The Forbidden Room

November 3, 2015 · The Pilot Light · 7:30 p.m.

A submarine crew, a feared pack of forest bandits, a famous surgeon, and a battalion of child soldiers all get more than they bargained for as they wend their way toward progressive ideas on life and love.

“Maddin has been experimenting with, shall we say, outdated forms for years – from his mock Soviet masterpiece short The Heart of the World, to the feature-length surrealist silent Branded on the Brain! which featured live Foley art and narration. Maddin’s zeal for old cameras and stocks is matched only by his revelry in evoking an entire genre with a single image. The film’s apogee literally opens up The Book of Climax in a sequence of pure, knowing cinematic joy. Film-lovers, this ludicrous movie is for you.” — Jordan Hoffman, The Guardian

“Guy Maddin goes through the looking glass, down the rabbit hole, into the twilight zone, beyond the great divide or maybe just deep into the nooks and crannies of his own two-strip Technicolor imagination in The Forbidden Room.” — Todd McCarthy, The Hollywood Reporter

“From panic under the sea, Maddin moves to a mock-Wagnerian confrontation between the woodsman Cesare (Roy Dupuis) and subterranean disciples of the Red Wolf, who have kidnapped the young Margot (Clara Furey). Later we meet a doctor taken prisoner by women in skeleton suits, which leads us to an adventuress (a trope in silent films) whose body requires total reconstruction from a motorcycle accident, to the odd dynamic between a master (Mathieu Amalric) and servant (Udo Kier). Kier plays multiple roles in the film, as do Negin, Amalric, Geraldine Chaplin, and Romano Orzari. Few directors can keep acting ensembles loyal over the years, and far fewer at Maddin’s budgets.” – David D’Arcy, Screen Daily

About the Filmmaker

Guy Maddin is an installation artist, screenwriter, cinematographer and filmmaker who has made ten feature-length movies and innumerable shorts. He has also mounted across the USA, UK,France, Germany, Australia, Peru, Mexico and Argentina numerous live performance versions of his films featuring live music, sound effects, singing and narration. His latest project, Seances, is by far his most ambitious yet: it involves the shooting of 30 short movies in 32 days in 2 different countries, all in prestigious public spaces.