zedz wrote:If you liked Brand Upon the Brain, Cowards Bend the Knee should definitely be your next port of call. (And you thought Brand was creepy and claustrophobic!) It might help to bear in mind that Cowards began its life as an installation of multiple peep-shows!
Cowards is an amuse-bouche to the 12-meal orgy feast of
Brain! . It's still worth a look - very quick, only one hour long, doesn't hold up to the emotional and visual density and power of
Brain!. If it had to take Maddin to make this film to reach the zenith of
Brain!,then I'm all for it.
My next stop =
My Winnipeg.
More on
Brain!. I've been trying to unravel and examine deeper some of my feelings and thoughts the film provoked. There's something I find profoundly moving about a guy returning home after so many years and the phantoms/monsters of his past come back haunting. The film itself feels like Maddin's personal working out of the demons of his childhood. That staggeringly personal and emotional level is what makes the film Maddin's best for me, that level is missing from the rest of his filmography (
My Winnipeg remains unseen by me.) Every other image still consumes my days and nights: orphans marching up the stairs, moon magic sex, mom feasting on lifeless boys like corn cobs, the goat boy, the surprise visit of a hamster, icy beachside graves, the electrifying resurrection...
