Films with: Maddin, Guy

Ace in the Hole

The Ace in the Hole, in this case, is Leo Minosa, trapped in a cliff dwelling near Albuquerque, N.M. The publicity from his situation could build a winning hand for several people: Chuck Tatum, manipulative veteran newsman; Lorraine, his bored wife who dreams of city lights; Sheriff Gus Kretzer, boosting his re-election campaign; and young Herbie, a reporter who wants to make the big leagues. In 1951, there was no 24-hour cable news, and the Albuquerque paper was not on the Internet. The modern media age, however, was dawning. A veritable carnival sets up at the rescue scene, which may be one of the sources of the term "media circus."

DVD 5362

Brand upon the brain! a remembrance in 12 chapters /

This eerie excursion into the Gothic recesses of Maddin's mad, imaginary childhood is a nightmare set in a lighthouse on grim Notch Island, where fictional protagonist Maddin was raised by an ironfisted, puritanical mother.

DVD 5846

Careful

The Alpine village of Tolzbad is a hotbed of repressed desires, Oedipal angst, and sibling rivalry. When a young man's incestuous dream is added to the equation, a calamity of suicides, ghostly visions, forbidden romances and murder occurs.

DVD 2582

Cowards bend the knee

Guy Maddin, hockey player for the Winnipeg Maroons, takes his pregnant girlfriend to a beauty salon that moonlights as an abortion clinic and leaves her (mid-procedure) for the salon owner's daughter. He then discovers that his new girlfriend can't be with a man until she avenges her father's murder.

DVD 5919

Dracula pages from a virgin's diary /

A melodrama, with some dancing, based on the Dracula story. Color film done as if black and white, with some purple or sepia tints.

DVD 2987

Europe '51

Ingrid Bergman plays a wealthy, self-absorbed Rome socialite racked by guilt over the shocking death of her young son. As a way of dealing with her grief and finding meaning in her life, she decides to devote her time and money to the city's poor and sick. Her newfound, single-minded activism leads to conflicts with her husband and questions about her sanity.

DVD 10444

Forbidden room

A never-before-seen woodsman mysteriously appears aboard a submarine that's been trapped deep under water for months with an unstable cargo. As the terrified crew make their way through the corridors of the doomed vessel, they find themselves on a voyage into the origins of their darkest fears.

DVD 11912

Saddest music in the world

Isabella Rossellini stars as a Depression-era beer baroness who sponsors a contest to find the world's saddest tune in this dark comedy.

DVD 13351

Tales from the Gimli Hospital

Set during a smallpox epidemic in the village of Gimli, Manitoba, near the turn of the century, this film explores the jealousy and madness instilled in two men who share a hospital room. The two men are friends at first, until they reveal their darkest secrets to each other.

DVD 2581

Twilight of the ice nymphs Archangel ; The heart of the world /

Twilight of the ice nymphs (1997, col.): A political prisoner returns to his home after several years of incarceration, falling desperately in love with a woman named Juliana on the boat trip home. Archangel (melodrama, 1990, b&w tinted): A tale of obsessive love in the arctic town of Archangel, where a Canadian soldier, a Belgian pilot, and a Russian nurse, all suffering from amnesia, become involved in a love triangle in which each believes the others to be someone else. The heart of the world (2000, b&w): A parody of silent Soviet propaganda films.

DVD 2360