Review of Careful (1992) by Sarah H — 18 Mar 2011

An early effort by Guy Maddin, it's not quite at the brilliance that he achieves with Brand Upon the Brain! and My Winnipeg, but he shows that he can fully put his audience in his strange world, be silly, and entertain you while abandoning pretty much all normal styles of filmmaking.

The sets that were created for the town of Tolzbad were fantastical and fake, but at the same time realistic. I felt like I was watching something that could exist in another world. The entire film is based in a town where people can not shout, sing, or make any loud noises or else an avalanche will destroy everybody.

Because of this, many emotions are suppressed. Johann is in love with Klara and has asked for her hand in marriage, however one night he has a sexual dream about his mother and everything becomes confused.

By the way, how funny is the scene when he is with his horn and they say "this part is so difficult for Johann." The cheesiness of the dialogue in the film had me cringing and laughing throughout the film.

So Johann is feeling an attraction to his mother now, which he decides to act upon by putting her in a potion-induced sleep and having his way with her. After this he goes crazy, cuts off his fingers, and jumps off the mountain.

Sad ending for Johann. All the while his oldest brother has been getting warnings from his blind, dead father about the way people treat his mother. Really, the moral of the story, don't suppress emotions or people's freedoms to express themselves in any way possible or else it will cause incest and other weird crap.

Not a single time in the film does it feel like Maddin takes himself too seriously. It reminded me of some of the first talkies. He also hand-died some of the film, such as the green film for the cave scenes.

Even though the story is strange, Maddin allows for some interesting moments such as the complexities of Klara's character. She at first seems pure and normal, but after Johann dies we see her true craziness.

She hates that her father gives her sister more attention. She forces her sister to get naked with her to wash her face after she has been in the mine. Poor Grigorss has no idea how much she messes with him.

Guy Maddin is an interesting director who is full of originality. Time to put Careful on the list with his other great films.