741 My Winnipeg

[domino harvey]

The geographical dead center of North America and the beloved birthplace of Guy Maddin, Winnipeg is the frosty and mysterious star of Maddin’s “docu-fantasia.” A work of memory and imagination, Maddin’s film burrows into what the filmmaker calls “the heart of the heart” of the continent, conjuring a city as delightful as it is fearsome, populated by sleepwalkers and hockey aficionados. Take part in Winnipeg’s annual epic scavenger hunt! Pay your respects to the racehorses forever frozen in the river! Help judge the yearly homoerotic Golden Boy pageant! What is real and what is fantasy is left up to the viewer to sort out in Maddin’s hypnotic, expertly conceived paean to that wonderful and terrifying place known as My Hometown.

Disc Features
DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION:
• New high-definition digital restoration, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• Conversation between director Guy Maddin and art critic Robert Enright
• “My Winnipeg” Live in Toronto, a 2008 featurette
• Various cine-essays by Maddin on Winnipegiana
• Three Maddin shorts, with introductions by the director: Spanky: To the Pier and Back (2008), Sinclair (2010), and Only Dream Things (2012)
• Deleted scene
• Trailer
• PLUS: An essay by critic Wayne Koestenbaum

[zedz]

I saw this earlier today, and loved pretty much every minute - in fact, I think it may be my favourite Guy Maddin film to date, and I've seen all the features and a fair number of the shorts.

As the title implies, it's an extremely personal portrait of his home city - so much so that seasoned Maddin-watchers will recognise numerous autobiographical motifs and perennial obsessions. It's impossible to separate fact from fiction, and to be honest I'm not sure I'd want to - some sequences are so bizarrely beautiful (a whole load of rampant horses frozen to death in a lake and preserved as strange sculptures; a herd of gay bison (!) invading and destroying Winnipeg's biggest theme park) that I really don't want to know whether they're based on fact.

Like all Maddin films, it's unclassifiably bonkers from the start. It's much less of a pastiche silent film than most of his other work, and also the first film he's made that uses other people's footage, but his approach to intertitles has mutated into something completely unique. There were already signs of this in Cowards Bend the Knee and Brand Upon the Brain!, but he's no longer using intertitles in the silent-film sense, but more as a means of generating almost subliminal impressions (smells in particular). I also loved the recurring theme of layers within layers: Winnipeg's mysterious inner city beneath the one on the maps, each served by a different taxi service.

A major point of interest is the casting of Ann Savage as Maddin's mother - this is the Ann Savage of Edgar G. Ulmer's Detour fame, now in her late eighties but still looking stunning (and terrifying).

I agree. It's a wonderful film for anyone who's even slightly interested in Maddin. I agree that with this (and Brand Upon the Brain!, Cowards Bend the Knee and Heart of the World before it) he's managed to evolve pastiche into a richly expressive and individual style. Only in Maddinland would somebody's devious strategy to escape their suffocating hometown involve shacking up with his mother in their childhood home. And Ann Savage is indeed the best Mother Maddin yet - hilarious and scary.

[Antoine Doinel]

Trailer.

[GoldenPilgrim]

That's such a great trailer! If this hits a theatre pretty much anywhere in California, I'm there.

[MichaelB]

Yes, that's about as accurate a trailer as it's possible to make from this material.

Oh, and London-based Maddin fans might want to keep July 1st to 4th free, as there's going to be quite a bit happening around the UK premiere of My Winnipeg (which he'll be narrating live on the 1st).

[Andre Jurieu]

As the title implies, it's an extremely personal portrait of his home city - so much so that seasoned Maddin-watchers will recognise numerous autobiographical motifs and perennial obsessions. It's impossible to separate fact from fiction, and to be honest I'm not sure I'd want to -

It's actually not that hard, but that's the beauty of Maddin focusing all his energy on creating an absurd mythology for his hometown and thus blurring the boundaries as much as possible. It works extremely well due it part to the fact that very few people know anything about Winnipeg. I do agree that this might be the pinnacle of his career to date.

[MichaelB]

It works extremely well due it part to the fact that very few people know anything about Winnipeg.

When I interviewed Maddin yesterday, I confessed that literally everything I knew about Winnipeg had come from his various films and writings, and he said that was perfect - "a tabula rasa".

I do agree that this might be the pinnacle of his career to date.

I can't wait to see it again, but I might as well hang on for July's live extravaganza - a DVD screener doesn't have quite the same impact!

