Ask Trader Dan       Contact       About       Take a tour
Sign in | Sign up
Lost your password?
Your SPOT
Profile, posting, messaging, & account
A SPOT at the trading post to speak your mind, trade advice or stuff, promote your business, projects, and ideas.

Who you are and
what do you do?

Get your SPOT today!
Community
Community blogs & resources
Share information, meet folks, and promote your business, projects, and ideas.
Your communities
Popular communities
Community resources
Relevant resources also appear in context throughout CoTradeCo.com
Store
Find what you need for work, life, and play
CoTradeCo serves individuals, industry, and the public sector. Shop online or request a sales rep for more options & service.
Services
Store resources
Relevant resources also appear in context throughout CoTradeCo.com
Popular departments
Popular brands

Watch “The Heart of the World” by Genius Guy Maddin
beingzoe about 1 year ago | 1 response     Subscribe Creative Endeavors Gibber-gabber

What is the antidote for bloated Hollywood franchise blockbusters slim on plot and big on special effects and product tie-ins?

Short “silent” anachronistic films.

If you are a lover of cinema and aren’t familiar with Guy Maddin, you should be . He is a Canadian filmmaker who brings a level of originality, creativity, and story telling rarely seen since the days of Orson Welles or Fellini.

What these films might lack in mainstream appeal they make up for in quality of story, production, and impact. Using low budget indie film methods and stylistic motifs of the early 20th century, coupled with various original and unique techniques such as using carefully applied Vaseline on the lens of the camera to create soft old-school visuals, Guy Maddin does not make movies, he tells stories.

His style most often draws on the look and feel of films from the 1920’s and 1930’s. IMDB refers to Maddin’s style as referencing and parodying soviet montage cinema of the 1920s, German Expressionism of the 1920s, and silent melodrama film.

Among my favorite movies of all time is The Saddest Music in the World . This is a feature length “talkie” that takes Maddin’s “retro-original” style blending it with some 1950’s style futuristic motifs in a story set during the prohibition era. That alone is genius, but the story, about a legless and wealthy beer baroness in Canada who creates a contest to find the saddest music in the world, because as she put it, people buy more alcohol when they are sad.

The Heart of the World originally produced for the 2000 Toronto International Film Festival, is a nice introduction to the world of Guy Maddin. This silent film is 6 minutes of simplistic visual and storytelling genius. The story of two brothers who love the same woman, a scientist who is researching the center of the earth. The Heart of the World says and conveys more in 6 minutes than many major Hollywood films.

Watch The Heart of the World by Guy Maddin at YouTube

Let me know what you think.

Responses

beingzoe

about 1 year ago beingzoe said ...

When I posted this mini-article we didn’t have the ability to embed video so all I could do was link to it. Then even after we could, I questioned whether I should. A man of such genius really deserves to have his work paid for. But then I decided what the heck.

Consider this the trailer for a much larger body of work and check the art houses or pick up some DVDs.

 

Post your response

Already have a SPOT? SIGN IN to post a response.
Otherwise, enter your info below!

Do not change the following three fields.

Required. No HTML. Textile syntax only.
What is your take on this post? Share it with the community.

 

If you have never posted here before...

How you will be referred to in the community.
Can be your real name or a handle.

We take privacy and spam seriously and will ALWAYS protect your information.
By joining, you accept the better than average CoTradeCo terms of use.

Start a new discussion

Post in this community and topic

beingzoe

beingzoe

Creative Endeavors community

Creative thinking and activity welcome
Go to Creative Endeavors home Creative Endeavors community home
Friend-member-icon-14x14 Add Creative Endeavors to your SPOT
Atom feed Subscribe to Creative Endeavors
Content loading: If you continue to see this message you may have disabled JavaScript and/or CSS.

Learn more about the CoTradeCo Guest Blogger program

We are excited to launch our Guest Blogger program . Visit our Guest Blogger sign up and information page.

Coming Soon!

Credit processing for new businesses
Ryan Bates, Credit Processing International by

in the Business Interests community
Insider tips on setting up credit card processing for your business from an account manager.
Coming Soon!

Composting at home
by Tammy Bowser, Gardener & Environmentalist

in the Green Life community
Tammy, a long time environmentalist and certified composter and worm bin operator (and member of the CoTradeCo community), shares some advice on how to get started composting at home to reduce trash, gain valuable soil for home gardening projects, and generally make the world a better place.
Coming Soon!

Honor Crew Stagehands program
by Donna J. Flor, California Center For the Arts

in the Stagehands community
Donna J. Flor, technical director at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido, discusses the newly created Honor Crew Program where high school students from around North San Diego County are given the opportunity to run a professional show in a working venue.
What about you or your company?

Your article here
by You, your speciality

in Any community
Everybody is a specialist in something. Share your knowledge and get some exposure for your business, projects, and ideas.
Coming Soon!

Tips for renting a theater
by David Szymanski, California Center For the Arts

in the Stagehands community
David Symanski, Rental Coordinator at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido, discusses tips, tricks, and advice for maximizing your experience, event, and show when renting a theater.

Find related info on CoTradeCo

Quick search keywords from this post
Size of link indicates frequency of keyword in post, not on site.

Also see all community blog discussions or our resource library.

Useful links and info for
Creative Endeavors community

Graphic design / Web design

Writing

Software

Windows

  • YWriter
    A writers word processor (FW)
  • Natara Bonsai
    Outlining/List software
  • One Note
    Notebooking software (yes, it’s Microsoft but it is really good)

MAC and Windows

Java / platform independent

Reference and resources

Reference

Research

Names

Creative/Creator Promotion

Galleries

Other useful communities

Photography

Want a link here? Have a resource everybody should know about?

The community useful stuff sidebar is for commonly accessed, highly recommended, and new resources that will be put into the resource library.

Post your useful resources and links to the community blog. The best most useful stuff from community members is frequently moved permanently to the resource library and this sidebar.

We are also considering a small sponsored link option. If you are interested please contact us or visit our advertising page.

Interested in moderating this community?

We are seeking an individual or individuals who would be interested in adding and maintaining useful content and facilitating discussions for the this community. If you are interested please post your interest to the community blog.

About posting to community blogs

Post anything. Talk about work, life, or play. Get and give advice and tips. This is a trading post so feel free to promote yourself, projects, or your business (just don't spam!).

You need a SPOT to post new discussions on the community blog and comment on other people's posts.

Some folks call it a blog, a forum, or questions and answers. Trader Dan is old fashioned and thinks of it as folks talking and having a good time.

The only real rules are NO SPAM, don't be rude, and indicate if your post is NSFW. These things tend to peeve Trader Dan no end. Promoting yourself is okay if it is meaningful to the community, but limit yourself or you will be deleted. Controversy is okay, but hate, flaming, and jerks are not.

For the specifics visit our policy page.

© 2007-2009 CoTradeCo, Coachella Valley Packaging, & Coachella Valley Trading Company
are part of the Shorebird Corporation

Community content is all rights reserved © by the contibutor of that content granting
CoTradeCo some limited non-exclusive usage rights, see our policies.