Fandor is hosting a Guy Maddin Blogathon all week (September 19-23). As part of it, Fandor Editor-in-Chief Kevin B. Lee and Press Play's Matt Zoller Seitz have collaborated on a fascinating NSFW (silent film nudity!) video essay exploring Maddin's 2004 "Cowards Bend the Knee," which they say might be his masterwork: "It feels like a signpost work, a summary of his techniques and obsessions." A hockey player for the Winnipeg Maroons, Guy Maddin, whose aunt runs a combination beauty parlor and abortion clinic called the Black Silhouette, finds himself the victim of a sinister plot when his girlfriend becomes pregnant. You can watch the essay, "Cut Up in a Dream: Guy Maddin's Cowards Bend the Knee" above (listen closely to the pastiche of popular classics that serve as the musical score); or see the entire feature at Fandor.
Guy Maddin: Give him a hand!
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1 Comments
Thanks for spotlighting this for me. Some interesting stuff over there. "Cowards Bend the Knee" didn't really grab me when I watched it, though this makes me want to give it another look. To me, though I have liked all the films (even "Twilight of the Ice Nymphs," which everyone, even Maddin, seems to dislike for some reason), nothing approaches "Brand Upon the Brain" for sheer lyrical poignancy. Identifying "Cowards" as a signpost work is quite helpful, though if that film lays out his obsessions, "Brand" has the virtue of preserving the more potent themes and putting the others on hold. Or, I say that, admittedly having seen "Brand" many more times and more recently.
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