Brand Upon the Brain! (2006)

User Rating:

7.6/10   

Director:

Guy Maddin

Writers:

Guy Maddin (writer)
Louis Negin (narration)
(more)

Release Date:

24 September 2008 (France)

Genre:

Drama | Fantasy

Plot:

Guy Maddin reluctantly returns to his childhood home, an abandoned Canadian island, where his parents ran an orphanage...

Plot Keywords:

Island | Paint | Orphan | Mother | Lighthouse

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Gretchen Krich	...	Mother
Sullivan Brown	...	Young Guy Maddin
Maya Lawson	...	Sis
Katherine E. Scharhon	...	Chance Hale / Wendy Hale
Todd Moore	...	Father
Andrew Loviska	...	Savage Tom
Kellan Larson	...	Neddie
Erik Steffen Maahs	...	Older Guy Maddin
Cathleen O'Malley	...	Young Mother
Clayton Corzatte	...	Old Father
Susan Corzatte	...	Old Mother
Megan Murphy	...	Murderous Sister
Annette Toutonghi	...	Murderous Sister
David Lobo	...	Oarsman
Eric Lobo	...	Oarsman
Sarah Harlett	...	Adopting Couple
Dan Tierney	...	Adopting Couple
David Armo	...	Orphan
Erica Badgely	...	Orphan
Riley Calcagno	...	Orphan
Jesa Chiro	...	Orphan
Munya Chiro	...	Orphan
Bailey Gibart	...	Orphan
Frank Hughes	...	Orphan
AnnieRose Kafer	...	Orphan
Emma Kelley	...	Orphan
Eleanor Kopf	...	Orphan
Sam Kopf	...	Orphan
Charlie Lachow	...	Orphan
Sam Lachow	...	Orphan
Maia Lee	...	Orphan
Emma Mercer	...	Orphan
Lucia Moser	...	Orphan
Madeleine Moser	...	Orphan
Eli Pruzan	...	Orphan
Connor Russell	...	Orphan
Electra Fire Scott	...	Orphan
Vincent Scott	...	Orphan
Iris Seiwerath	...	Orphan
Ruby Seiwerath	...	Orphan
Olivia Spokoiny	...	Orphan
Maya Sugarman	...	Orphan
Augustine Vanden Brulle	...	Orphan
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Isabella Rossellini	...	Narrator
Clara Grace Svenson	...	Baby Mother
Anna Wichman	...	Orphan

Directed by
Guy Maddin

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Guy Maddin		writer
Louis Negin		narration
George Toles		writer

Produced by
A.J. Epstein	....	executive producer
Joy Fairfield	....	co-producer
Jaime Hook	....	associate producer
Amy Jacobson	....	producer
Gregg Lachow	....	producer
Jody Shapiro	....	executive producer
Philip Wohlstetter	....	executive producer

Original Music by
Jason Staczek

Cinematography by
Benjamin Kasulke

Film Editing by
John Gurdebeke

Casting by
Joy Fairfield

Production Design by
Tania Kupczak

Art Direction by
Noel Paul		(co-art director)
Apryl Richards		(co-art director)

Set Decoration by
Jennifer Labbienti

Costume Design by
Laura Catigniani
Nina Moser
K.D. Schill

Makeup Department
Denise Giago	....	key hair stylist
Denise Giago	....	key makeup artist
Daniel Wolcott	....	makeup artist
Daniel Wolcott	....	special makeup effects artist

Production Management
Joy Fairfield	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Benjamin Kasulke	....	second unit director
Tyson Theroux	....	second assistant director
Anna Waggoner	....	assistant director

Art Department
Rena Bussinger	....	props manager
John Deshazo	....	set/prop builder
Wing Gee	....	tech designer
Tom Phillips	....	props
Sean Porter	....	tech designer
Tivon Rice	....	props
Alan Strathmann	....	props
Curtis Taylor	....	set designer

