My Winnipeg/Cowards connections


Maybe everyone else already knows everything there is to know about Guy Maddin, but for those who don't, I found MY WINNIPEG to be a great companion piece to COWARDS. The hockey rink, the beauty parlor ... the locations and little Freudian spiders come out to play, giving you an interesting insight into his psyche (or at least the fantasy version of his psyche that he puts on the screen, along with his fantasy version of Winnipeg), and especially how it relates to this film in particular.

I might be going too far, but MY WINNIPEG might be to Maddin's oeuvre what ZERKALO is to Andre Tarkovsky's. I don't mean to shatter it with overpraise (or over-pretentiousness for those who can't stand Tarkovsky - I know there's plenty of you out there), but it holds relatively the same place in his body of work ... the autobiographical film that gives you clues to decode the other films, if you so desire ... albeit, this being Maddin, these "clues" are highly manufactured towers of absurdity. Still, a fine slice of Maddin.

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