Lawinen über Tolzbad

Hilariously demented: Take camera work and set design inspired by "The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari" and the early talkie "Svengali", scenario and dialogue that might have been written by Ibsen (under the influence of peyote), then put a creature from Alpha Centauri doing his first English-language film in the director's chair and you get some idea of what this movie is like.

If there's not something wrong with you, you won't like this movie at all, but there's much here that twisted sensibilities will find appealing. Consider yourself warned.

I love Guy Maddin's work and this is my favourite of his films. It's odd and unsettling and it sticks with you long after you've watched it.

It's definitely not the most accessible of his works, but I like it. It's been described as a "pro-repressionist" movie, but I don't think that's entirely accurate.

The people portrayed in the village are deeply repressed and one small push makes their whole stack of cards morals come tumbling down. It's tale of three brothers and their trials and tribulations.

Their father is deceased and one brother, Vince Rimmer as Franz, is an invalid confined to the attic, who can do little more than watch as his brothers are tempted and run amok.

First Brent Neale as Johann, then Kyle McColloch as Grigorss give in to their desires and forbidden longings with tragic consequences. Kyle McColloch is a Maddin regular and he shines here.

Engagements are broken, people have knife fights and their mother is seeking to re-marry.

If you are a fan of German Expressionism, then you will enjoy this modern homage to a beautiful and arresting style perceived and captured wonderfully by Guy Maddin. There is a ton of symbolism and exploration of the sexual taboos found in both the Oedipus and Cassandra complexes of Greek mythology while allowing for quite humorous character developments which certainly make the film that much more enjoyable than just an "art" film. Maddin's use of light and especially color adds to the classic expressionist model which gets a gorgeous injection of modern fare. While I can enjoy the notion of one reviewer calling this a cross between "The Wizard of Oz and Eraserhead", I definately saw this as a much more direct colorful homage to "Caligari" than anything Lynch-esque. There is not the mind-numbing mixture of light and sound which generates its own tension but rather a playful use of sets and characters which surmount to quite a comical time. That is not to say there is not a scene or two that would make a horror fan happy but they are very straight forward and even amusing.

Will wonders never cease? Here is a DVD that I never thought I'd see. Guy Maddin's brilliant and hilarious (particularly for early film buffs) `Careful.' The plot and style of this film have been well explained by other commentaries on this page and elsewhere, so there's no need to go over it again. My favorite comment about it is that it is like a Ricola ad gone horribly, horribly wrong. Suffice it to say that the DVD is an improvement in image quality. While many of the images are intentionally vague, grainy or indistinct by the choice of the filmmakers, I get the impression that these effects are more clearly conveyed in the DVD. In a spoken commentary track with Maddin and screenwriter George Toles (new to this DVD, and obviously not possible on the VHS edition), Maddin admits that he wanted to add an effect through use of the color controls during the digital transfer, but resisted that temptation in order to let this DVD stand as a faithful representation of the film. While the effect he had in mind might have been interesting, I'm still grateful to him for his restraint.

Maddin claims in his commentary that people often obliquely criticize the performances of the actors in this film while, at the same time, telling him how much they like it, placing him in the position of defending those performances. Maddin states that he absolutely stands by the performances in this film, and that the actors gave him precisely what he asked for. This should dispel any doubts among people who see this film about the unusual, stiff delivery of lines, which might lead people who know nothing about the cast to suspect they are amateurs, which they are definitely not. This sort of line reading can be seen in some of the very earliest talkies. The antiquated sound of this film, along with its look, is all of a piece, and completely intentional, right down to the fake patina of noise added to the mono soundtrack. Maddin does regret some of the props and effects which had to be done on the cheap, due to budget restraints. Who knows how much more bizarre and fantastic it might have looked with a larger budget? On the other hand, it might have lost some of its unique charm. As it is, it's a wonderful piece of work that I find unforgettable, and that has remained vivid in my memory years after first seeing it. Copies of this DVD aren't to be found in abundance, and I don't know how long it will stay in print. If you like this film, do get this DVD now, and tell anyone you know who likes unusual films about it.

Near the end of the film, which hints at a continuation of the story, Maddin says that he may make that sequel some day. I don't know if he was serious about it or not, but I'd sure love to see it.

Influenced by the German Expressionist films of the 1920s and filtered through the oddball sensibilities of writer/director Guy Maddin, Careful is a film like no other. Maddin appropriates silent cinema's monochrome aesthetic in multiple scenes but even when color is being used in a more traditional way he tends to fill the screen with garish brightness. The film has (melo)dramatic elements but is primarily comedic, albeit with a wink and a nudge subtlety almost altogether absent from silent film's heyday.

The bizarre plot of the film is centered on a repressed mountain community, particularly the brothers Johan and Grigors and their mother. The boys' father, who lost both his eyes in separate freak accidents, is long since dead and their older brother is locked in the attic where he silently watches. Johan and his younger brother spend most of their time in a strict school for butlers where they learn about dining etiquette and grooming. Johan becomes engaged to Klara, a local girl who lusts after her own father in spite of his clear favoritism toward his younger daughter, in spite of his own obsessive lust directed at his mother. Naturally, characters become involved in murder plots, duels, and suicide as they're too repressed and shut off to resolve their problems in a less dramatic fashion.

Thematically, Careful is too jumbled to have much coherence but like most Maddin films this is more about style than plot or meaning. Maddin's creative visual style is engaging enough on its own to make Careful a worthwhile film.