Careful

Guy Maddin's 1992 film is set in an imaginary village in the Alps. In Tolzbad speaking loudly is forbidden; the smallest noise could bring down an avalanche. The villagers live in whispers, the dogs have their vocal cords cut and everyone is permanently holding something in. That setup produces all the film's humour and all its dread. What is suppressed is not only sound; desires inside the family accumulate beneath the same silence and the film works on this directly. The narrative imitates the mountain films of the twenties and expressionist melodrama. The image is deliberately aged: the colours look hand-tinted, the light is theatrical, the acting extremely stylised. Maddin uses that form not as a joke but as his own narrative language. Who it's for: those who like experimental cinema and Guy Maddin's style. Who it's not for: viewers who would find implied incest and a world entirely detached from realism uncomfortable; the film places both at its centre.