Friday, March 20 / 9:00 pm / Mayfair theatre

Guest: Guy Maddin

CAREFUL    4k restoration!

Guy Maddin   Canada 1992, 100 minutes

“Probably the only Canadian film to date which models itself on the German mountain film genre of the early 1930s, Careful is a tale of incest and betrayal in the snow-covered town of Tolzbad, where the slightest noise may trigger an avalanche. Among the residents of the town are a youthful widow, Zenaida, and her three sons, Grigorss, Johann and Franz. Grigorss and Johann are both studying to become butlers, hoping to find employment in the castle occupied by the local count. Although engaged to be married, Johann is unable to overcome an erotic attachment to his mother; Grigorss completes butler school and goes to work for the count, discovering that his mother and the count had been romantically involved in their youths. The count and Grigorss's mother renew their romance, but Grigorss cannot bear this, and challenges the count to a duel.

 Like Guy Maddin's previous features, Careful has been admired for its painstaking reconstruction of the styles and traditions of forgotten moments in film history. Although the film evokes the kitsch worlds of early sound film operetta and children's fantasy book illustration, its principal thematic concerns - incest and sexual longing - are hardly frivolous. The film's prologue describes a world in which life is fragile, lived amid the constant threat of avalanches and the dangers of slippery slopes.”

 Will Straw, The Canadian Encyclopedia

Guy Maddin will attend the screening to introduce the film and participate in a Q&A after the screening.