Careful

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 recently watched the film, Careful, by Guy Maddin on television and found it to be very interesting indeed. The person introducing the film called Maddin a Canadian David Lynch and while both directors do have a certain flair for the unusual, I believe Lynch to be a surrealist while Maddin's style to be something else entirely. Granted, Careful is the only film of Maddin's I have seen except for excerpts and press for The Saddest Music in the World, but his style, at least in this film, is one of sentimentality and homage. I have seen plenty of German Expressionist films and Careful would seem to fit right into that mold. I myself have often toyed with the idea of producing a film in the Expressionist style if only for the exercise of it. Maddin has produced an Expressionist film in the year 1992 which flawlessly mimics the films of Ufa, Wiene, Murnau, and Lang from the early 20th century. Any viewer, even those versed in early Expressionism, who would happen across this film without any context would be forgiven for mistaking it to be an actual 80-year-old film, so true is Maddin's style, so exacting is his pacing. Full frame color tinting, sound stage shooting, post-produced soundtrack, rigid acting style, and obsolete directorial choices, combine to provide the viewer with a disturbing portrait of repression, duty, and mountain goats. This film is incredible!

Guy Madden is almost like the David Lynch of Canada. His films have a look all of their own; blending surrealism with German style expressionism. The grainy slightly faded style of his films, make them appear from another era. "Careful" is filmed in a bright Technicolor style that's visually dazzling. The film contains Icelandic folk lore with dark humor. The story concerns a town living in the mountains. They have to watch their every move so they don't cause an avalanche. So they try to keep quiet and not make much noise out of fear. Many of the characters have strange incestuous desires that lead them to insanity. Especially Yohan and his fantasies about his mother. Yuck! This is one strange film, with picturesque landscapes that look like they jumped out of a Salvador Dali painting. If you are looking for a disturbing candy colored dark comedy, careful you don't pass this opportunity up.

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.

The USA Film Festival described this as Twin Peaks directed by Erich von Stroheim. Not a bad description. It's an uproarious satire, in the vein of YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN ... but the film often so beautifully duplicates the material it parodies that your breath is taken away. It's a little like reading a hysterical comic book, and finding original paintings by old masters salted throughout!

This brilliant Canadian film heavily borrows from the high-camp expressionism of German silent films and early talkies, especially the "mountain" films of Leni Riefenstahl. Anyone who's read FROM CALIGARI TO HITLER will recognize dozens of scenes in this film as near carbons of stills from the book. Perhaps more than any other films before or since, German silent cinema created compelling images that tap into universal race consciousness, portraying grainy, moving archetypal images all of us vaguely recognize from dreams or nightmares. Because of this, CAREFUL will often take your breath away with unexpected moments of quiet majesty and beauty. But there are plenty of laughs in between, (with "sick," 70's style National Lampoon-like humor). If you've never laughed at seeing an eye poked out, leave political correctness at the door and give this film a whirl!

The soundtrack if often deliberately scratchy or muffled, and in several scenes easter-egg like colors are used that resemble the early two-strip technicolor process. Ominous title cards are used to introduce scenes. This bizarre film is salted with unexpected dialogue like this: BOY: "My, aren't you the frisky one today." GIRL: "Even the reindeer are such, when Spring is coming!"

Enough of the aesthetics, what is the film supposedly about? The action takes place in the 19th century alpine village of Tolzbad, that is so precariously poised under constant threat of avalanche that villagers have learned to communicate only in whispers. Animals have had their vocal chords removed, and gramophones have lambs wool stuffed in the horn. Villagers keep time to the "sound" of silent instruments at a "concert." There are handful of soundproof ice caves where the villagers can frolic and shout, letting out their pent up, pagan passions. The film is clearly a biblical parable about repression. Jackie Burroughs does a brilliant bit part as the puritanical teacher, who closely resembles the Cloris Leachman role in YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN.

All of the characters display a surface naivete; actresses speak in the perky, breathless voices reminiscent of badly dubbed post-war European B films; "strapping" young sons still wear short pants'd school uniforms. The film quickly descends below the surface to show the village as a cauldron of incestuous flirtations, violent retaliation and explosive "family secrets." The plot follows an arc of forbidden loves and passions, leading to retribution on a biblical scale. What may appear to the modern audience as "cheap" special effects are actually loving recreations of how ghosts and visions were portrayed in silent and early talking German films. Many of the images are unforgettable, like the "trolley" cars pulled by oxen, or the mine workers wearing crowns of flickering candles. Uncoated lenses and back lit hair make some closeups resemble images from early Garbo or Dietrich films.

CAREFUL warrants multiple viewings. Watch it with a friend; this is definitely a film you'll want to dissect over several capuccinos.