Tue 26 Nov 2019
A Movie Review by Dan Stumpf: THE FORBIDDEN ROOM (2015).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , SF & Fantasy films[6] Comments
THE FORBIDDEN ROOM. Buffalo Gal Pictures, 2015. Roy Dupuis, Clara Furey, Louis Negin, Udo Kier, Geraldine Chaplin, and Charlotte Rampling. Written & directed by Guy Maddin & Evan Johnson.
Well we’ve all known a forbidden room, haven’t we? Maybe it was in your own house, maybe a grandparent’s, or the musty abode of some aged and indeterminate relative, but we’ve all been given the solemn warning, “This door must be kept locked at all times.†and heard the strange noises from within — haven’t we?
Well this movie isn’t about that. If The Forbidden Room is about anything at all, it’s about our inability to master our dreams. Indeed, Room drifts and lurches from one vision to another, from the bowels of a trapped submarine to a wintry forest primeval, to a sleazy nightclub, a tropical island….
You may assume from this non-synopsis that Forbidden Room doesn’t make much sense, and it doesn’t, in the usual sense. But filmmaker Maddin moves it along from tangent to tangent with perfect dream-logic, backed up by visual images where you never quite see what it is that you’re looking at.
If you’ve never seen a Maddin film, I should explain that he deliberately makes them look like an old movie, maybe something you saw as a child nodding off late at night, on an old TV with bad reception, then half-remembered years later. They look a little like that, bathed in faded, runny, pulsating colors. It’s a unique experience, and one I recommend highly.
Forbidden Room was originally supposed to be a series of short films but got squeezed together for reasons of economics. As a result, it runs a bit too long and loses momentum. But that only bothered me; it didn’t keep me from watching in wide-eyed fascination.
And maybe you will, too.
November 26th, 2019 at 9:00 pm
Interesting cast. You always review such interesting movies.
November 26th, 2019 at 11:01 pm
Haven’t sen this one yet.
My favorite Guy Maddin films are the feature:
Cowards Bend the Knee
And the short films:
The Heart of the World
My Dad Is 100 Years Old
He is indeed wildly unusual.
November 26th, 2019 at 11:21 pm
Yes, you have to accept Maddin movies on their own terms. I watched this one and immediately reran it with the commentary track. My favorite is THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD, which is probably his most linear.
November 27th, 2019 at 1:53 pm
My own favourite is CAREFUL – the first film by Maddin I saw. A friend with recherché tastes in films and recreational substances told me about it. It turned out to be far odder and funnier than I’d ever imagined.
November 28th, 2019 at 1:39 am
Same here, Roger. CAREFUL was my first Maddin and still my favorite.
November 28th, 2019 at 7:00 am
I forgot to say, curiously moving as well, Dan.