For over 40 years, Canadian director Guy Maddin has been creating some of the world's strangest and most beautiful films, films that capture the magical qualities of nascent cinema while paying homage to and ironically mocking Maddin's inspirations. Maddin has said his goal is "to make something beautiful but stupid," but a more accurate description would be "beautiful but stupid »", because there is nothing silly about its sophisticated visual style and vast network of cinematic and literary references.
With their stunning reconstructions of century-old cinematic techniques, Maddin's work is at its best on the big screen, and this summer, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures will offer the chance to see several of Maddin's masterpieces at one of Los Angeles' most exquisite venues: the Ted Mann Theatre. The "Weekend with Guy Maddin" program will feature four major films ("Caution," "Green Mist," "My Winnipeg," and "The Saddest Music in the World"), with Maddin himself participating in discussions at each screening.
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When Maddin began his feature film career with The Gimli Hospital Tales in 1988, he couldn't have imagined his work would one day be showcased at such a major cultural institution as the Academy Museum. "There were some marginal filmmakers working in Winnipeg, and I was even more marginalized than they were," Maddin told IndieWire. "I was the most marginal of the marginal." Nevertheless, Maddin aspired to create something grand in the tradition of the films that inspired him: David Lynch's Eraserhead and Luis Buñuel's L'Age d'Or, though many of his hopes for Gimli were quickly dashed when the film began playing on the festival circuit.
«"The exit rate was at least 85 percent," Maddin said, adding that exit-hopping remained high during the screening of his follow-up, Archangel (1990). "I'd fly overseas to some small film festival and find that only five people had shown up, and four of them had left after 10 minutes. The only reason the fifth stayed was because he fell asleep." Over time, however, VHS copies of Gimli began to circulate among film buffs, and Maddin's work was featured in magazines like Film Comment, paving the way for his reputation.
After Archangel, Maddin made Caution (1992), a parody of German mountain films of the 1920s and 1930s. A new 4K restoration of the film will be featured as part of a retrospective at the Academy Museum, though Maddin says cleaning up one of his early films was somewhat counterintuitive, given that he always wanted his films to look "old" even when they were brand new. "I set out to make films that were intentionally distorted," Maddin said. "I was shooting on film, and my camera had a light leak. I was letting the light in and ruining the film—if I didn't want the light leak, I'd use a different camera.".
Maddin believed that giving his films an aged and weathered appearance—as if they were early films that had accidentally found their way into someone's closet or an old warehouse—was a way to ensure their future. "I thought they would only get better with every projector," Maddin said. "More worn, more horrific, and more repulsive to people. But I never foresaw digital projection or the number of restored films, so now even people who are open to classic cinema rarely see unrestored classics.".
This changed audiences' perception of Maddin's early films, which looked as if they were screened from prints that had been traveling from one theater to another for decades. "People now don't even know what a truly worn film looks like, with worn emulsions and booming soundtracks," Maddin said. In restoring Caution, Maddin sought to preserve the original vision he envisioned when he made the film in the early 1990s, but also made some adjustments to ensure it would be received by modern audiences as intended.
«"I took some overexposed scenes where chemicals were heating up and toned them down a bit," Maddin said. "I managed to enrich the color palette with a period feel without revealing the much younger me I was when I made this film." Maddin also converted the mono sound to stereo, though he resisted the temptation to experiment with surround channels or drastically alter the original soundtrack.
«"It's not stereophonic Pink Floyd," Maddin said. "The sounds don't travel from one ear to the other or anything like that. But you won't be doing yourself any favors in mono, because modern projection systems will project the sound too quietly if it's mixed in mono, and you'll always have to ask the projectionist to turn it up. And I won't always be around to tell people to turn it up.".
Another highlight of the Academy's retrospective is Maddin's 2003 musical The Saddest Music in the World, set in 1930s Winnipeg. A wealthy arts patron (Isabella Rossellini) summons musicians from around the world to award a cash prize to the country with the saddest music. Blending formats (including 8mm film and video) and styles, Maddin creates a beautiful and haunting dreamscape that simultaneously feels like something from the past and is unlike any film ever made.
The film "The Saddest Music in the World" gave Maddin his first opportunity to work with Isabella Rossellini, who would later become his favorite collaborator. "I was terrified of meeting her, and years later she told me she was very suspicious of me," Maddin said. "She said she wanted to come a month early, see the city, and rehearse with me. Twenty years later, she admitted she wanted to personally test me and make sure I wasn't a completely frivolous person.".
Rossellini and Maddin quickly became friends and collaborated on a documentary about Rossellini's father, Roberto. "She wrote the script, and it came straight from the heart," Maddin said. "No bullshit—she doesn't kid herself about anything she's done. I truly admire her." Working on The Saddest Music with Rossellini was an incredible experience for 47-year-old Maddin. "I was absolutely thrilled to be in the presence of a legend who played three roles at once: a Vogue supermodel, Roberto Rossellini's daughter, and one of the stars of Blue Velvet. It was incredible for me.".
Maddin had the opportunity to work with a different kind of screen icon when he cast Ann Savage, star of one of Maddin's favorite film noirs, "Detour," as his mother in the autobiographical documentary "My Winnipeg," which will also be screened at the Academy Museum. "She was a fierce woman, even at nearly 80," Maddin said. "I'm convinced she could scare the living daylights out of Bette Davis." Maddin always thought Savage was perfect for the role, but didn't realize she was an option until he spoke with Dennis Bartok at the American Cinematheque.
«"I lamented, 'If only Ann Savage were alive to play my mother, everything would be perfect,'" Maddin said, to which Bartok replied, "She's still alive. I just saw her yesterday." Through Bartok and film noir expert Eddie Muller, who had written about Savage, Maddin contacted the legendary femme fatale and soon found himself at the Winnipeg airport to begin work. "I felt like Tom Neal [star of Detour], driving. She'd fall asleep, and every now and then I'd expect her to wake up, turn to me, and ask, 'What did you do with the body?'"„
While Maddin doesn't find rewatching most of his films enjoyable, he says the films selected by the Academy are "the ones I'm not particularly embarrassed about." He avoids films he feels aren't good ("I'm just too uncomfortable") and even those he enjoys, given his distaste for how many people in the credits have already died, but he's sometimes surprised by the pleasure they bring him. "A few years ago, I saw Caution in Paris with trepidation," Maddin said. "I had one foot out the door the whole time. But I actually walked out of the theater feeling mostly proud.".
The "Weekend with Guy Maddin" exhibition will be on view at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures from July 11 to 13.
A newly restored 4K version of Guy Maddin's "Caution" will also be shown at the Film Forum from Friday, June 26, through Thursday, July 2, alongside other Maddin screenings. Details here.