Sound Department
John Bosch	....	sound recordist
Caoimhe Doyle	....	live foley artist
Stefan Fraticelli	....	live foley artist
Goro Koyama	....	live foley artist
Andy Malcolm	....	live foley artist
Anna Malkin	....	foley recording assistant
Ron Malligers	....	foley mixer
Murray Trider	....	sound recordist
Don White	....	foley recording mixer
Don White	....	live foley mixer

Camera and Electrical Department
Sullivan Brown	....	camera operator
David Hanagan	....	gaffer
Benjamin Kasulke	....	camera operator
Jennifer Maas	....	grip
Guy Maddin	....	camera operator
Danielle Morgan	....	assistant camera
Danielle Morgan	....	camera operator
Kevin Philbin	....	grip
Courtland Premo	....	grip
Adam L. Weintraub	....	still photographer

Editorial Department
Cheryll Hidalgo	....	additional editor
Michelle Witten	....	assistant editor

Music Department
Timothy Huling	....	orchestrator
Bob Ingalls	....	orchestrator

Other crew
Mike Casassa	....	production coordinator
S.J. Chiro	....	craft service
Andy Spletzer	....	script supervisor

Production Companies

• The Film Company

Distributors

• The Film Company (2007) (USA) (theatrical)
• Vitagraph Pictures (2007) (USA) (theatrical)
• Criterion Collection, The (2008) (USA) (DVD)
• Seven Films (2007) (Greece) (all media)
• Sundance Channel (2007) (USA) (TV)

Other Companies

• Celluloid Dreams  internation sales

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

USA | Canada

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Certification:

Canada:14A (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba/Ontario) | Singapore:R21 | France:U (with warning)

Filming Locations:

Seattle, Washington, USA

Company:

The Film Company

Quotes:

Narrator: What's a suicide attempt without a wedding?

Movie Connections:

Edited into 97 Percent True (2008) (V)

Maddin should have dropped the narration for general release, but the film is still gangbusters

First of all, I have to say: finally! I was almost positive that I was going to have to wait for DVD for this one, and God knows how long that was going to take. Secondly, I have to speak my only criticism of the film up front: the live show experiment might have been something truly awesome. I'll never know. But I do know that the disembodied voice of Isabella Rossellini, which you'll find in the general release, and presumably on the DVD, is extremely distracting. It works once in a while, but I would much prefer Maddin to have had a slightly separate version that was only silent. Unfortunately, several sequences wouldn't be comprehensible without the spoken narration, so I doubt we'll find it gone on the DVD (though I do hope that they might include some of the other narrators they used in the live show). Thankfully, as the film progresses, she pops up less and less. If not for this, I would have had no problem calling this a masterpiece.

What to say about Brand Upon the Brain!? It's a Maddin film, and if you've seen his other films, you know pretty much what to expect. Not that his style hasn't varied between films (although all of his films since his first huge success, Heart of the World, have existed in a similar silent film milieu), but he is just so far beyond what anyone else has ever done, his style can be called entirely unique. As are all of the director's films, Brand is a hilarious nightmare. Maddin creates situations that can only ever exist in the subconscious. The plot of this one includes a lighthouse orphanage, a mad scientist and his sexually repressed wife, teenage detectives à la Nancy Drew or the Hardy Boys, lesbian erotica, incest and the haunting presence of dead memories. Maddin is sometimes criticized as being little more than a snarky jokester, but the more I watch his films, the more I disagree with that assessment. His films are, of course, comedies. All of his films are meant to be funny. But I can also feel the pain, the yearning and emotional honesty behind his work. If the movies illustrate tapestries of the dreamworld, as I am certain they do, then the moods behind them, though melodramatized to high heaven, contain glimpses of the deeper truth. I think David Lynch is a rather similar director. Only where Lynch seems to look at the nightmares from the inside, Maddin's point of view is from that of a man who has just awoken. Nightmares sure are scary when we're in them, but they sure can seem ridiculous when recalled.