Maddin Joins Criterion

It only took 20 years but Guy Maddin has finally hit the big time. Thanks to a tip from our friends at Quiet Earth, it’s come to my attention that Maddin’s Brand Upon the Brain! will be the first of Maddin’s films to be added to the Criterion Collection. This move doesn’t surprise me much and frankly, I’m more surprised that it’s taken this long for it to happen but I guess the time was ripe.

From Criterion:

In the weird and wonderful super-cinematic world of Canadian cult filmmaker Guy Maddin, personal memory collides with movie lore for a radical sensory overload. This eerie excursion into the Gothic recesses of Maddin’s mad, imaginary childhood is a silent, black-and-white comic science-fiction nightmare set in a lighthouse on grim Notch Island, where fictional protagonist Guy Maddin was raised by an ironfisted, puritanical mother. Originally mounted as a theatrical event (accompanied by live orchestra, foley artists, and assorted narrators), Brand upon the Brain! is an irreverent, delirious trip into the mind of one of current cinema’s true eccentrics.

It’s a pretty wacky but immensely entertaining film and one I’m happy to have caught on the big screen, even if I didn’t get the chance to see with with the live narration, but worry not, Criterion has fixed that to the best of their abilities. The DVD includes some great extras:

• New, restored high-definition digital transfer
• Optional narration tracks by Isabella Rossellini, Laurie Anderson, John Ashbery, Crispin Glover, Guy Maddin, Louis Negin, and Eli Wallach
• The Making of “Brand upon the Brain!”, a new documentary featuring interviews with the director and
• Two new short films directed by Maddin: It’s My Mother’s Birthday Today and Footsteps
• Deleted scene
• Trailer
• PLUS: A new essay by film critic Dennis Lim

Crack open those wallets folks! The film will be released on August 12th and is available for pre-order for the whopping cost of $31.96. Sounds like a bargain to me!