Berlinale 2015: The Forbidden Room

Directors: Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson
Cast: Roy Dupuis, Clara Furey, Louis Negin
Length: 130 minutes
Country: Canada

The Forbidden Room operates like a dream, constantly switching from place to place with no regard for spatial logic.  It evokes a world of total imagination, resulting in a movie that could conceivably have no end, or be viewed from back to front. Guy Maddin (co-directing with Evan Johnson) is like a cinematic Jorge  Luis Borges, creating a cinematic world of an infinitely branching narrative.

Guy Maddin is practically unlike any other director working today. To draw comparisons would be to reference old-schoolers like F.W. Murnau or Sergei Eisenstein. He is heavily influenced by the film language of silent movies – but instead of creating empty parody in the manner of The Artist, he uses it to heighten and fully express his themes, alternating between comedy, parody, tragedy and bittersweet melodrama. It’s a kitchen sink approach, and at times tonally uneven, but it works more than not, and what does work is immensely pleasurable to watch. The world he creates is at once familiar – from silent films, adventure serials, and Orientalism gone made – but spliced together as it is, it becomes something much stranger. The Forbidden Room is ultimately a collection of short stories, but through its nonlinear editing and dream logic, becomes a paean to the infinite power of narrative possibility and imagination. The experience is like flicking between a hundred 20s and 30s movies at once.

The Forbidden Room is ultimately a collection of short stories, but through its nonlinear editing and dream logic, becomes a paean to the infinite power of narrative possibility and imagination. The experience is like flicking between a hundred 20s and 30s movies at once.

The film starts with the poet John Ashberry – in a very John Ashberry-type of way –instructing the audience how to take a bath, one of many bizarre moments in what is a very bizarre film. Coming to the world of Guy Maddin for the first time can be a beguiling experience, but its comic tone makes it more accessible than his others. Images of a bath take us to a submarine – built Wes Anderson-style – deep under the ocean. The inhabitants are running out of oxygen, but if they rise any higher, the submarine will explode. They debate whether or not to talk to the captain. For some inexplicable reason, a woodsman (Roy Dupius) is found washed aboard the submarine, and his story takes us to another universe entirely. Stories lead to more stories lead to more stories until it becomes impossible for the audience to remember how we even got there.

The greatest pleasure is when the film does a reverse take around three-quarters through, all the way back to those poor souls in the submarine. This unique narrative is combined with brilliant colouring – using bright two-strip techicolor to augment different emotions. When today´s films can seem to all possess the same coloration process, such as the repeated combination of orange and blue, to see such a bright array of colours on display is refreshing to see. Many actors, such as Udo Kier and Matthieu Amalric, play different roles, highlighting this uncanny feeling one gets in a dream.

At times the jokes can fall a little flat, and some of the supporting cast do act a little hammy  – possibly intentionally so – but these are small detractions from what is truly a unique journey. Don´t go into this film expecting any neat resolutions. Treat it like a dream, and let it take its own masterful course.

Image source: berlinale.de