MovieChat Forums > My Winnipeg (2008) Discussion > Just watched it.

Just watched it.

posted 16 years ago by Captainnn
2 replies | jump to latest

It was actually my first time viewing a Guy Maddin film. I first became interested in him after seeing a trailer for Brand Upon the Brain! Although I never could get my hands on it.

My Winnipeg is a hypnotic documentary-type film about the director reenacting his youth in some attempt to escape his hometown. Comparatively, it's plot isn't really there with most other movies. But the images and narration act as an 80 minute poem about a man trying to abandon everything he's come to love.

[–] rehabbitrabbit 16 years ago

I felt it somewhat lacking in the genius that I had been lead to believe it encapsulated (by a critic). Moments of intelligent, were pasted together ramshackle, as if an art students sketchbook was taken as script and storyboard.In my opinion; appreciable only to those whom long to see something radically different from traditional cinema at the big screen. Other then that; dismal, dull, restless.
I would however like to see another of Maddin's films, this time without the irritating and repetitive voice-over as the only means of pasting together awkwardly contrasting scenes.
recommendations?

[–] the_crystal-image 16 years ago

His "Heart of the World" short might give you the best idea of his filmmaking in the most compressed amount of time. I think it's still my favorite of all of his films. (It's available on a DVD packaged with his other films Twilight of the Ice Nymphs and Archangel). Cowards Bend the Knee is silent, and therefore contains no voice-over, so you don't have to worry about that. It also prominently features an ice hockey rink and a beauty parlor (a side note here - I think to really appreciate My Winnepeg you have to be familiar with at least some of Maddin's earlier work, because in some ways it acts as a "decoder"). The Saddest Music in the World is probably his friendliest film to those who don't "long to see something radically different from traditional cinema." Brand Upon the Brain is getting a Criterion release this august; I missed it in theaters so can't comment upon it, but Criterion thinks it's worthy, so it's got that going for it.