Fans of Guy Maddin will enjoy bathing in this extended (and extended some more) love letter to early cinema. Prepare for a bunch of basically unconnected but somehow mixed together stories featuring performers like Charlotte Rampling and Udo Kier, all using early cinema techniques, pulled off with a lot of modern post-production. A submarine crew find themselves trapped at the bottom of sea, running out of air, a heartrending love story happens between an amnesiac motorcycle accident victim and her bone-healing, subsequently kidnapped, doctor, a Ukrainian prisoner locks horns with his guard, and a recently robbed nobleman inadvertently hires a killer on the run as his new gardener. These are just a few of the tongue-in-cheek worlds we delve into.
You could say that Maddin is covering less early cinema than early experimental cinema, to achieve the flavour of the film – Maddin references every angle, cut and design in the book – but that would be a tautology. Cinema in its first few decades years was a jumble of passionate artists who barely had an idea of what they were doing. Everything was up for grabs, and there’s a certain amount of longing in Maddin’s style when reflecting that. Actors are allowed to perform in a mannered, extravagant style, characters gallivant around crowded, lush, hyper realistic studio sets, and surreal cuts and colours swirl between the stories. This is a long film, probably a little too long coming in at 128 minutes, but followers of the Canadian filmmaker will enjoy the further honing of his art. Newcomers should prepare for over two hours of things not making much sense, so if you’re looking for a three act structure, this is not the film for you, but those looking for a highly surreal, deeply technical essay on early cinema, shoved through a particularly Canuck-ian lens, this is for you.
BY SAM WILSON
