Other Titles • The Brand Upon the Brain! • Brand Upon the Brain! (2006)
Synopses for Brand Upon the Brain! (2006)
1.
Guy Maddin (THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD) directs this moving silent satire about several familes and the secrets they posess. Infused with surrealist touches, the film offers a somewhat horrific and original view on the experience of growing up.
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2.
For the last five years the Festival has been presenting classic silent films with live musical accompaniment. This year promises to be an exceptional and memorable experience as we present a unique screening of visionary - dare we say mad genius - filmmaker Guy Maddin's new supercharged fever-dream silent film, Brand Upon the Brain! This unique event will feature live music performed by members of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, foley artists, a narrator and a singer, conducted by composer Jason Staczek.
With a labyrinthine plot that defies description, the film is equal parts childhood reminiscence, Expressionist horror movie, teen detective serial and Grand Guignol reverie. Brand Upon the Brain! concerns a character named Guy (played by Sullivan Brown as a youngster and Eric Steffen Maahs as an adult). He has accepted his mother's invitation to return to the island of Black Notch and the orphanage where he was raised. He has come to paint the lighthouse and this marks his first trip back to the island in thirty years.
Memories are everywhere on Guy's beloved island. He remembers his pubescent sister (Maya Lawson), his chastity-demanding mother (who watches over the island with her super telescope), his workaholic scientist father and his own under-stimulated youth. Then, celebrity teen detectives Wendy and Chance Hale (both played by Katherine E. Scharhon) arrive on the island to investigate the mysterious head wounds suffered by former charges of Guy's enigmatically malevolent mother and father. With young Guy's assistance, we witness a kaleidoscope of memorable images: a coven in the marsh; his mother's mysterious Romania-shaped birthmark; secret codes and rendezvous; crashing waves; sin-cleansing turpentine baths. On top of this, there is the traumatizing turmoil brought about by the Hales' investigation.
Maddin's furious, dreamy visuals are nearly overwhelming. With his misremembered autobiographical mélange of real and imaginary family drama, he warns that all things will happen again and again, but for those who dare, nothing is impossible.
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