kinda OT: Guy Maddin

Hi Team,

Not totally OT, 
since, well,... 
We are speaking of: 
Canadian Culture, 
& staying loyal to Canadian space & Canadian seasons, rather than moving to
LA with Joni M. and those other Canadian sell-outs,
& Northern guilt (as I have spoken),
& gayness,
and a love of Hockey!...

I'd like to recommend the movies of Guy Maddin. Hard to find, you bet, but
some of them are available on Netflix, where I've found them. 

He is very different, a unique genius. Unto himself!

For starters, to give you an initial idea, he's inspired by early B&W
silent German expressionistic film, and is out to recreate and also
exaggerate the style and (often ragged) technique of these movies, as well
as reproducing the over-the-top melodramatic plots and acting styles of
that era. (The last pertains to the familiar gay fondness for the operatic,
in both the literal and figurative senses of the "operatic.")

I'm currently watching "Cowards bend the Knee," which is highly
autobiographical (as he asserts in his voice-over commentary)-- and
profoundly fixated on Winnipeg hockey. We have another actor playing GM--
so it is brazenly autobiographical. And melodramatic, Also preposterous and
goofy-humorous. (And I gather that the northern guilt may be realized as
intense northern masochism, tho I haven't arrived there yet. "Not for all
tastes..." I suspect. So don't say you haven't been warned...) 

The easiest of his movies to find, I suspect, would be "the Saddest Music
in the World," which some consider his best. But I dunno if even that would
turn up at your local vid store. 

But worth seeking out! Especially when it's time to broaden those old
horizons.

-- ta ta fer na,

Bruce 	-- who lives in northern NY, just a few hours away from his jolly
hockey-playing and poutine-eating neighbors up there in the Great White North.