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'Twilight' of Guy Maddin's career
Guy Maddin may be one of Canada's best-known unknown filmmakers. From his early, improbable success with "Tales From the Gimli Hospital," the director has relied on near-extinct film techniques to convey both a heavy dose of melodrama and a sly sense of humour. Maddin now works with international stars, but his humble origins are with the Winnipeg Film Group — a filmmakers' co-op that, over 30 years, has brought global acclaim to many Manitoba moviemakers.
Since the unexpected success of Tales From the Gimli Hospital, critics have predicted -- and funding agencies have counted on -- Maddin's breakout beyond art-house cinemas. Maddin says he would be thrilled to pack theatres, but he's not willing to compromise his vision to do it. "I want to develop according to my own standards as a filmmaker," he tells Enright. "It's just a matter of me asserting a space for myself."
• After that, Maddin was offered various Hollywood movies to direct. He later described them as "a horrible dog's breakfast of kitsch and sci-fi" and turned them all down.
• In 1995 Maddin, along with other directors, was invited by the BBC to make a short film based on a favourite work of art. The result was Odilon Redon, a four-minute film named for, and inspired by, the French illustrator Redon and his drawing The Eye Like a Strange Balloon Mounts Towards Infinity.
• That same year, at age 39, Maddin was awarded the Telluride Medal for Lifetime Achievement at a film festival in Telluride, Colo.
• Set in a mythical land called Mandragora, a colour-drenched place where the sun never sets, Twilight of the Ice Nymphs centres on a young man who returns to the family ostrich farm. Nearly all the characters suffer from unrequited love.
• The movie's distributor, Zeitgeist Films, describes it as "Midsummer Night's Dream on acid."
• In a 1997 Globe and Mail interview, Maddin said the film "is primarily about yearning and humiliation, the two primary colours of my life."
• Twilight was written entirely by Maddin's regular collaborator George Toles. The script was inspired in part by the novel Pan by Norwegian author Knut Hamsun.
• The movie was Maddin's first to be shot with 35-mm film. His previous movies were made using 16-mm film.
• One of the film's stars is uncredited. Nigel Whitmey, who plays the male lead, asked that his name be left off the credits after his voice was overdubbed in post-production.
• During the shooting of Twilight of the Ice Nymphs, Maddin himself was the star of a film — a documentary made by fellow Winnipeg filmmaker Noam Gonick. Guy Maddin: Waiting for Twilight profiles the director and his work.
• In an interview with Gonick, Maddin was less than optimistic about his future as a director. "Just close the mausoleum lid on me," he said. "I don't want to make films anymore."
Film credits: Extra Large Productions, Cinephile, Ordnance Pictures, Winnipeg Film Group, The Canada Council, The Canada Manitoba Cultural Industries Development Office, The Greg and Tracy Film Ministry, The Manitoba Arts Council, Téléfilm Canada, Films Abel Gance, Société générale des films
Program: 24 Hours
Broadcast Date: May 15, 1997
Guest(s): Shelley Duvall, Guy Maddin, George Toles
Reporter: Robert Enright
Duration: 7:22
Film credits: Extra Large Productions, Cinephile, Ordnance Pictures, Winnipeg Film Group, The Canada Council, The Canada Manitoba Cultural Industries Development Office, The Greg and Tracy Film Ministry, The Manitoba Arts Council, Téléfilm Canada
Last updated: February 17, 2012
Page consulted on January 14, 2013
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