Thursday, March 30, 2023

Guy Maddin, Filmmaker

Guy Maddin is one of my favourite filmmakers. When he hosted a week-long retrospective of his work at the University of Toronto's "Innis Town Hall" in January of 2010, I was there every evening. The highlight for me was Maddin's live narration of his then most recent feature-length film, My Winnipeg.

On that Friday, after My Winnipeg Live, I made a point to approach the fascinating and special director. I told him how I first saw Tales from the Gimli Hospital at Toronto's Bloor Cinema and loved it. He said, "thank you". I finished by saying: "As soon as I saw that three-stacker (an ocean liner with three funnels) I knew it was going to be a good movie." He laughed as he took a swig from his water bottle.


Maddin's Magic Three:

Tales from the Gimli Hospital (1988)
Archangel (1990)
Careful (1992)

To rub it in:

My Winnipeg (2007)


2 comments:

Greg Woods said...

That was a great week, thanks Simon! I think I was there every night, except for My Winnipeg, although I had seen it previously. He was also at Innis three or four years later for a similar week-long engagment. Were you there as well?

Respectfully yours,
The G Man

Simon St. Laurent said...

No, much to my chagrin when I found out about Maddin's later visit. I don't know how I missed that. Living so close to Innis Town Hall gives me no excuse to not go ― if I'm free.

You are most welcome, Greg!