While up to their elbows in old films for an online interactive project, cult auteur Guy Maddin and his newcomer co-director Evan Johnson set for themselves a personal challenge: how many stories within stories can a filmmaker nest? After consulting numerous screenwriting books (well, back covers, that is), their answer can be found in The Forbidden Room.
No Film School caught up with the entertaining duo at Sundance 2015, where the film premiered in the New Frontier section, to talk about anything from the two-fold structure of the film to the new “aggressively modern” direction of Guy Maddin.
Here is the "living poster" for the film, The Forbidden Room's variation of a trailer:
Video is no longer available: vimeo.com/113602314
Here is one clip from the film, with a handful more to be found on Guy Maddin's Vimeo page:
Video is no longer available: vimeo.com/117400724
Thank you, Evan and Guy!
How many stories-within-stories have you seen a filmmaker successfully nest in a film? Are you looking forward to the new films of Guy Maddin?
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4 Comments
Always run into Guy in Winnipeg. He teaches a great course at the U of Manitoba. Really cool guy.
February 13, 2015 at 1:01PM
tl;dw where in the 10 min video does he say why he only read the back of the book?
February 14, 2015 at 12:43PM, Edited February 14, 12:43PM
Second question at about 2:00, Guy and Evan talk about the structure of the film and the screenwriting books.
February 18, 2015 at 5:54PM
Going to have to take a look at The Locket film :) sounds really interesting. This was a very interesting conversation. That ending!
February 19, 2015 at 9:08PM