Last weekend, I picked up a postcard about screenings of
Guy Maddin's latest,
Brand Upon the Brain!, which I discovered will be showing twice daily at the Village East Cinema in New York between May 9 and May 15. At previous festival screenings, Maddin himself has narrated the film live with a foley sound effects crew in attendance, but for these New York screenings, he has invited some of his friends to take on the narrator's mantle.
These "friends", however, include cultural behemoths like
Lou Reed,
Laurie Anderson,
Crispin Glover,
Eli Wallach, and
Isabella Rossellini (Maddin's lead in his previous feature,
The Saddest Music in the World). In addition, legendary poet
John Ashbery,
TV on the Radio's lead singer
Tunde Adebimpe (who was also the star of
Jump Tomorrow a few years back), Tribeca Film Fest chief
Peter Scarlet and a handful of others will also be taking up the microphone for Maddin.
The celebrity factor aside, the word from previous live screenings has been that it is an unforgettable experience. Apart from the narrator and the 5-man foley team, there is also a castrato and an 11-piece chamber orchestra. And in case I've neglected the film itself in all of this, I should make it clear that Maddin (who will be in attendance also) is one of the most innovative and exciting directors working today, and that
Brand Upon the Brain! was called one of the 10 best films of the year by the
New York Times's
Manohla Dargis.
A complete schedule of events is available on the
film's website.
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posted by Nick Dawson @ 5/04/2007 08:12:00 AM
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