<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>The films of Guy Maddin, from his debut feature <italic>Tales from the Gimli Hospital</italic> (1988) to his most recent one, <italic>The Forbidden Room</italic> (2015), draw extensively on the visual vocabulary and narrative conventions of 1920s and 1930s German cinema. These cinematic revisitations, however, are no mere exercise in sentimental cinephilia or empty pastiche. What distinguishes Maddin’s compulsive returns to the era of German Expressionism is the desire to both archive and awaken the past. <italic>Careful</italic> (1992), Maddin’s mountain film, reanimates an anachronistic genre in order to craft an elegant allegory about the apprehensions and anxieties of everyday social and political life. <italic>My Winnipeg</italic> (2006) rescores the city symphony to reveal how personal history and cultural memory combine to structure the experience of the modern metropolis, whether it is Weimar Berlin or wintry Winnipeg. In this paper, I explore the influence of German Expressionism on Maddin’s work as well as argue that Maddin’s films preserve and perpetuate the energies and idiosyncrasies of Weimar cinema.</p></abstract>

The films of Guy Maddin, from his debut feature Tales from the Gimli Hospital (1988) to his most recent one, The Forbidden Room (2015), draw extensively on the visual vocabulary and narrative conventions of 1920s and 1930s German cinema. These cinematic revisitations, however, are no mere exercise in sentimental cinephilia or empty pastiche. What distinguishes Maddin’s compulsive returns to the era of German Expressionism is the desire to both archive and awaken the past. Careful (1992), Maddin’s mountain film, reanimates an anachronistic genre in order to craft an elegant allegory about the apprehensions and anxieties of everyday social and political life. My Winnipeg (2006) rescores the city symphony to reveal how personal history and cultural memory combine to structure the experience of the modern metropolis, whether it is Weimar Berlin or wintry Winnipeg. In this paper, I explore the influence of German Expressionism on Maddin’s work as well as argue that Maddin’s films preserve and perpetuate the energies and idiosyncrasies of Weimar cinema.

From Weimar to Winnipeg: German Expressionism and Guy Maddin

Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Film and Media Studies

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

{"article-title":"From Weimar to Winnipeg: German Expressionism and Guy Maddin"}

The films of Guy Maddin, from his debut feature Tales from the Gimli Hospital (1988) to his most recent one, The Forbidden Room (2015), draw extensively on the...

From Weimar to Winnipeg: German Expressionism and Guy Maddin

Publié en ligne: 17 août 2019

Pages: 59 - 79

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ausfm-2019-0004

Mots clés
Guy Maddin, Canadian film, German Expressionism, Weimar cinema, cinephilia

© 2019 Andrew Burke, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

From Weimar to Winnipeg: German Expressionism and Guy Maddin

Publié en ligne: 17 août 2019

Pages: 59 - 79

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/ausfm-2019-0004

Mots clésGuy Maddin, Canadian film, German Expressionism, Weimar cinema, cinephilia

© 2019 Andrew Burke, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 3.0 License.

Mots clés
Guy Maddin, Canadian film, German Expressionism, Weimar cinema, cinephilia