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“Brand Upon the Brain!”, by Guy Maddin

GUY MADDIN RECREATES GERMAN MUTE EXPRESSIONISM IN AN OUTSTANDING EVENT AT THE BERLIM OPERA HOUSE

The Canadian filmmaker Guy Maddin created for a particular language, his own signature, extracted from his own past cinema experiences, from the fascination for mute films, especially the German expressionism.To glamorize his latest movie “Brand Upon the Brain” screening, the Forum section of the 57th Berlim Festival prepared a special event, where the screening took place on the stage of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Berlim Opera House, with the Volkswagen Orchestra (with 34 musicians), musical direction by the conductor Jason Staczek, plus three other sound engineers from a north american sound studio, and the electrifying narration by the Italian actress and director Isabella Rosselini.

The show was expected to be the main happening of the festival. It turned out to be as successful as people expected. On February 15th , the Berlim Opera House was packed and Guy Madin was given a rapturous ovation. The Canadian filmmaker had a full retrospective of his works in the 28th São Paulo International Film Festival. “Brain Upon the Brain” recreates, with passion, all the urge of a mute expressionist movie, a sophisticated horror film, full of mannerisms.

The fascination for the past is also in the movie original plot.A boy named Guy, as the director himself, is trapped on an island with a light house. It is an island which isolates plenty of other orphan children. A foster father uses the children in his macabre experiments while a mother equally symbolic terrifies the children with her extreme and strict surveillance. The encounter of two couples of children triggers the birth of love, of a desire, so far unknown, for freedom and sheds light over this terrifying world of specters.

Guy Maddin reinvents a language and goes on being the only one to recreate a genre which delight us with all the atmosphere and richness of expression which were blown up with the birth of the cinema itself. As if all the restorations of old mute movies which make movie goers happy year after year were not enough, we have got Guy Maddin with his daring movies which sheds even more light over this fascinating and astonishing magic. Not by mere chance, all his characters in “Brand Upon the Brain” are affected by past enigmas. Deciphering them will mean to enjoy freedom. Guy Maddin and his characters reach their climax decoding the rich language of the pioneer´s cinema.