Tales from the Gimli Hospital
Guy Maddin, 1998, English, 72min, bw
Guy
Maddin’s compulsively offbeat, hopelessly eccentric, and absolutely
hilarious first feature, Tales from the Gimli Hospital, was a major hit,
instantly recognized as a cult classic upon its release, and one of the
great films to play the midnight movie circuit in the 1980s. Set in the
near-mythical past in the idyllic lakeside town of Gimli, Manitoba, as a
deadly pestilence rages, the film chronicles the exchange of increasingly
bizarre tales told by the delirious Einar and his rotund hospital-mate Gunnar
in competing for the nurses' attention. With surreal digressions into puppet
shows, synchronized swimming, necrophilia, tree-bark fish cutting, and traditional
Scandinavian buttock wrestling, the film eventually reveals their intertwined
fates.
With its echoes of Icelandic legend and a unique expressionist look, Tales provides a fascinating portrait of a major filmmaker's first rustlings of genius.
Reviews
"Rich and startling images that have been rightly compared to
everything from David Lynch’s Eraserhead to the films of Jean Cocteau."
— The Globe and Mail
"A strange piece of work."
— The New York Times
"Irresistible stuff... audacious filmmaking."
— Film Comment
Screening
Monday, February 21, 1pm
Part of a double bill with
The Saddest Music in the World »
Total screening time: 2.5 hrs, with a 15 min intermisssion.
About the Director
Guy Maddin
b February 28, 1956; Winnipeg, Manitoba
FILMOGRAPHY
(as director, features)
Tales from the Gimli Hospital (1988)
Archangel (1990)
Careful (1992)
Twilight of the Ice Nymphs (1997)
Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s Diary (2002)
Cowards Bend the Knee (2003)
The Saddest Music in the World (2003)
Cast and crew
Producer
Greg Klymkiw, executive producer; Steve Snyder, producer
Writers
Guy Maddin, George Toles
Cinematographer
Guy Maddin
Editor
Guy Maddin
Music
Jean Vigo, et al
Principal Cast
Kyle McCulloch – Einar the Lonely/Minstrel
Michael Gottli – Gunnar
Angela Heck – Snjófridur
Margaret-Anne MacLeod – Amma
Heather Neale – Granddaughter
David Neale – Grandson
Don Hewak – John Ramsay
Ron Eyolfson – Pastor Osbaldison/Patient (as Ronald Eyolfson)
Chris Johnson – Lord Dufferin
Donna Szoke – Fish Princess
Tiffany Taylor – Gunnar’s Strolling Companion/Gimli Maiden
Linda Schinkel – Dying Mother
Jeff Solylo – Angry Husband
Randy Kray – Angel
George Toles – Angel With Mustache
Links
Plume-noire review.
Guy Maddin’s Gimili Saga at CBC
Prairie
Visionaries: Guy Maddin and the Winnipeg Film Group.
