Brand Upon the Brain!

A man returns, at his dying mother's request, to the island home he has kept away from for decades. He was raised there in an orphanage his parents ran, and the memories of that childhood have never sat still. Guy Maddin shoots this autobiographical fiction in the language of silent film: intertitles, grainy black and white, a camera that never stops moving. The real idea is in how it was shown. At its premieres a live narrator stood in front of the screen with a small orchestra and a Foley team producing the effects. Isabella Rossellini narrated at the New York Film Festival in 2006 and at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2007. The score is by Jason Staczek. Criterion's 2008 DVD carries several narration tracks, so the film is slightly different each time you watch it. It was shot in Seattle with local actors. Who it's for: Viewers who like experimental cinema, deliberate pastiche of silent film, and Maddin's fixation on memory. Who it's not for: The narrative is intentionally scattered and the tone swings between melodrama and parody, which is exhausting if you want a story that moves in a line.