My Winnipeg
posted June 12, 2008 10:23 AM
Maddin takes audiences on a tour of his Winnipeg
Leave it to iconoclast Guy Maddin to present his memoirs in the style of a silent movie. My Winnipeg is an often funny, mostly quirky, rumination on the filmmaker’s Canadian hometown and childhood. In narration that is at times tongue in cheek, clever, bitter and satirical, he explains that, by making it, he may finally be able to move on.
Although his signature illusory style drives the film, he maintains that some of these episodes are true. Some of the found footage corroborates that, but the familiar blurry black-and-white quality of other images betrays his ruse. The documentary form may be a departure for Maddin, but only to a certain point.
My Winnipeg really is a memoir, but it’s also full of the fantastic found only in the dreams that Maddin so expertly spins. Unfortunately, the sum of all its parts do not equal a coherent and satisfying whole.
Distributor: IFC First Take
Cast: Ann Savage and Louis Negin
Director/Screenwriter: Guy Maddin
Producers: Jody Shapiro and Phyllis Laing
Genre: Documentary
Rating: Unrated
Running time: 80 min.
Release date: June 13 ltd.
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