been transplanted to bleak Canadian prairie communities makes me want to move back to Winnipeg again.
His films include Tales From The Gimli Hospital, the silent film Dracula, Pages From A Virgin's Diary, and The Saddest Music in the World.
Fuel for inspiration.
No comments:
Post a Comment