Customer Reviews

The Guy Maddin Collection (Twilight of the Ice Nymphs / The Heart of the World / Archangel)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

No, I didn't care for "Twilight of the Ice Nymphs" the first time I saw it but I think I went in with certain dumb expectations like Mr. Maddin was not going to grow and experiment. A few viewings later and it's turned into a favorite. I appreciate the classic fairy-tale qualities, the cast is a hoot, and I love the dazzling over-saturated color--similar to what's used in a lot of modern TV commercials. It's really one of the most gorgeous-looking films I know of.

"Heart of the World" is a masterpiece and no one seems to dispute that. First time I managed to get a copy I watched it about twelve times in one evening. You'll never get the musical soundtrack out of your head. Go, Guy!

I had the pleasure of first seeing "Archangel" during its theatrical release. This is a film that's magical on the big screen. Standout moments (and there are many in this movie) like the bunnies in the battle trenches consistently reach the realm of the sublime. The scratchy, artificially aged soundtrack gives this film a hypnotic quality, perfect for such a dreamlike creation. Another wonderful Maddin product that gets better and better with time.

Just a thought: In a world where every creative decision seems to be made by lawyers, marketing drones, stockholders, Harvard MBAs, and a guy named Eisner, or, conversely, angry art-school types on illegal substances (and their fellow-travelers), Guy Maddin, along with the Brothers Quay, Pixar, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Richard Kelly (Donnie Darko) and a handful of others are the keepers of the flame right now.

This is an outstanding collection of films from one of cinema's overlooked masters. "Twilight" is like the Bard's Midsummer Nights Dream on acid! "Archangel" is an inspired homage to early cinema that's part Chaplin, part Von Sternberg, and part David Lynch. And to top it all off, the disc contain probably one of the best films of 2001. HEART OF THE WORLD is the best 5 minutes of film you'll ever see.

This collection of a few of Madden's work is promising at first - you get not one, but two features ("Twilight of the Ice Nymphs" [1997], "Archangel" [1900]) and a short film ("The Heart of the World" [2000]). Regrettably, his premiere feature work "Twilight of the Ice Nymph's" isn't quite worth the top billing it receives on this collection. He's abandoned the faux-expressionism that made early movies a delight in favor of a bold, 1940's Hollywood Technicolor nightmare that makes for great visuals, but that's all the film can really sustain. Both convoluted and clumsy in terms of a plot and acting, this is not his strongest work to date and fans would be better with "Glimli Hospital" or "Careful". "Archangel", however, is more true to the original style and early cinema story-telling we've come to enjoy from him. Whether you had to sit through early Soviet or Weimar republic films in Film School or you just like the strange and unusual, Madden's true and original style never fails to disappoint!

My title of my review says it all. Anything with Alice Krige is worth seeing. (Yes I'm a big Madden fan), and Twilight is interesting, then boring, then interesting. Dubbing the male leads voice adds a distance to the film, which Guy might have liked when he did it...but we don't need any distance when watching movies. None. Then again, Alice Krige is in it. Those cheekbones....I may have to order a second copy just to frame. Guy should also be allowing more pics to be taken during filming.
Guy has a book of film writings, journalism, and his journals out. It's wonderful. Get it.

PREFACE:

Between this triple feature and Careful (the only other Maddin I'd seen up to this point) I feel as if I've really discovered one of the finest film-making talents working today. But Maddin is confounding. Watching his films is a bit like reading modern poetry written in Chaucerian English. He is almost thoroughly anachronistic; going to great lengths to give his films the feeling of genuine silent films. This might not seem spectacular until one really begins to analyze the extraordinary amount of work it takes to get every detail right; from the well-worn look of the film stock, to the flickering and inconstant light as if it had been developed incorrectly, to the jittery shake of the frames and title cards, to the use of filters, angles, and obviously artificial sets. Everything is so authentically crafted in its artificiality it's nothing short of stunning. But it can also be frustrating when watched for lengthy periods because Maddin also employs highly stylized and unnatural dialogue and actors that seem ordered to deliver the lines as stilted and melodramatically as possible. This creates a real barrier between the viewer and the film; one where we're forced to admire the style and form but somewhat prevented from getting lost in the archaic storylines.

ARCHANGEL

7.5/10

Archangel concerns the true story of a town in arctic Russia in which sundry groups of World War 1 soldiers arrived at near the end of the war. Despite the fact that the war was over, they had not received the news, and they gathered in this town in an almost somnambulist state. Lt. John Boles is a one-legged soldier whose in deep lament for his lost love Iris whose ashes he keeps in an urn. One day he loses the ashes overboard and seems to get amnesia and forgets that his Iris is dead. While in the town he meets a woman named Veronkha whom he mistakes for his Iris. Veronkha is married to another soldier who has also contracted amnesia and seems to only remember that he loves Veronkha. One day, Veronkha mistakingly reveals to John that she really loves him, and after realizing her mistake she also suffers a bout of amnesia. Meanwhile, a small family hiding out in the town prepares with the others for the war.

