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Guy Maddin

Author profile

born

February 28, 1956 in Canada

influences

silent film, German Expressionism, David Lynch

About this author

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"Guy Maddin (born February 28, 1956) is a Canadian screenwriter and director of both features and short films from Winnipeg, Manitoba. His most distinctive quality is his dogged persistence in recreating the look and style of silent or early sound era films which has solidified his popularity in niche-cinema and academic circles.

While Maddin strives to recreate the styles and moods of early film melodramas, Weimar Republic German silent films, and 1920s Soviet agit-prop, his own personal style lies in his use of clichés, psychosexual situations, bizarre stories and humor. Reminiscent of the early work of American director David Lynch, it is this self-conscious and surreal merging of early film-making techniques with a post-modern sensibilit...more "Guy Maddin (born February 28, 1956) is a Canadian screenwriter and director of both features and short films from Winnipeg, Manitoba. His most distinctive quality is his dogged persistence in recreating the look and style of silent or early sound era films which has solidified his popularity in niche-cinema and academic circles.

While Maddin strives to recreate the styles and moods of early film melodramas, Weimar Republic German silent films, and 1920s Soviet agit-prop, his own personal style lies in his use of clichés, psychosexual situations, bizarre stories and humor. Reminiscent of the early work of American director David Lynch, it is this self-conscious and surreal merging of early film-making techniques with a post-modern sensibility that give Maddin's films a style referred to as "Ultra-Conformist" or "Anti-Progressive", which sometimes occurs in culturally and geographically isolated Canadian cities. Luckily, continuing assistance from provincial and national Arts Councils as well as the Winnipeg Film Group aid in Maddin's pursuit in the making of art-house history.

His film education came not with any formal training at a trade school, or his experiences at the University of Winnipeg, but with endless weekends of watching films with close friends John Paizs and Steve Snyder. Soon realizing that Paizs was making and performing in his own post-modern films and Snyder was teaching production at the University of Manitoba, Maddin eventually gave up an unsatisfying day-job as a bank-teller and decided that he needed to put his own knowledge to work and step behind the camera, in his case the popular Bolex hand-wound camera.

Maddin's first film was the Winnipeg Film Group assisted 1986 16mm short film The Dead Father. His first 16mm feature film was Tales from the Gimli Hospital.

In 2007, Maddin became the first artist-curator of the UCLA Film and Television Archive. In this position, he performs the programming for their new "Curated by..." series.

As of fall 2007, Maddin will be teaching film at the University of Manitoba. Also in 2007, Maddin's film My Winnipeg won the Best Canadian Feature award at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Maddin's films are often set in his home town of Winnipeg and are usually set in abstract 20th century historical periods. Themes in strained family relationships,Maddin's films frequently include unrequited love, murder, Soviet Russia, homoeroticism, incest, dismemberment and the workings of human impulse and subconscious."

-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Maddin (less)

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Books by Guy Maddin

Average rating: 4.07 · 68 ratings · 9 reviews · 5 distinct works

	From the Atelier Tovar: Selected Writings 3.98 avg rating — 42 ratings — published 1999 — 2 editions	My rating:
	Cowards Bend the Knee 4.08 avg rating — 12 ratings — published 2003	My rating:
	My Winnipeg 4.31 avg rating — 13 ratings — published 2005 — 2 editions	My rating:
	Guy Maddin: Interviews 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2010 — 2 editions	My rating:
	The Dark Page Ii: Books That Inspired American Film Noir, (1950 1965) by Kevin Johnson, Dan Gregory (Photographer), Guy Maddin (Foreword) 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating	My rating:

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Quotes by Guy Maddin

“27 July

Rage-thought to live by: in The General, Buster gets so annoyed at his girlfriend's stupidity for stoking the engine with tiny pieces of wood, he facetiously gives her little toothpicks - which she dutifully feeds into the fire. He then stares at her in disbelief, then delights in her anyway and leaps at her with a kiss. Sweet axiom!”
― Guy Maddin, From the Atelier Tovar: Selected Writings

3 people liked it

“Sadness is just happiness turned on its ass—it's all showbiz!”
― Guy Maddin

tags: saddest-music-in-the-world , screenplay

1 person liked it

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