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Product Description
Amazon.ca Canadian Essential
A self-styled "pro-incest" movie about a town in the Alps where the fear of avalanches means that no one speaks above a whisper? When Winnipeg's Prairie surrealist Guy Maddin, slowly working his way through the forgotten genres of early film, decided to turn to the German Alpine pictures of the 1930s, he created what is so far his masterpiece. Awash with colour and filled [ds1]with forbidden whispers, Careful finds the perfect balance between Maddin's senses of kitsch and tragedy.
From Amazon.com
Watching Guy Maddin's Careful is like stepping into a mutating time warp of cinema history, where German alpine dramas of the 1920s are gene-spliced with Daliesque surrealism, Murnau's silent melodrama, and--in an uncannily precise act of stylistic homage--the hypnotically skewed universe of German Expressionism. Filmed in gloriously filtered colors that cross Maxfield Parrish with Peter Max, this stylistic hybrid virtually defies description and must be seen to be truly appreciated. Suffice it to say, the fictional mountain village of Tolzbad--where silence is golden, and extreme measures are taken to avoid a sound-induced avalanche--is one of the strangest and most outrageously amusing locations in the history of film. You think that's an exaggeration? If anything, it's an understatement.
The villagers of Tolzbad have developed repression into an art form: nearly every sentence begins with "Don't," and they slavishly follow a litany of safety guidelines. Desires are equally suppressed, and this precarious equilibrium is fractured when a young villager's Oedipal dreams collide with his dysfunctional family reality. Pandora's box is opened, Tolzbad-style, and Careful turns into a fever-dream of sibling rivalry, forbidden romance, suicide, murder, and delirious cinematic ecstasy. This is Maddin's best and most coherent film, but even so it's hardly for everyone; only the truly adventurous film lover will eagerly follow Maddin on this demented journey, but the rewards are plentiful for those who dare. Many films strive for enduring uniqueness, but few can make that claim as triumphantly as Careful. This is filmmaking on another plane of consciousness--quite simply, a work of art like nothing you've ever seen. --Jeff Shannon
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Keep an Eye on Guy,
By Wayne A. (Belfast, Northern Ireland) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Careful (DVD)
I'll never forget the first time I saw a Guy Maddin film--it was "Tales from Gimli Hospital." When it ended I sat quietly for a few moments and just muttered "Holy Cow" over and over. "Gimli" is an early and very low budget effort. "Careful" shows Guy nearing a peak that hopefully will go on for a few more decades.Guy somehow (and miraculously) manages to sum up the entire history of cinema in his work. While there's much chatter about his obvious retro style, few have noticed his nods to Godard and more recent filmmakers. He may seem to mimic early films with missing frames and soundtrack problems but these "affectations" are ultimately as expressive as the equivalent jump cuts and soundtrack dropouts in Godard's "Alphaville." They're richer too because of the inevitable multiple associations. His amazing short, "Heart of the World" (one of the best shorts I've ever seen) owes as much to modern MTV editing styles as it does to early Soviet cinema (and creates a bridge and dialogue between two seemingly unrelated creative eras). Guy's not an artsy filmmaker, he's just a "guy" who loves movies passionately and works, unselfconsciously, with film's full lexicon.
2.0 out of 5 stars
goofy , tedious, grossly arty,
By
This review is from: Careful (DVD)
Interesting looking, one of a kind, but very dull art film. What I assume the filmmakers are saying is that if people were to open up about a number of societal taboos that it would open a can of worms. But its torture to sit though this very slow annoying film for that message. I found this expensive looking purposely choppy film's acting, color photography, story, characters, dialogue dubbing and sound effects to be grossly arty but not compelling...although I will say that a few of the Lynchian jokes were mildly funny. As for an original art film? -Pop psychology, extensive symbolism, intentional camp, and sets that imitate German expressionism have already been done...ad-nauseum. What might be considered original here is that the director chose to parody the style and mood of an old German mountain climbing film. Frankly I've never watched an entire one of these but let it be clear that German mountain climbing films are extremely esoteric - so who is Careful made for...15 people? The most preposterous thing is that the guys that made the very goofy Careful thought so much of themselves that they had the nerve to make fun of someone else's film. I'd recommend Careful for art students, but why? When you can still see all the original films that Careful imitates. Without being able to recommend Careful to anyone - Id still give Careful four stars in that - the techinical people such as set designers, photographers, film and sound editors were obviously meticulous about there craft. Also that the producers and the director had the nerve, talent, gall or perseverance to capture their warped vision on celluloid in the 1990s. But I take away 2 stars for being monotonous, dull and one more of thousands of pretentious, blurry, out of focus art films. By the way - did I read the end credits right? Is this the kind of thing Canadians are spending their tax dollars on?The quality of the film stock, sound and extras provided by Kino Video are excellent.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Uh... Bizarre, beautiful, but...,
By
This review is from: Careful (DVD)
Great sets & costumes, like a beautifully odd dream. But it is slow and there's no reason to care for any of these characters, so I lost interest. I'm glad to have seen it, but much more glad that I didn't buy it.
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