Thanks for the memories!

People are voting emotionally.

A Masterpiece!

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

It has been a few years since I had a binge on Guy Maddin films. I think I heard of him around the time he did Dracula and then I made an effort to catch his short films at festivals etc. I knew for some time that he had made several films since the last time I watched his work but it took me a while to get around to them. This film was my starting point to catch up a little and it seemed to be a good choice as it mixes humor with tragedy, words with images and truth with complete fiction. The film sees Maddin traveling back to his hometown on Winnipeg on the train, lost in a dream state of memory and commentary.The film presents itself as a documentary and indeed there are some facts in there if you look (and with some stories you will go online afterwards to check if they are real or not) but mostly this is one flight of fancy where nuggets of personal and town history are expanded and exaggerated to create a world much more interesting than it would have been. The presentation of it though suggests no such thing and there is never the suggestion that it is done as a mockumentary or as a joke, it keeps a genuineness about it throughout that is engaging and charming. Maddin narrates the film and sounds a little like the calm presence that Michael Moore used to be in his film; his presence is welcome because it reminds us that under everything is that core of truth, whether it be in the family recollections or the actual history of the town. The lines are blurred constantly though but this is part of the film's appeal – it is a fantasy and it is really fun to go with it and believe it while it is being told.The scenes recreating scenes from his childhood are good but the tales of the wider town are much more fun – tales of a dark network of streets, of lovers visiting the frozen horse heads after a local tragedy etc, they have real color and vividness to the words that it is almost cruel to find they are mostly only true in the smallest detail. Maddin's visual style helps because you can never be sure what is stock footage and what is not, and the imagination in the visuals match the flights of the words themselves. As always it is not the most accessible of films and some might be annoyed by its lack of facts, but fans will enjoy it a lot because it is another great visual and imaginative feast from Maddin.

Canada's Guy Maddin is certainly a film maker who's films are for some a joy ride into the unknown,while for others an acquired taste. His influences are (among others)some of the films of silent era Soviet documentary film maker Dziga Vertov (Kino Pravda),and Serge Eisenstein (Ivan The Terrible,Alexander Nevsky),as well as some of the pioneer experimental film makers of the 1950's & 1960's,such as Kenneth Anger (Scorpio Rising),Stan Brakhage (The Way To Shadow Garden)& Jack Smith (Flaming Creatures). In this entry,Maddin manages to evoke a love/hate letter to his hometown of Manitoba,Winnipeg. The film seems to be part documentary,part rant on whatever happened to his beloved hometown. Besides incorporating some original home movies,he re-enacts moments from his youth & adulthood with a cast of Canadian actors. Sequences of animation add to this cinematic fever dream that some will love,others will probably walk out on. Not rated by the MPAA,this film contains flashes of nudity,sexual content,rude language & some violent content. Best to leave the little ones home (who would probably be either very confused or bored by it all)

Ah, Guy Maddin, how I love your combination of voice-over, quickly changing shots that seem to perfectly match the voice-over, a tone that mixes nostalgia and subtle disgust, the history of your hometown and your own at the same time, seeming to tell all, while really telling more than all.Are we really expected to believe that bit about the horses escaping from a fire? I don't really care. In this case fiction, if not stranger, is certainly more fun than whatever the truth.I saw this recently at the 2008 Seattle Film Festival, along with sixty or seventy other films, and the only other one that kept me so continually spellbound was Nina Paley's Sita Sings the Blues.If you are already a lover of Guy Maddin, you do not need my recommendation. If you are not yet familiar with his unique genius, My Winnipeg is a good place to begin a discovery.

A tribute, kind of, to the great city of Winnipeg, Manitoba (I'm not being facetious-I've been there), this is an 80 minute documentary about the place. It accentuates the winter's bitter cold, the days gone by (some of the images are amazing) and what the city meant and means to Mr. Maddin. This film is not for everyone. It is in black and white and grainy. At first, I wasn't sure if this was a mockumentary, but even though the narrator laments the passing of people and places, I was wondering if the whole point was to explain why people don't leave. Sure, its no Toronto, Montreal or Vancouver (you get the idea), but its a medium size city that thrives. I have seen Mr. Maddin's "Saddest Music In The World", so I know I was expecting something different. Maybe you have no interest in Winnipeg (or can even find it on a map!), but that doesn't detract from the narrative. An added bonus is Ann Savage playing the narrator's mother. Wow, she is in her mid 80's and she agreed to do this role. I don't expect mass agreement here, but if you were commissioned to do a film about your hometown, I'm not sure how different your film would be than this, especially if you life in a city thats cold in the winter. I'm waiting for "My Buffalo" or "My Fargo". For now, I'm quite content with this film that moved me and even taught me about the city. A great left of center cinematic achievement.