  Twilight of the Ice Nymphs courtesy Zeitgeist Films |
 |
Film/Video CLOSING-NIGHT CELEBRATION: DUSK-TO-DAWN MADDIN SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 2004 $ PARTY/FILMS/PERFORMANCE: 9 PM-5 AM $30 ($15 WALKER MEMBERS) $ FILMS/PERFORMANCE ONLY: 11 PM-5 AM $14 ($7 WALKER MEMBERS) AUDITORIUM 
|
As part of the closing party, the Walker presents a program of back-to-back Guy Maddin films. Settle in for features in the Lecture Room, or drop by Gallery 3 for a pair of short works.
 Waiting for Twilight  Tales from the Gimli Hospital  Archangel  Careful  Odilon Redon  The Heart of the World |
This documentary, directed by Noam Gonick and narrated by Tom Waits, captures Maddin's creative mind as he shoots his 1997 feature, Twilight of the Ice Nymphs. Along the way the director reflects on uncanny points in his life--reeking of perm solution from his family's Icelandic beauty parlor where he grew up, scrubbing down hockey players as stick boy for the 1967 Canadian National Hockey Team, and receiving chest medication to ward off the sensation of being touched by heavenly bodies. Included are clips from his first three features, Tales from the Gimli Hospital, Archangel, and Careful, interjected with the filmmaker's self-effacing musings as he describes the difficulties of creating artistically challenging work in Canada. 1997, Canada, color, 16mm, 60 minutes.
TALES FROM THE GIMLI HOSPITAL, 10:30 PM
In the tradition of cult midnight movies, Maddin constructs an eccentric and innovative tale of two patients who befriend each other during their quarantine in a surrealistic hospital during a smallpox epidemic. Set in a deliberately artificial world of curious time and place, the story unfolds as a secret is unleashed and the friendship soon deteriorates in favor of fevered delirium and cruel revenge. Maddin purposely damaged the film in order to give it an antiquated, early silent-film feel that oddly complements his stream-of-consciousness imagery. 1988, Canada, BW, 16mm, 72 minutes.
ARCHANGEL, 12 MIDNIGHT
This anomalous feature, set in 1917 arctic Russia during the Bolshevik Revolution, chronicles a love triangle between three young soldiers and their obsessions initiated by mistaken identity and memory disorders. Striking black-and-white cinematography sets the stage for Maddin's ridiculous romantic comedy, which draws stylistically, like many of his films, from past and forgotten conventions of silent cinema. 1991, Canada, BW, 16mm, 90 minutes.
CAREFUL, 1:30 AM
This melodrama is set in a fictional Alpine village where everyone speaks in whispers for fear of an avalanche and has learned from childhood the imperative "Careful!" The repressed and overly polite atmosphere, in which even sneezes are withheld, leads to fatal attractions (including some familial) among the inhabitants. With the vividly re-created sound of early cinema and colors reminiscent of two-strip Technicolor, the film opens a time warp into another dimension. 1992, Canada, color, 16mm, 100 minutes.
TWILIGHT OF THE ICE NYMPHS, 3:30 AM
An elaborate gothic film, Twilight of the Ice Nymphs revolves around the mystical characters of Mandragora--a strange, synthetic land of tidal pools, endless orange skies, ostrich farms, and a never-setting sun. The inhabitants are a delirious cast, featuring Frank Gorshin, Shelley Duvall, and R. H. Thomson, enmeshed in a maddening spiral of seductions, unfulfilled passions, and homicidal madness. The imagery was inspired by hues of color photocopies (aqua, magenta, chartreuse) turned ethereal, and the Symbolist paintings of Gustave Moreau. 1997, Canada, color , video, 92 minutes.
TWO SHORT FILMS BY GUY MADDIN
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 9:30 PM-12 MIDNIGHT, GALLERY 3
ODILON REDON
A father and son become rivals for the same girl after rescuing her from a train crash. 1995, Canada/U.K., BW, video, 5 minutes.
THE HEART OF THE WORLD
Commissioned for the 25th anniversary of the Toronto International Film Festival, this award-winning short is a brilliant parody of silent Soviet propaganda films. 2000, Canada, BW, video, 6 minutes.
PAGES FROM A FILMMAKER'S DIARY: A FILM RETROSPECTIVE AND REGIS DIALOGUE WITH GUY MADDIN IS MADE POSSIBLE BY GENEROUS SUPPORT FROM THE REGIS FOUNDATION. SPECIAL THANKS TO IFC FILMS FOR THE PRINT OF THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD.