An autobiographical rampage through film history, crime novels, and the mysteries of the flesh, Guy Maddins new film is said to bear many resemblances to his own experiences during his childhood. At least that's what Mr. Maddin was telling us unsuspecting victims before the screening commenced. If that is indeed the truth, Maddin must have started abusing LSD at a very tender age, which must have in succession lead to a severe personality disorder. But what is truth in the filmic universe of Guy Maddin, and what is fiction? So far, his films have been located somewhere in the vast space between dream and reality, a reality that is either part of someone's dream, or a fairy-tale that is situated in a grim reality. "Brand upon the Brain!" tends toward the latter, with a good dose of children's nightmares thrown into the mix. Young Guy is raised with his sister on a mysterious island by a possessive mother and an absent father. The only company he has are the kids from his parents' orphanage who also live in the lighthouse that serves as the mythical center of his everyday life between nightmare and fantasy. But when one day Guy falls in love with his childhood heroes, two siblings working as undercover detectives who suddenly appear on the island, the real problems of adolescence have just begun. What follows is a mix between the trashy horror films and the grand melodramas of longing and unfulfilled desire which were churned out by Hollywood en masse during the 1930s, and a bunch of sexual irritations that could have proved too complicated even for the young John Waters. Maddin's recycling of cinematic conventions continues, and it seems that he has been further inspired by avant-garde films like Austrian Martin Arnold's take on representation and identity in old Hollywood in his extraordinary "Alone. Life Wastes Andy Hardy" (1997). Sounds like something you shouldn't miss? Ever since his groundbreaking first feature "Tales from the Gimli Hospital" (1988), Maddin has given us one delightful work after another, pairing a WWI drama with his silent aesthetics in "Archangel" (1990) or trying his hand at a comedy set during the great depression in "The Saddest Music in the World" (2003). Even his reinterpretation of Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" (1926) in his short film "The Heart of the World" (2000) was not only a crazy homage to the old master's visionary work, but in its incredibly inventive, witty and self-assured sampling and restructuring of events, a gift for every cinéaste and a landmark of its own. "Brand upon the Brain!" didn't work nearly as well for me as most of his other work, with a convoluted plot and a flashy and surreal editing and camera-work that was an unhealthy mix of MTV-born style without substance, paired with a lot of special effects that were used for no apparent reason. I constantly felt dislocated, perplexed, and at my wits' end, in a film that didn't make any sense while shuffling my senses. Of course this isn't a bad thing in itself, and maybe it was Maddin's intention to put a brand on our brains, and yes, childhood can be at times gruesome and without any sense. But the reminiscences presented in this film resemble a kid either raised by Count Dracula and The Wolf Man, or inextricably caught up in a web of his own imagination. Is the film unhealthy? Yes. Is it fascinating and funny? Only occasionally. Maybe it would have proved the best solution if Maddin had assembled the numerous vignettes into a set of short films that could have thematically complemented each other. Before the screening Maddin also explained that he wasn't sure if the film worked on its own. Planned and constructed as a live event, its festival premiere was at the "Berliner Staatsoper", where one could experience the film as Maddin had intended it to be seen: accompanied by a live orchestra, a SFX crew and the voice and presence of Isabella Rossellinni who serves as a kind of narrator to the story. Unfortunately, everybody wasn't able to witness it in this form, and as a screening alone, the presentation wasn't engaging enough to be able to demand my full attention. Two minutes before the end of the film I had to leave the theater for the bathroom. At least that served for a bit of release and satisfaction. Maddin's proposition that one could hunt him down personally afterwards if one didn't like the film, would have probably meant too great a loss of an artist whose spirit is nevertheless still very much needed.
Review of Brand Upon the Brain!
