Guy Maddin continues his wild, and occasionally wonderful, trips to the other side with this semi-auto-biographical story of growing up confused in an orphanage with pagan children. In a lighthouse. On an island. On a frozen island with a monstrous and insane mother and a father. With a laboratory.
Those lucky few who have seen Maddin’s past films (“The Saddest Music in the World,” “Cowards Bend the Knee”) will be prepared for this exposition of silent film French Grand Guignol horror expressionism.
The film is shot in high contrast black and white in a sequence of poster-like scenes, each followed by a sub-title that may or may not provide an actual explanation of the scene or reflect what the viewer thinks is happening. The film is populated almost entirely by children, in contrast to Maddin’s previous adult themes of peep shows, hockey teams and artificial limbs.
The twelve chapter construction harkens back to 1950s TV sci-fi serials such as “Superman” with its absurd sets, mole-men and the demand for an Olympian effort at suspension of disbelief. The Lightbulb kids--teen detectives--are Maddin growing up with a voracious curiosity to plumb the depths of adult dysfunction; a nod towards the “Nancy Drew” and “Hardy Boys” detective stories with a prying, psychoanalytical twist.
Each chapter is a saga that could just as well end with the urgent “See Next Week if Young Neddie Gets Electroplated Like His Dog,” or something to that effect.
Set construction is, essentially, non-existent. Most of the sets are painted-on shapes and/or extreme lighting effects and camera angles in the tradition of Soviet era “agitation-propaganda” posters.
Messages usually combine an extremely banal outward expression with some inside joke or powerful subliminal suggestion such as the continual repainting of the interior of the lighthouse at the urging of Guy’s hysterical mother. Sex is everywhere in the film, with child sex and incest being prominent; although any viewer would be hard-pressed to show where they actually occur or explain how they are actually expressed. Parents are murdered and their places taken over by children, but the actual motives for the murders are unclear. Make up your own.
Madden mixes extreme cuts and shifts in the film editing with flickering and digital effects to imitate and recreate both old and new effects associated with the actual film stock.
The film is full of symbols, many of which are almost inside jokes that will be hard to appreciate by many in the typical audience. In fact, Maddin has long since served notice that he gives not a whit for the typical audience. Like, say, Woody Allen, inside jokes are his stock in trade and if you don’t get it, that is your tough luck. Touching gloves, feeling gloves, undressing gloves and, of course, the Rumanian (not Romanian) birthmark. The most absurd and assuredly non-functional lab scenes. Mom whirling inside the lighthouse searchlight and spying on the kids with the telescope. You know, the usual stuff.
The film will be released as a silent film with sub-titles and also as a live version with a small orchestra, Foley (sound effects) artists and live narration.
Narrators have included Maddin favorite Isabella Rossellini and others. The live sound section extends the expressionist message out into the audience and provides the most amazing contradiction between the unbelievable one sees onscreen and the undeniable reality of the live crew. The fact that the Foley artists are able to make the sound of sucking brain fluids with a cereal box and chop sticks makes the overall effect quite engaging. One leaves the theatre not quite knowing whether to start the car or just place one’s hands across the battery terminals and see what happens.
Although it remains to be seen if the standard silent theatrical release will make any headway over “Saddest Music,” the live sound effects version is not be missed if it ever makes it to your city.
Brand Upon the Brain!
Opens: Very limited, May 9, 2007. MPAA: Not Rated
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