[a.khan]

That's such a great trailer! If this hits a theatre pretty much anywhere in California, I'm there.

The Landmark has a one-week engagement starting June 20.

[Ovader]

Speakeasy

[Barmy]

Even more boring than batshit, and by far his worst film. He's been on a generally downward trajectory throughout his career. But for the first time he is coming across like a grumpy old queer. OMG, old buildings are being replaced by shiny new ones!!!!11. What next, an anti-cellular telephone diatribe? The audience I saw it with laughed precisely once, when that bird did that shit with Ann Savage. If he does one more blurry B&W pastiche I'm going to slit someone's wrists.

[sonicstooge]

He's been on a generally downward trajectory throughout his career.

I'd agree with you there if it weren't for his recent masterpiece Brand Upon the Brain!, which I found rather brilliant. But that aside, your criticism does seem to confirm my suspicions that this film will be more of the same from Maddin, which isn't exactly a bad thing to me except that I feel like Maddin is capable of expanding his artistic capabilities past the current cinematic niche he has carved for himself.

[sidehacker]

Saw it last night thanks to IFC on Demand. It's a masterpiece. Sort of like the 8mm / polaroids scenes in Gummo meets A Man Asleep but still, completely original.

P.S the only Guy Maddin film I've seen so far.

[Michael Kerpan]

The latest issue of CineAction has a long article on Maddin's films. (I actually bought this issue because it also had a nice little interview of Michel Brault).

[MichaelB]

P.S the only Guy Maddin film I've seen so far.

It's taken over from Careful as my first recommendation for complete beginners.

And I've got my tickets for the live-narrated version in London on July 1st, so I'm happy.

[chaddoli]

A very interesting, somewhat negative Reverse Shot review, though I'm not sure I entirely agree with it.

[MichaelB]

A very interesting, somewhat negative Reverse Shot review, though I'm not sure I entirely agree with it.

Well, he scores full marks for chutzpah, complaining about Maddin's "preciousness" and then coming out with "What rough soul would fain skewer such an innocuous bauble?" as his very next sentence!

[Murdoch]

Clip from the film.

More clips from Row Three.

[margot]

The trailer looks interesting. Did it remind anyone else of Dogville?

[MichaelB]

Did it remind anyone else of Dogville?

I can see where you're coming from, but the film as a whole is quite different.

[origami_mustache]

The rhythmic prose of Guy Maddin's narration in My Winnipeg has been running through my head all day. It's reminiscent of Pare Lorentz's The River only with more of a sense of humor. The film features unique surrealistic imagery of Guy's exaggerated memories with his patented silent film era aesthetic. It is all at once entertaining, informative, humorous, and deeply saddening as Maddin mourns and pays tribute to the the forgotten people and places he loved so dearly and made him who he is today. A man sitting behind me at the theater commented that he thought it is Maddin's most accessible film yet. Although I don't necessarily agree completely, it definitely strikes a universal emotional nerve.

[wpqx]

I found it a bit disappointing and never really seemed to get off the ground running. I kept getting the feeling like it might start getting good, but then just seemed to bog down. Fairly inconsistent pacing and if you're relying on Maddin to get a truthful picture of Winnipeg then find another film. Not to say it was a complete waste of time but the more films I see from Maddin the more I get the sense that he works much better in the context of a short film.

[LQ]

I've got to agree, wholeheartedly. It was the longest 70 minutes of my life (yes, I fled the theatre 10 minutes before the end) Cut out the monotonous repetitions of "forks...forks...the forks...the forks" and "lap..the lap...the lap..lap" and voila. A 15 minute short. Perfect.
Although, that WAS my first Maddin film. Should I have started elsewhere?

edited for spelling

[mfunk9786]

Even more boring than batshit, and by far his worst film. He's been on a generally downward trajectory throughout his career. But for the first time he is coming across like a grumpy old queer. OMG, old buildings are being replaced by shiny new ones!!!!11. What next, an anti-cellular telephone diatribe? The audience I saw it with laughed precisely once, when that bird did that shit with Ann Savage. If he does one more blurry B&W pastiche I'm going to slit someone's wrists.

Ding, ding, ding... we have a winner.

I felt exactly the same way throughout. Awful, self-absorbed stuff.

[MichaelB]

if you're relying on Maddin to get a truthful picture of Winnipeg then find another film.

Why would anyone who wasn't clinically insane rely on Guy Maddin for a truthful picture of anything?

[Barmy]

Why would anyone care about Winnipeg? One of the problems with the film was there was TOO MUCH factual stuff about it.