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      Brand Upon the Brain

      2006 1h 35m Drama List
      91% 57 Reviews Tomatometer 88% 2,500+ Ratings Audience Score Guy returns to his childhood home on an abandoned Canadian island to paint a lighthouse his parents used as an orphanage. Read More Read Less
      Brand Upon the Brain

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      Critics Consensus

      A bizarre, compelling spectacle that invests its absurd plot with heartfelt sincerety, Brand Upon the Brain! is a unique cinematic experience.

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      Audience Reviews

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      Audience Member Interesting and unique - a little bit of everything Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/24/23 Full Review Audience Member ok silent homage to silents Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 01/21/23 Full Review Audience Member Original, unhinged, darkly comedic, horrifying, unforgettable and perversely brilliant. Guy Maddin's experimental surrealist fantasy comes very close to the level of cinematic masterpiece. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 02/22/23 Full Review Audience Member Fans of mainstream movies should stay far away from this one, but for those who appreciate experimental and innovative filmmaking Brand Upon the Brain! is not only an interesting experience but also one that shows the powerful effects a movie can have on its viewers. With throwbacks to movies of the silent era and challenging sensitive and mature themes, Brand Upon the Brain! may not be enjoyable but it has quite the impact. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/29/23 Full Review Audience Member A visual experience that can be ultimately narrowed down to an experimental "silent" psychodrama, Guy Maddin has written and directed one of the most important films of the new millennium. Elements merged are, or are taken from: classic horror/sci-fi B-movies, Expressionism, Surrealism, silent cinema trademarks, experimentation, frenetic editing, usage of colors or tints and sounds to accentuate an idea or a memory, and a flawless piano score by Jason Staczek. Possible sources of influence are: Antoine Doinel's hardships of infancy and lack of caring parental figures in <i>The 400 Blows</i> (1959), Arthur Lipsett, Dimitri Kirsanoff, Fernand Léger, Hans Richter, and the editing of Jan Svankmajer. Result: A technically arresting recollection of memories with autobiographical tendencies disguised as a fantasy film with impossible elements. Replay value: Infinite. New images shall be discovered with each viewing, inciting the viewer even to pause the film in certain segments to catch subliminally perceived but consciously skipped images, or pay attention to the colored parts, including the flora of the island and Wendy's face. Cinematic importance: It revives the oldest visual tradition of cinema and the underrated importance of visual composition, film techniques, editing, music, theatrical acting and the power of alternative methods of storytelling. Most shocking factor: How come an experimental quasi-horror-SciFi silent hybrid tackle subjects like lesbianism, a reversed Oedipal complex, orphanship, cannibalism, voyeurism, sexual awakenings and obsession to physical youth while also being a very moving drama about the memories of a grown man in the present? Beats the fuck out of me. 97/100 Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/22/23 Full Review Audience Member I usually love experimental cinema, but I found this film very derivative. I fell asleep within the first 20 minutes, in spite of the frenetic cuts. It seemed to draw influence from the Quay Brothers Institut Benjamenta and Jeunet's The City of Lost Children, which are both much better films. See those instead. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/15/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      This movie is featured in the following articles.

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      Brand Upon the Brain

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      Critics Reviews

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      Kenneth Turan Los Angeles Times The director's form of genial cinematic dementia is guaranteed not to be to all tastes at all times, but those who are looking for something strange and different will feel right at home. Oct 17, 2014 Full Review John Monaghan Detroit Free Press For me it captures Maddin at his loopiest and most inspired. Rated: 3/4 Jul 27, 2007 Full Review Jonathan Rosenbaum Chicago Reader Narrated by Isabella Rossellini and enhanced by Jason Staczek's superb score, this is characteristically intense and, unlike most of Maddin's silent-movie models, frenetically edited. Jul 13, 2007 Full Review David Lamble Bay Area Reporter One of the best things about Brand Upon the Brain! is that it doesn't set off that dreaded snooze alarm... May 21, 2020 Full Review Dorothy Woodend The Tyee (British Columbia) It's a little spastic, a little dreamy, terribly demented. . .not unlike the director himself. It's also visually and aurally stunning. Aug 23, 2017 Full Review Leonard Klady Screen International It is breathlessly preposterous at times but stays clear of arch parody, allowing audiences to be unabashedly part of the antics. Oct 17, 2014 Full Review Read all reviews

      Movie Info

      Synopsis Guy returns to his childhood home on an abandoned Canadian island to paint a lighthouse his parents used as an orphanage.
      Director
      Guy Maddin
      Producer
      A.J. Epstein, Jody Shapiro, Philip Wohlstetter
      Screenwriter
      Guy Maddin, George Toles
      Production Co
      The Film Company
      Genre
      Drama
      Original Language
      English
      Release Date (DVD)
      Aug 12, 2008
      Box Office (Gross USA)
      $227.1K
      Runtime
      1h 35m