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Careful
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786304050330
Format: Color, NTSC
ISBN: 630405033X
Label: Kino Video
Languages: English (Original Language), Analog
Manufacturer: Kino Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Kino Video
Release Date: June 27, 2000
Running Time: 100 minutes
Studio: Kino Video
Theatrical Release Date: 1992
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Editorial Review:
Watching Guy Maddin's Careful is like stepping into a mutating time warp of cinema history, where German alpine dramas of the 1920s are gene-spliced with Daliesque surrealism, Murnau's silent melodrama, and--in an uncannily precise act of stylistic homage--the hypnotically skewed universe of German Expressionism. Filmed in gloriously filtered colors that cross Maxfield Parrish with Peter Max, this stylistic hybrid virtually defies description and must be seen to be truly appreciated. Suffice it to say, the fictional mountain village of Tolzbad--where silence is golden, and extreme measures are taken to avoid a sound-induced avalanche--is one of the strangest and most outrageously amusing locations in the history of film. You think that's an exaggeration? If anything, it's an understatement.
The villagers of Tolzbad have developed repression into an art form: nearly every sentence begins with "Don't," and they slavishly follow a litany of safety guidelines. Desires are equally suppressed, and this precarious equilibrium is fractured when a young villager's Oedipal dreams collide with his dysfunctional family reality. Pandora's box is opened, Tolzbad-style, and Careful turns into a fever-dream of sibling rivalry, forbidden romance, suicide, murder, and delirious cinematic ecstasy. This is Maddin's best and most coherent film, but even so it's hardly for everyone; only the truly adventurous film lover will eagerly follow Maddin on this demented journey, but the rewards are plentiful for those who dare. Many films strive for enduring uniqueness, but few can make that claim as triumphantly as Careful. This is filmmaking on another plane of consciousness--quite simply, a work of art like nothing you've ever seen. --Jeff Shannon
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Keep an Eye on Guy
I'll never forget the first time I saw a Guy Maddin film--it was "Tales from Gimli Hospital." When it ended I sat quietly for a few moments and just muttered "Holy Cow" over and over. "Gimli" is an early and very low budget effort. "Careful" shows Guy nearing a peak that hopefully will go on for a few more decades.
Guy somehow (and miraculously) manages to sum up the entire history of cinema in his work. While there's much chatter about his obvious retro style, ... Read More
Rating:  - campy, ultra goofy, grossly arty and dull
Interesting looking, but mostly dull art film. What I gather that the filmmakers are trying to convey - from the title and the movie - is that incest runs rampant - and if it were brought into the open - would cause a metaphorical societal avalanch.
But its torture to sit though this very slow moving, harebrained film for that message. I found this expensive looking purposely choppy film's acting, color photography, story, characters, dialogue dubbing and sound effects to be grossly ... Read More
Rating: - Recommended by Leni Reifenstahl!
When Maddin showed this homage to kitschy, proto-Nazi German "mountain films" (if you have no idea what I'm talking about, see Susan Sontag's essay "Fascinating Fascism) to their one-time star and later Nazi propogandist filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, she proclaimed it brilliant--high praise coming from a demented genius. Maddin is also a demented genius, though not of the same ilk as Reifenstahl. Maddin and regular screenwriting collaborator George Toles, the cerebral bad boys of Canadian cinema, are ... Read More
Rating:  - Snowy Surrealism
One of Guy Maddin's best-known films, Careful is naturally, extremely bizarre. The inhabitants of a mountain village must be careful not to make a noise loud enough to trigger an avalanche, which would bury them all. Naturally ther are all repressed, sexually as well as literally.
The film is often very funny, with great lines of dialogue such as "here is all the hair I've lost in the past few weeks." Even the Oedipal elements are so melodramatic they're pretty chuckly. The colour scheme is ... Read More
Rating:  - Uh... Bizarre, beautiful, but...
Great sets & costumes, like a beautifully odd dream. But it is slow and there's no reason to care for any of these characters, so I lost interest.
I'm glad to have seen it, but much more glad that I didn't buy it.
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