Both Careful and Archangel were films featuring Maddin's carefully composed silent film aesthetic, but unlike Careful which used a wealth of color filters and sometimes just washed out color film, Archangel is almost entirely in black and white. Throughout Maddin seems to be paying tribute to the whole of silent cinema; from Stroheim, to Russian montage, to Griffith's battle sequences, to German expressionism. The film plays almost like a perfect combination of all three. And there are certainly numerous striking shots. One personal favorite is John's carriage ride in which the black space above him is superimposed with his thoughts; likely an idea taken from Murnau. Meanwhile, the battles seem lifted right from Birth of a Nation (though not quite as epic and expansive). The constant sense of ritual meanwhile is much more reminiscent of Stroheim.

Beyond the silent film homages, Maddin adeptly echoes the amnesiac confusion of his characters with that of the narrative itself; which always seemed mired in an opaque game of who loves who, who remembers what, and the overall befuddlement of what the hell anyone is doing. The entire world seems carved out of Lynch's leftover nightmares and daydreams, which is what makes the fact it was based on a true occurrence all the more surprising. But I feel the film is slightly inferior to Careful which I felt was richer in its themes of sexual perversion set in another land that time seemed to have forgot. But overall it's an excellent summation of Maddin's talent and aesthetics.

TWILIGHT OF THE ICE NYMPHS

9.0/10

Nymphs is the only Maddin I've seen that hasn't attempted to recreate silent film aesthetics. That doesn't mean it's more accessible, in any way more normal or less impressive - far from it. In fact, it's by far my favorite Maddin feature. Featuring a fantastic cast, intriguing characterizations, dynamics, and Maddin's lush, romantic, visually astounding photography. Yet despite all of this it seems one of the least liked of his films; though for the life of me I can't understand why as I was transfixed by its beauty and hypnotic tone.

The plot concerns a man named Peter returning home on a boat. While on board he meets a beautiful woman named Juliana whom he suspects might merely be a dream. Once home he finds his sister Amelia (Shelley Duvall) living with a poor farmer named Cain Ball (Frank Gorshin) and the two are disputing over what to do with the farm after his death. In the forest - which surrounds the underground setting where the narrative takes place - he meets an ethereal, fairy-like woman named Zephyr Eccles who is pining away for her husband who's away at sea. Amelia herself is pining for another man; a strange doctor named Isaac Solti who, lo and behold, happens to be close with Peter's dream girl, Juliana. Peter, Isaac, Amelia, and Juliana all go out together to the beach and Isaac's lab, but soon the romantic and sexual tensions between them start to produce conflict.

Like all Maddin, the first thing that strikes one is the glorious stylization. Nymphs is suffused with a rich tapestry of kaleidoscopic colors; all filmed through a diffuser filter which lends the film its mesmeric haze and allows the vivid shades of violet, magenta, cyan, and amber to bleed together. Joining the colors is the constantly floating and falling pollen, spores, and dust. It's difficult to describe the lazy, dreamy atmosphere this creates; but suffice it to say that it's utterly spellbinding; like a perfect invocation of A Midsummer Night's Dream. It's only appropriate that the film's tone fits the romantic delirium of that Shakespearean masterpiece with its small cast of characters loving and lusting after each other in a kind of enthralled bewilderment.

Two of the film's best scenes centers around a kind of twilight love-making. The first between Peter and Zephyr occurs in a room that could've been stolen from a live-action adaptation of The Little Mermaid, and appropriately it begins flooding with the water as the two embrace. The second is between Peter and Juliana in the hollow of a tree; afterwards Maddin uses her feathered boa to cover her while nature does the same for Peter; evoking a kind of Adam & Eve scenario; only to later have Juliana pose nude underneath the glaring sun like a counterpoint to a statue that plays a crucial role in the narrative.

While Maddin's silent film style is gone, the theatrical acting remains. But here it fits perfectly; since the whole film feels more like a stage play anyway. Frank Gorshin (of The Riddler fame) is particularly outstanding as the old farmer. And he hasn't lost an ounce of the energy he brought to his Riddler character. Of the rest, Duvall's Amelia is the most sympathetic, Pascal's Juliana the most beautiful and statuesque, Alice Krige's Zephyr the most nymph-like, RH Thompson's Isaac an intriguing, ambiguous persona and Ross McMillan's Peter seems - for lack of a better word - the most normal; though one might question that normality when near the end of the film in grand, epic poetry fashion he enacts an invocation of nature and trees.

