The Heart of the World (2000)

Director:

Guy Maddin

Writer:

Guy Maddin (writer)

Genre:

Short

Plot Keywords:

Actor | Heart Failure | Experimental Film | Deterioration | Female Scientist

Awards:

6 wins

Cast

Leslie Bais	...	Anna
Caelum Vatnsdal	...	Osip
Shaun Balbar	...	Nikolai
Greg Klymkiw	...	Akmatov (as Hryhory Yulyanovitch Klymkyiev)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Tammy Gillis	...	Mary Magdalene (uncredited)
Carson Nattrass	...	Centurion (uncredited)

Directed by
Guy Maddin

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Guy Maddin		writer

Produced by
Niv Fichman	....	executive producer
Jody Shapiro	....	producer
Jennifer Weiss	....	co-producer

Cinematography by
Guy Maddin		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
deco dawson		(co-editor)
Guy Maddin		(co-editor)

Casting by
Barbara Pritchard		(as Barb Pritchard)

Production Design by
Réjean Labrie		(as Rejean Labrie)

Art Direction by
Olaf Dux

Set Decoration by
Natalie Armstrong		(decors)
Lillian Bryant		(decors)
Maryam Decter		(decors)
Tessa Emery		(decors)
Don Greenberg		(decors)
Craig Guiboche		(decors)
Erin Haluschuk		(decors)
Francis Hans		(decors)
Erin Hershberg		(decors)
Matt Holm		(decors)
Simon Hughes		(decors)
David Kufflick		(decors)
Vanessa Loewen		(decors)
Michelle Quirion		(decors)
David Sonnenschein		(decors)
Maria Voulgaris		(decors)
Dan Walechuk		(decors)
Kristin Wisener		(decors)
Jason Woloski		(decors)

Costume Design by
Meg McMillan

Makeup Department
Beverley Hamilton	....	hair stylist (as Beverly Hamilton)
Beverley Hamilton	....	makeup designer (as Beverly Hamilton)
Frances Hans	....	assistant makeup artist (uncredited)

Production Management
Andrew Cullen	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Javier Cámera	....	second assistant director
Maiah Levene	....	first assistant director
Glen Philpot	....	first assistant director

Art Department
Alex Count	....	carpenter
Kim Hamin	....	prop master
Toni Scinocca	....	graphics (as Toni Sinnocca)
Craig Walls	....	construction coordinator
Keith Walls	....	carpenter

Sound Department
David McCallum	....	sound designer
Lou Solakofski	....	sound re-recording mixer

Camera and Electrical Department
deco dawson	....	co-camera operator
Jason Heke	....	lighting
Joao Holowka	....	lighting (as John Holowka)
Zac Rothman	....	lighting (as Zach Rothman)
Brendon Sawatzky	....	lighting
Paul Suderman	....	lighting
deco dawson	....	still photographer (uncredited)

Music Department
Vladimir Gabyshev	....	music coordinator

Other crew
Lois Raymond	....	liaison

Thanks
Jeff Andruchuk	....	thanks
Michael Drabot	....	special gratitude
Buffalo Gal	....	thanks
Noam Gonick	....	thanks
Laura Michalchyshyn	....	thanks
Steve Morrison	....	thanks
Lois Raymond	....	thanks

Distributors

• Zeitgeist Video (2002) (USA) (DVD)
• Zeitgeist Video (2002) (USA) (VHS)

Other Companies

• Astral Media  in participation with (as Astral Media)
• Catherine Rankin Productions Ltd.  supplier (as Catherine Rankin Productions Inc.)
• Fujifilm Professional Video Products  supplier
• Manitoba Telephone System  thanks
• Movie Network, The (TMN)  in participation with
• Prairie Production Centre  supplier
• Ryerson Polytechnical Institute  supplier (as Ryerson Polytechnic University: School of Image Arts)
• Shelter Canadian Properties Ltd.  supplier
• Super Écran  in participation with

Runtime:

6 min

Country:

Canada

Language:

None

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Filming Locations:

Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada

Trivia:

References/parodies soviet montage cinema of the 1920s, German Expressionism of the 1920s, and silent melodrama film.

Movie Connections:

References Metropolis (1927)

Soundtrack:

Time, Forward

Brilliant, distinctive, utterly original!

Guy Maddin is the most brilliant film-maker working today! If there's somebody better, that person must be labouring in obscurity. Maddin is strongly influenced by the disciplines of silent film, but his vision is unique, distinctive, and utterly original.

'The Heart of the World' could easily have been a throwaway film, given the circumstance of its origin. The Toronto Film Festival commissioned Maddin to make a brief film to fill a gap in their programming schedule. A mere time-passer. What Maddin gave them was utterly unexpected.

Maddin uses large-grain film stock and Klieg-style lighting techniques to replicate the look of silent film. Maddin's production design (costumes, makeup, hairstyling) impeccably recreates the images of that period. It's easy to believe that 'Heart of the World' is actually compiled from old UFA out-takes, circa 1925. Only just occasionally does Maddin's grasp on the 1920s show the joins, and then those lapses are probably intentional.

'The Hearts of the World' depicts the rivalry of two brothers. Nikolai is an idealist engineer. Osip is playing Jesus Christ in a passion play, and seems to have developed a genuine messiah complex. Amusingly, Osip does his Jesus routine whilst toting a cross made from metal girders ... an Art Deco crucifixion!

The brothers vie for the love of Anna, a beautiful scientist who has built a device which enables her to gaze into the Earth's core, literally the heart of the world. Meanwhile, a bloated plutocrat named Akmatov lusts for Anna. All of this is explained in silent-film titles, in a 1920s typeface that looks vaguely Cyrillic. The actors employ authentic silent-film acting techniques while resisting the temptation to 'guy' those methods or exaggerate them. The only lapse occurs when Anna suddenly vibrates her eyes back and forth while attempting to choose between the two brothers. This seems to be Maddin's intentional parody of silent-film acting. For the rest of the film, his homage to the past is sincere.

I spent a delightful six minutes trying to spot all the references and influences in this movie. Maddin is clearly influenced by 'Metropolis' (my favourite film), but I also spotted the influences of 'Aelita', 'Vampyr', 'Potemkin' and 'Haxan' in this frenzied melange. This is not to accuse Maddin of plagiarism. He displays his influences openly, using them as a foundation for a vision uniquely his own. It's refreshing to see a 21st-century filmmaker who acknowledges a debt to silent films, in an industry filled with Tarantino wanna-bes and counterfeit Hitchcocks.

'The Heart of the World' is one of the most distinctive, exciting and exhilarating movies I have ever seen. No doubt of it: I rate this movie 10 out of 10, and I look forward to more work by this filmmaker whose work is at once utterly alien yet enticingly accessible.