Brand Upon the Brain! (2007)

Hi Bill--Hope you're enduring the snowstorms! Anyway--last night I watched the Guy Madden film on DVD--BRAND UPON THE BRAIN--I think that's the title. I imagine you've seen it, since it's his most famous film and it's been screened in NYC at festivals, etc. It's now part of the "Criterion Collection"--made in the 2000's. It's feature-length. Maybe I can see why a couple friends of mine out west thought it reminded them of our films.--The black and white and experimental visual techniques. But overall it reminded me more of David Lynch in a lower-budget underground way.It references the techniques and visual style of German Expressionist films and early silent filmmaking. It took me a while to get into it, but I'm glad I did. The story itself is a mixture of psychology, operatic exaggeration and general goofiness. Something about a possessive mother, weird father, sexually frustrated sister. As with David Lynch, I end up wondering if the director really has something to say or is just juxtaposing "cool" images and weird concepts. Well--my reaction anyway.(In the Extra Features, Madden says that the film is 97% accurate to his own childhood--meaning emotionally of course--not realistically!)The experimental film technique in this movie: in the extra feature section they said that they shot scenes with "multiple Super-8 cameras." I wondered if the whole film was shot that way--and where in 2002 they could get Super8 movie cameras --and S8 film! Gave everything a grainy retro look.It's mostly in black and white with a few fleeting color images. But with modern digital editing it could have all been shot in color and then b&w'd in editing. Anyway it was a heavy trip to sit through, but overall seems to have left me with mostly just a feeling of "mood."Also it's a Canadian film, with that whole "Canadian underground-filmmaker-community" vibe. (Remember the Canadian film we saw at Duke that referenced a lot of 1950's B Movies?--something about a guy living in a garage apartment and a pre-teen girl being infatuated with his film obsession--in campy color. Very much a pre-MOONRISE KINGDOM vibe.)Anyway, I'm glad I saw this film, but not sure if it left me with anything.--B

Here's the problem: Maddin is an impressive filmmaker. He is important and has made at least two films that are important to me. But he is not a very interesting person. So when he applies his mastery to making a personal film - a film essentially about his dreams and demons, it turns into something of a tragedy for the opportunity misspent. This really is a wonderful film in the way it is put together. The whole team seems be closely attuned, with a central role played by the editor. The sound effects are astonishing - and this is a silent film. The references, duly abstracted, from past masterworks are copious and respectful. The narrative structure is suitably complex with manifold overlapping metaphors. The problem is that what we actually get directly from him is boring. Sex and mothers matter; dreams are real; nothing recedes. But we knew that better and more deeply than he shows. Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

I had the unique opportunity to see one of the few theatrical screenings of this film featuring live musical accompaniment, a foley crew, a live narrator (whose narration was, if I recall correctly, quite different to Rosselini's narration in the TV version used here in Canada), and a male soprano. It was a tremendous experience, but even then I thought it had the feel of a latter-day Aerosmith concert- a professional show masking a lack of substance and inventiveness in the performance and execution of the songs. In short, it felt perfunctory and almost like a cover-up."Brand Upon the Brain!" is certainly not one of Maddin's better films. It works fantastically in style and features an arresting, low-budget visual sensibility, but is quite severely lacking in the sort of substance one might expect from a Maddin film. Sure, there are themes being explored here, but they've already been covered better and in more detail in his other work. The narrative itself is outrageous, bizarre, and quite entertaining. I can forgive the film's shortcomings given how fast Maddin wrote this script (five weeks; the movie was shot in one fifth that time), but I don't really think there was that much potential in the idea of the film to begin with.The film's visuals are all there is that's worth talking about here. The editing is brilliantly jarring and wonderfully enhances the film's emotional moments, the cinematography is breathtakingly beautiful given its purpose in the film, and it is very fast-paced. As far as the rest of the film goes, I'll just say this: Maddin is frequently accused of treating his subject matter too lightly although his films are never overtly comedic. "Brand Upon the Brain!" is intentionally funny as are most of his other films, but there is a genuine lack of any clever humor here, as well as a complete lack of any real substance or worth. It works tremendously in style, and it's easy to watch, but there's just nothing more to it.7/10

With the exception of a few brief seemingly random shots, Brand Upon the Brain! is shot (or made to appear in post-production to be shot) in grainy black and white. The look is reminiscent of David Lynch's Eraserhead, a classic that may have been an influence, though the style is quite different. Maddin's film uses much more frenetic editing techniques, particularly frequent cutting to create an abrasive subliminal effect from which the title appears to be derived.I use the term 'abrasive' and for some people that might be a negative, but I found it effective. The film uses captions and along with a neo-silent-era visual design, it has the effect of a coherent experimental film with a bizarre horror narrative. A man, Guy, returns to the island orphanage of his parents after a thirty year absence, on the request of his dying mother. It turns out the parents were subjecting the orphans to some peculiar activities from which Guy escaped.I found the design, high-contrast lighting and editing techniques effective in conveying a bizarre nightmare-type of story, a horror film that is not entirely original in narrative nor design, yet original in its presentation. I liked the voice-over narration by Isabelle Rosellini.There are some very attractive characterisations and depictions of inoffensive perversity. Definitely worth a look.