If you've ever seen a Guy Maddin film than you remember his style. If you don't remember his style than you're lying and have never seen a Guy Maddin film. For those who haven't seen his work he creates modern silent films with all their excesses and devices. More so than THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD (a very funny film) and DRACULA: PAGES FROM A VIRGIN'S DIARY (a blood-sucking ballet), this film delves deep inside the filmmaker's own Id.
The main character is named Guy Maddin (Erik Steffen Maahs). At the start of the film, he heads back to his family orphanage inside a lighthouse to give it two fresh coats of paint. He wants to make it nice for his mother (Gretchen Krich, HENRY FOOL) who has had a pull over him ever since he was a boy (Sullivan Brown). As a youngster, he and his older sister (Maya Lawson) lived among the orphans, notably Savage Tom (Andrew Loviska), who gives all the younger kids lessens in primal urges. Guy and Sis' mother kept tabs on them with a strange telescope device that could find anyone you loved no matter where they were. This allows her to keep tabs on her blossoming daughter. Guy was a captive witness to the sexual hysteria his mother wields toward his teenage sister.
Mystery and romance bloom when the teen detectives the Lightbulb Kids show up to investigate the strange holes in the back of the necks of orphans. The Lightbulb Kids are a brother and sister team and Wendy (Katherine E. Scharhon) is the first to arrive on the island. Guy quickly develops a crush on the junior sleuth. She however has eyes for Sis and in an effort to woe the sexually curious girl she disguises herself as her brother Chance by tucking her hair under a hat.
In the spirit of grand guignol, the film has a dark shadowy feel throughout. Savage Tom seems like a boy brought in from THE LORD OF THE FLIES. The kids' father (Todd Moore) is a mysterious scientist whose face is never seen. At times, their mother makes Mommy Dearest look like June Cleaver.
Within this stew of German expressionism and classic melodrama, Maddin the filmmaker is always true to real emotions. He conjures up the strange compulsion and repulsion children feel for the parents. Their mother feeds on them, which creates all their emotional scars. But she is still their mother; the only one they will ever have. In her own twisted way, she does love them.
With no dialogue, the story is told via title cards and voice-over from Isabella Rossellini, the perfect choice for this kind of oft kilter sexuality tale. Think BLUE VELVET crossed with GREEN PORNO, which placed actors in bug suits to dramatize the mating habits of garden creatures. In the hands of a less skilled filmmaker, this approach would be distancing. But Maddin doesn't use these devices to tell the audience the story, only build onto it. The titles and voice over are filled with wit and humor.
As I've said in reviews of other complex cinema, this is 400-level material. The more one understands the era in cinema Maddin is taking inspiration from the more they will appreciate what he is doing. His use of silent film conventions is less satirical than some of his other films, but more poetic. The style allows him to use bold and grand metaphor without making the film seem ridiculous. He is a master of the absurd. And yet every detail seems cultivated from the real life experiences. The exaggeration in style and drama focuses the audience on his message and gets to the heart of the character's ordeals. He tells his story through a language that true film fans speak. Knowing the code makes for a fuller experience because one knows the detail he is attempting.
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Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
