440 Brand Upon the Brain!
- Jeff
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 9:49 pm
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440 Brand Upon the Brain!
Brand Upon the Brain!
[img]http://criterion_production.s3.amazonaws.com/release_images/986/440_box_348x490_w128.jpg[/img]
In the weird and wonderful super-cinematic world of Canadian cult filmmaker Guy Maddin, personal memory collides with movie lore for a radical sensory overload. This eerie excursion into the Gothic recesses of Maddin’s mad, imaginary childhood is a silent, black-and-white comic science-fiction nightmare set in a lighthouse on grim Notch Island, where fictional protagonist Guy Maddin was raised by an ironfisted, puritanical mother. Originally mounted as a theatrical event (accompanied by live orchestra, foley artists, and assorted narrators), Brand upon the Brain! is an irreverent, delirious trip into the mind of one of current cinema’s true eccentrics.
Special Features
• New, restored high-definition digital transfer
• Optional narration tracks by Isabella Rossellini, Laurie Anderson, John Ashbery, Guy Maddin, Louis Negrin, Crispin Glover, and Eli Wallach
• 97 Percent True, a new documentary featuring interviews with the director and his collaborators
• Two new short films directed by Maddin exclusively for this release: It's My Mother’s Birthday Today and Footsteps
• Deleted scene
• Trailer
• PLUS: A new essay by film critic Dennis Lim
Criterionforum.org user rating averages
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[img]http://criterion_production.s3.amazonaws.com/release_images/986/440_box_348x490_w128.jpg[/img]
In the weird and wonderful super-cinematic world of Canadian cult filmmaker Guy Maddin, personal memory collides with movie lore for a radical sensory overload. This eerie excursion into the Gothic recesses of Maddin’s mad, imaginary childhood is a silent, black-and-white comic science-fiction nightmare set in a lighthouse on grim Notch Island, where fictional protagonist Guy Maddin was raised by an ironfisted, puritanical mother. Originally mounted as a theatrical event (accompanied by live orchestra, foley artists, and assorted narrators), Brand upon the Brain! is an irreverent, delirious trip into the mind of one of current cinema’s true eccentrics.
Special Features
• New, restored high-definition digital transfer
• Optional narration tracks by Isabella Rossellini, Laurie Anderson, John Ashbery, Guy Maddin, Louis Negrin, Crispin Glover, and Eli Wallach
• 97 Percent True, a new documentary featuring interviews with the director and his collaborators
• Two new short films directed by Maddin exclusively for this release: It's My Mother’s Birthday Today and Footsteps
• Deleted scene
• Trailer
• PLUS: A new essay by film critic Dennis Lim
Criterionforum.org user rating averages
Feature currently disabled
Last edited by Jeff on Tue Jul 22, 2008 2:34 am, edited 3 times in total.
- colinr0380
- Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
- Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK
- colinr0380
- Joined: Mon Nov 08, 2004 4:30 pm
- Location: Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire, UK
Here we go, I knew it was around here somewhere!
So Joan Chen, Anne Jackson, Joie Lee, Lou Reed, Justin Bond, Tunde Adebimpe, Edward Hibbert and Peter Scarlet are not included but Louis Negrin seems to have been added (though he might have been one of the LA narrators!).A full list of screenings and live narrators lies ahead, and director Maddin himself will appear at the New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles events.
Narrators by city:
San Francisco screening (at Castro Theater):
05-07 Joan Chen (8 p.m.)
New York screenings (at Village East Cinemas):
05-09 Crispin Glover (7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.)
05-10 Anne Jackson (7 p.m.)
05-10 Eli Wallach (9:30 p.m.)
05-11 Joie Lee (7 p.m.)
05-11 Crispin Glover (9:30 p.m.)
05-12 Laurie Anderson (7 p.m.)
05-12 Lou Reed (9:30 p.m.)
05-13 Justin Bond (3 p.m.)
05-13 John Ashbery (7 p.m.)
05-13 Tunde Adebimpe (9:30 p.m.)
05-14 Edward Hibbert (7 p.m.)
05-14 Peter Scarlet (9:30 p.m.)
05-15 Isabella Rossellini (7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.)
Chicago screenings (at Music Box Theatre):
05-18 Crispin Glover (7:30 p.m.)
05-19 Crispin Glover (2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.)
05-20 Crispin Glover (2:30 p.m.)
Los Angeles screenings (at Egyptian Theatre):
06-08 TBA (7:30 p.m.)
06-09 TBA (7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m.)
06-10 TBA (7:30 p.m.)
Last edited by colinr0380 on Thu May 15, 2008 8:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
- denti alligator
- Joined: Wed Nov 03, 2004 9:36 pm
- Location: "born in heaven, raised in hell"
- Doctor Sunshine
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 10:04 pm
- Location: Brain Jail
That's got to be a record number of audio tracks.
Louis Negrin narrated for the world premiere at TIFF06. For those that missed out on the live experience, here's one producer's account of said premiere. The foibles and delays added to the fun and novelty of the event (however, I missed half of my next show because of the late start... but no hard feelings.)
