Twilight of the Ice Nymphs

There's a blood vessel that pumps between the selves we drive through the day and the incubus we nourish, a creative self (perhaps cocreated by a love), relatively unconstrained, who we promise ourselves we will birth some day.

The most sublime art is what we imagine that young, more unfettered mind imagines. Its why we live, a large part of it, I think.

This is the domain Maddin has decided to explore. Its a sort of Joycean commitment, a raw commitment to dreams less shaped than usual by borrowed items and fed by distilled urges in blood. Small surprise that these don't fully resonate; its supposed to be strange, strange in disturbing ways.

I like the fact that this goes on too long. It has to go on long enough to plainly state that you are not a tourist, instead you've unknowingly entered something you can never really leave.

In its general shape, it is "The Tempest" meets the "Sarrogossa Manuscript" visually flavored by Max Parrish.

It has dreams within dreams and as they shift different controlling or dreaming minds move to the foreground, even a statue (us). There are sexual enchantments, shifting from honesty and deceit, knowing and manipulated. There's a Prospero and a Miranda, a Bloom/hunter who dreamhunts.

I think if you are serious about self, then you will be about film and that will lead you to Maddin and eventually to this. It isn't his most virile vision, but you can sure see what's going on. And that's worth something.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

I CAN'T BELIEVE this was produced in 1997. This is worse than the old 80's fantasy/adventure movies. The production quality and acting leave a LOT to be desired. Very low quality production - worse than I expected for the late 90s. Not even wide-screen!

This movie is really odd. I saw this movie when it previewed in Dallas Texas at the AMC movie theaters, Shelly Duvall was there in person. . A very nice lady. After the movie ran, she walked to the front of the theater to talk about the film. The host or interviewer said 'I have a question, Shelly? What was that?" She looked very embarrassed and said " Well, i guess this is the kind of movie you do for experience.' Yeah. as if this seasoned actress needs the experience. anyway I felt sorry for her as she was being told what the audience had experienced was a very strange film that was not all that great. All i have to say is there is a lot of beauty in the film, though it is kind of odd. i didn't really like or dislike the film. It was sort of a fairy tale gone to mars or something.-Thanks.-

I have a real soft spot for this strange little gem. It is garish, lush, stilted and artificial, with moments of heartbreaking beauty. It hearkens back to the grandeur of Hollywood of old, and yet is alive with a sort of mischevious irony, and a perverse love of the heavy handed gesture. All the actors do serviceable work, but my particular favourite is Alice Kreig's Zephyr. That woman is just remarkably charismatic, and her voice....my stars.

This is fairly typical of Guy Maddin's bizzarre and wonderful work. Same sense of humour, same painstakingly textured(and hopelessly unnatural) sound editing, and same passionate love affair with the cinematic conventions of yesteryear. If you like this, Careful, Archangel, and Tales of the Gimli Hospital might be to your taste as well.

Easily the finest movie I've ever seen about mesmerism and ostrich farming. 9/10.

This surreal fairytale setting and the campy dialogue doesn't sustain for a full 90 minutes. You are swept away during the first half on heavy soft filtered images with exploding colors but soon come to shore as the movie winds down, getting us all ready for bed.