Whoever had the idea to assign director Guy Maddin to direct a
documentary about his hometown Winnipeg must have been stupid or a genius
(and my vote is for the latter), since as a filmmaker, Maddin couldn't be
further removed from the documentary genre as such - and it shows in the
resulting film, My Winnipeg: Maddin freely mixes local history
(especially about defunct ice rinks and ice hockey) with personal
anecdotes (more likely than not all made up) and totally fictional stories
about sleepwalkers, uncharted back alleys and a Nazi invasion. The
finished film might tell you little about Winnipeg by way of hard facts,
but it is a fasscinating and hilarious mood piece, that might be quite a
little bit different from Maddin's other films, but in a way, it's another
typical film from this far-out filmmaker who has yet to find his match. Highly
recommended - unless you're a documentary buff, perhaps. Ann
Savage, a B-movie actress from the 1940's and 50's who most notably
starred in Edgar G.Ulmer's classic Detour,
plays Guy Maddin's mother by the way, even if within the film he insists
that his mother plays herself.
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