I like Maddin's shorts a lot better than his features but the quick editing and kinetic feel sustain this film better than most. Still seemed long but I was already pretty sleep deprived despite having seen this day two of the festival.
Louis Negrin narrated for the world premiere at TIFF06. For those that missed out on the live experience, here's one producer's account of said premiere. The foibles and delays added to the fun and novelty of the event (however, I missed half of my next show because of the late start... but no hard feelings.)
I like Maddin's shorts a lot better than his features but the quick editing and kinetic feel sustain this film better than most. Still seemed long but I was already pretty sleep deprived despite having seen this day two of the festival.
- domino harvey
- Dot Com Dom
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- domino harvey
- Dot Com Dom
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- Mr Pixies
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- Tribe
- The Bastard Spawn of Hank Williams
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There was a time when I would have liked to have anything by Lou in connection with anything...but he's become such an asshole in his old age that I pretty much avoid anything having to do with him....except for Laurie Anderson.denti alligator wrote:I would have liked to have had Lou's narration, but so long as we have Laurie's...
And John Ashbery's! The best of all!
- domino harvey
- Dot Com Dom
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- denti alligator
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Wait, when was he not an asshole? Did I miss that?Tribe wrote:There was a time when I would have liked to have anything by Lou in connection with anything...but he's become such an asshole in his old age that I pretty much avoid anything having to do with him....except for Laurie Anderson.denti alligator wrote:I would have liked to have had Lou's narration, but so long as we have Laurie's...
And John Ashbery's! The best of all!
I still buy every Lou album, even though out of something like 30 records only 5 of them are any good. But those are really, really good.
- Sanjuro
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- Tribe
- The Bastard Spawn of Hank Williams
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True, but way back he used to be a cool asshole. Now he's just annoying. Ditto on the records, Denti. I haven't liked anything of his since Magic and Loss...and even that was somewhat weak coming on the heels of New York.denti alligator wrote:Wait, when was he not an asshole? Did I miss that?Tribe wrote:There was a time when I would have liked to have anything by Lou in connection with anything...but he's become such an asshole in his old age that I pretty much avoid anything having to do with him....except for Laurie Anderson.denti alligator wrote:I would have liked to have had Lou's narration, but so long as we have Laurie's...
And John Ashbery's! The best of all!
I still buy every Lou album, even though out of something like 30 records only 5 of them are any good. But those are really, really good.
- Donald Trampoline
- Joined: Fri Feb 11, 2005 3:39 pm
- Location: Los Angeles, CA
I was just going to mention that. I am still scratching my head about the 6 commentaries for that movie, including one by Carrot Top!? Wow.domino harvey wrote:I was actually thinking about that, Rules of Attraction has it tied with six commentaries plus the regular Dolby track making 7.Doctor Sunshine wrote:That's got to be a record number of audio tracks.
- Doctor Sunshine
- Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 10:04 pm
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- MichaelB
- Joined: Fri Aug 11, 2006 6:20 pm
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I was slightly alarmed by this announcement:
That said, I'm assuming this is just a careless cut-and-paste job - I can't believe Criterion would deliberately "correct" intentional damage!
Quite aside from the fact that the film is so recent that it shouldn't have picked up much in the way of dirt or debris, isn't it a key feature of Maddin's aesthetic that his films look as though they've been rotting on a shelf for five or six decades?Brand upon the Brain! is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1. Black bars at the top and bottom of the screen are normal for this format. This new high-definition digital transfer was created on a Spirit 4K from a 35 mm duplicate negative. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, and scratches were removed using the MTI Digital Restoration System. To maintain optimal image quality through the compression process, the picture on this dual-layer DVD-9 was encoded at the highest-possible bit rate for the quantity of material included.
That said, I'm assuming this is just a careless cut-and-paste job - I can't believe Criterion would deliberately "correct" intentional damage!
- Tribe
- The Bastard Spawn of Hank Williams
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I think it was a cut and paste mistake, because you're right, generally Maddin wants most of his films to look a bit like nitrate rot. On the other hand, when I saw this at the Detroit Institute of Art last year, I remember it having a "cleaner" look than most of his previous movies. Anyone else's recollection better than mine?MichaelB wrote:Quite aside from the fact that the film is so recent that it shouldn't have picked up much in the way of dirt or debris, isn't it a key feature of Maddin's aesthetic that his films look as though they've been rotting on a shelf for five or six decades?
That said, I'm assuming this is just a careless cut-and-paste job - I can't believe Criterion would deliberately "correct" intentional damage!
- magicmarker
- Joined: Sat Oct 14, 2006 10:21 pm
You're correct Tribe, there isn't nearly the same amount of 'decay and detritus' in Brand as there is in something like Archangel or Heart of the World. Maddin seems to have opted for emphasizing the grain and what he calls 'neurological editing' over artificial aging. I have a preview DVD (from a friend of a friend of Maddin) with the Rosselini v/o, but it is interlaced, so I'm looking forward to this, especially with the other audio tracks. I can imagine a very different viewing experience with each interlocutor, and I'm especially looking forward to the Ashbery and Anderson tracks. Anyone know what happened to the project that Maddin and Ashbery were reported to be collaborating on?
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- domino harvey
- Dot Com Dom
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