2 reviews
Hi Bill--Hope you're enduring the snowstorms! Anyway--last night I watched the Guy Madden film on DVD--BRAND UPON THE BRAIN--I think that's the title. I imagine you've seen it, since it's his most famous film and it's been screened in NYC at festivals, etc. It's now part of the "Criterion Collection"--made in the 2000's. It's feature-length. Maybe I can see why a couple friends of mine out west thought it reminded them of our films.--The black and white and experimental visual techniques. But overall it reminded me more of David Lynch in a lower-budget underground way.
It references the techniques and visual style of German Expressionist films and early silent filmmaking. It took me a while to get into it, but I'm glad I did. The story itself is a mixture of psychology, operatic exaggeration and general goofiness. Something about a possessive mother, weird father, sexually frustrated sister.
As with David Lynch, I end up wondering if the director really has something to say or is just juxtaposing "cool" images and weird concepts. Well--my reaction anyway.
(In the Extra Features, Madden says that the film is 97% accurate to his own childhood--meaning emotionally of course--not realistically!)
The experimental film technique in this movie: in the extra feature section they said that they shot scenes with "multiple Super-8 cameras." I wondered if the whole film was shot that way--and where in 2002 they could get Super8 movie cameras --and S8 film! Gave everything a grainy retro look.
It's mostly in black and white with a few fleeting color images. But with modern digital editing it could have all been shot in color and then b&w'd in editing. Anyway it was a heavy trip to sit through, but overall seems to have left me with mostly just a feeling of "mood."
Also it's a Canadian film, with that whole "Canadian underground-filmmaker-community" vibe. (Remember the Canadian film we saw at Duke that referenced a lot of 1950's B Movies?--something about a guy living in a garage apartment and a pre-teen girl being infatuated with his film obsession--in campy color. Very much a pre-MOONRISE KINGDOM vibe.)
Anyway, I'm glad I saw this film, but not sure if it left me with anything.--B
It references the techniques and visual style of German Expressionist films and early silent filmmaking. It took me a while to get into it, but I'm glad I did. The story itself is a mixture of psychology, operatic exaggeration and general goofiness. Something about a possessive mother, weird father, sexually frustrated sister.
As with David Lynch, I end up wondering if the director really has something to say or is just juxtaposing "cool" images and weird concepts. Well--my reaction anyway.
(In the Extra Features, Madden says that the film is 97% accurate to his own childhood--meaning emotionally of course--not realistically!)
The experimental film technique in this movie: in the extra feature section they said that they shot scenes with "multiple Super-8 cameras." I wondered if the whole film was shot that way--and where in 2002 they could get Super8 movie cameras --and S8 film! Gave everything a grainy retro look.
It's mostly in black and white with a few fleeting color images. But with modern digital editing it could have all been shot in color and then b&w'd in editing. Anyway it was a heavy trip to sit through, but overall seems to have left me with mostly just a feeling of "mood."
Also it's a Canadian film, with that whole "Canadian underground-filmmaker-community" vibe. (Remember the Canadian film we saw at Duke that referenced a lot of 1950's B Movies?--something about a guy living in a garage apartment and a pre-teen girl being infatuated with his film obsession--in campy color. Very much a pre-MOONRISE KINGDOM vibe.)
Anyway, I'm glad I saw this film, but not sure if it left me with anything.--B
- brucetwo-2
- Feb 24, 2015
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