Kino Lorber released a new trailer for Guy Maddin‘s latest journey into the surreal with The Forbidden Room, ahead of its screenings at Tiff and NYFF this month. The film revolves around a trapped submarine crew who are surprised to discover a lumberjack somehow made it onto their vessel, sparking hope that if he got in, maybe they can get out. The lumberjack tells them his story, which is a complex tale of stories within stories and dreams within flashbacks.
While I absolutely hated Maddin’s Keyhole, I’m really digging the art style of this one, and I’m slightly intrigued by the premise as well, so I’ll probably be giving this one a look.
The Forbidden Room opens October 7th.
The four-man crew of a submarine is trapped underwater, running out of air. A classic scenario of claustrophobic suspense—at least until a hatch opens and out steps… a lumberjack? As this newcomer’s backstory unfolds (and unfolds and unfolds in over a dozen outlandish tales), Guy Maddin, cinema’s reigning master of feverish filmic fetishism, embarks on a phantasmagoric narrative adventure of stories within stories within dreams within flashbacks in a delirious globe-trotting mise en abyme the equal of any by the late Raúl Ruiz. Collaborating with poet John Ashbery and featuring sublime contributions from the likes of Jacques Nolot, Charlotte Rampling, Mathieu Amalric, legendary cult electro-pop duo Sparks, and not forgetting muses Louis Negin and Udo Kier, Maddin dives deeper than ever: only the lovechild of Josef von Sternberg and Jack Smith could be responsible for this insane magnum opus. A Kino Lorber release.
