Neale, Brent

The Guy Maddin Collection (Twilight of the Ice Nymphs / The Heart of the World / Archangel)

Three phantasmagoric films on one DVD by the Canadian cult master! TWILIGHT OF THE ICE NYMPHS is the most elaborate and surreal fantasia from the master of all things libidinal. Starring Shelley Duvall, Frank Gorshin, and Alice Krige (STAR TREK's Borg Queen), this tale of lusty delirium and unrequited love is set in the mystical land of Mandragora, a supremely sensual dream world which pulses with ethereal, vibrating colors and bizarre flourishes of art direction. ARCHANGEL is set in the Northernmost tip of old Imperial Russia in the winter of 1919. The Great War has been over for three months, but no one has remembered to tell those who remain in the town of Archangel. A weird and wild melodrama of obsessive love with stunning black-and-white cinematography and memorably stylized set design. Commissioned for the 25th Anniversary of the Toronto International Film Festival, Maddin's acclaimed, award-winning short THE HEART OF THE WORLD is a brilliant, breathless parody of silent Soviet propaganda films.

Dracula - Pages from a Virgin's Diary

After garnering widespread acclaim with his mini-masterpiece THE HEART OF THE WORLD, red hot cult auteur Guy Maddin (THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD) has taken on the world's most adapted horror tale and concocted his most original and ravishingly stylized cinematic creation yet. Beautifully transposing the Royal Winnipeg Ballet's interpretation of Bram Stoker's classic vampire yarn from stage to screen, Maddin has forged a sumptuous, erotically charged feast of dance, drama and silent film techniques. The black-and-white, blood-red-punctured DRACULA: PAGES FROM A VIRGIN'S DIARY is a Gothic grand guignol of the notorious Count and his bodice-ripped victims, fringed with the expressionistic strains of Gustav Mahler.

Tales from the Gimli Hospital

Careful

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

Stryker

STRYKER is the story of a brutal turf war between two street gangs in Winnipeg`s North End. Omar (Ryan Black), the mixed-blood leader of the ABS (Asian Bomb Squad), dominates the `hood with his crew of Filipino enforcers. His nemesis, Mama Ceece (Deena Fontaine), is the girl-thug leader of the Indian Posse. She has just been released from jail and is determined to regain control of her neighborhood. "Stryker" is Canadian slang for a prospective gang member. This film follows one Stryker (Kyle Henry), a 14-year-old Native arsonist from a northern reserve whose arrival in the city serves as a catalyst in this fierce battle.