Written by Musgo Del Jefe
Watching a Guy Maddin film is hard work. But it's rewarding work. As you peel away each layer of the film, you are rewarded with a sweeter layer deeper within the film. "Brand Upon The Brain!" is the middle of Maddin's "Me Trilogy" - Cowards Bend The Knee and My Winnipeg being the bookends.
With each film, Maddin creates a unique atmosphere. I've always felt like his films are discoveries. They weren't really made (and certainly not in current times) but just found. This film is reminiscent of early Russian and German silent films of the Twenties. At least in its style - the B&W photography, the cue cards, the foley, and the narration. But the thematic elements of the plot are purely modern. Guy's blending of older styles with unique, disturbing stories is what so often draws comparison to the early films of David Lynch - particularly The Grandmother, Eraserhead and The Elephant Man.
The plot is almost just another part of the atmosphere of the film. It is simple enough that it probably couldn't exist on its own as a more mainstream film. But when interwoven with such a challenging film style, there becomes layer after layer of secrets to unlock. The story is told in twelve chapters. The older Guy Maddin is called home to his island by his dying mother to repaint the lighthouse. The lighthouse was his childhood home and it served as an orphanage run by his overbearing mother and mad scientist/inventor father. What a beautiful set up in that first chapter. The Super-8, grainy black-and-white shots of the lighthouse and the barren island tell more about the story than twenty minutes of exposition ever could. Painting over the childhood home to cover up the cracks, the lone beacon on the island that served to always watch over Guy wherever he went, and growing up among orphans even though his parents were still alive. It's powerful and the character does not speak a word.
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