FilmFest#7: Brand upon the brain!

For those of you wondering, FF#6 is Leonard Cohen in July, I decided to include it since it is at the FilmFest...

I caught Guy Maddins earlier work, The Saddest Music in the World a couple of years ago and loved it. Very slow, but beautiful and elegiac, both in storyline and photography. Guy sort of styles his movies in the 20s and 30s and shoots in a style reminiscient of the era - and the actors wear makeup similar to movies of that era.
So Brand upon the Brain!, loosely the story involves Guy Maddin returning to his childhood home before his mother dies. The rest of the story is set in his childhood where young Guy who lives in a lighthouse with orphans, falls in love with a beautiful teenage detective who turns up to investigate strange goings on. Guys mother is a control freak and keeps track of Guy, his sister and the orphans via inventions (aerophone). The detective that Guy fell in love with decides it would be easier to investigate the mystery as a boy and dresses up as her brother. So Sis falls for him/her. This explains the lesbian aspect in the filmfest description. Guy's father dies, is reborn, and tries to make Guys mother young again. Yep it all makes sense...

The story is filled in by voiceover by Isabella Rossellini, and cue cards splashed on the screen. The photography is again wonderful, interesting and mesmerising. The storyline held together more than other movies of his and the pacing seemed quicker. For all that, it's not fast movie - more of a melt into it and enjoy the beauty and surrealism. Gloves of kissing and gloves of Chastity? Yeah might pass on those.

For those of you who like movies which are different, definitely check Maddin out - and Brand upon the Brain! is a good place to start.

Me x

PS: this has been written while watching the Steel Milll; so far we've had Motorhead, Samson, Bruce Dickinson (killing floor); machinehead and err someone else, good episode!