Ultimately, Twilight of the Ice Nymphs is an intoxicating dreamscape that passes like a hazy, romantic vision. Although, I've always considered A Midsummer Night's Dream one of my favorite works of Shakespeare (or favorite works of literature, or art, period) so perhaps I was a bit biased. But I've never seen that kind of perfectly orchestrated chaos that is always bordering on lunacy that the play itself managed so well recreated in any production; but Maddin has done it here with this film.

THE HEART OF THE WORLD

9.0/10

Six minutes of scorching, virtuosic cinematic genius. The Heart of the World is less an evocation of silent cinema and more like a galvanized summation of all that made that early period great. I was vividly reminded of a statement that the artist Dave Mckean (illustrator, photographer, comic book artist, graphic designer, filmmaker, and musician) said in his introduction to Un Chien Andalou; that early cinema contained a genuine element of surprise when you went to the theater. There was a tangible feeling of excitement in not knowing what was going to appear on the screen when the light began dancing on it. The Heart of the World is a film that seems to fulfill that element of cinematic promise in six of the densest minutes ever put on film.

Surprisingly, there is a thoroughly solid, if highly symbolic and opaque, narrative contained therein about a woman named Anna who studies the Earth's core or "the heart of the world". She discovers that it's dying of a heart attack and doesn't have long to live so she warns the world. Meanwhile, two men, Osip and Nikolai are fighting for her affections, as is an engineer named Akmatov. But to say much beyond that would place undue emphasis on a narrative whose impact is less understood intellectually than felt viscerally through Maddin's pounding montage. Every image appears like a bolt of lightning, every cut is like the slice of a dagger aimed right at the audience's jugular. Here, where Maddin is free from the confines of the narrative constraints of feature film he indulges in pure, unadulterated, artistic expression. It's difficult to overstate how utterly appropriate the flashing images of the word "Kino!" (Russian for "cinema") is near the end of the film.

At a miniscule 6 minutes its difficult to elevate The Heart of the World to transcendental heights, yet I can unequivocally say that it's perhaps my absolute favorite short film; definitely deserving a place alongside Un Chien Andalou and the works of the experimental masters.

DVD REVIEW: Zeitgeist's transfer isn't the best as there is definitely pixelation visible, but the fact that we get 2 features, a short, 2 feature commentaries, and some other minor extras definitely makes up for the questionable image quality. Definitely a worthy buy for Maddin fans.

I had heard about saddest Music in the World when it was released in the theatre's.Didn't get to see it then but the review stuck in my mind.Something jogged my memory an i got it thru Netflix.
I was completely entrhalled by the whole shebang.The black an white ,the 1930's feel of the film itself,slightly scratchy,jumpy an sorta Little Rascals air to the music competition.
So now to Twilight..I needed more Guy Maddin so I ordered up this DVD.Although not quite as enthusiastic about Twilight I found Maddins take on human relations very true.The dream like sets an the spiritual angst/wonder/weirdness really works for me.Despite the trappings of his particular take on life I found the characters reactions an motives for the most part convincing.For me a good story well told is far superior to any special effects that a lot of film today gives us.Guy to me is a superior story teller. Nuff Said

This contains two great films by one of our most original filmmakers working today, Archangel and The Heart of the World (at only about five minutes in length, this film alone is worth the purchase price of the set, in my opinion). It also contains one of the worst films I've ever seen by any director. (So you get both ends of his creative spectrum!)

If you're a little more adventurous in your movie choices, this is something worth your while to pick up as you get a good introduction to a great filmmaker.

Guy Maddin is a unique talent. For everyone out there who is SICK of the mainstream and yearning for something original, for someone who thinks David Lynch is pretty straightforward, for the die-hard fanatic of cinematic minutiae I can categorically endorse this DVD. I don't think even Criterion can lay claim to disc packed with this much stuff. And every second of it is amazing, from the features, their equally scintillating commentaries, to Guy Maddin's designs for "Twilight", to the ultimate six minutes in cinema-"The Heart of the World."

"Archangel" is one of my favorite movies, but it's been changed for this collection. Two of the best scenes (rabbits in the trenches and attack of the huns) have been color-tinted. In other words, instead of Maddin's beautiful black and white, they are blue or red and white. It looks awful. New intertitle cards have also been added. Most of them try to make the story easier to follow, but too many of them try to be funny but fail. "Twilight" is Maddin's worst film, a failed experiment, but "Heart of the World" is one of his best. The commentaries are amusing, but you're not going to learn anything about the films from them. Maybe someday Criterion will release "Archangel" as it originally was.