Guy Maddin’s 1988 feature directorial debut, Tales from the Gimli Hospital, finds the Canadian auteur’s delightfully perverse sensibilities already fully formed. Given the film’s mix of surreal black-and-white imagery, subversive sexuality, and offbeat comedy, as well as its success on the midnight movie circuit, the comparisons to David Lynch’s Eraserhead were inevitable. And yet, anyone who’s seen even a single one of Maddin’s later work can instantly tell that this film couldn’t have sprung from the subconscious of any other filmmaker.
Maddin’s obsession with obscure Canadian folklore is evident right from the get-go, with a title card informing the audience about the 1865 eruption of Askja, a quiescent volcano, that caused many Icelanders to immigrate to Gimli, a small town in Manitoba, Canada. What follows is, like many of the directors other films, a deliriously playful fusion of fact and fiction, with each “historical” event and cultural ritual so equally strange that it becomes impossible to decipher what’s based on true events and what’s a product of Maddin’s imagination.
Tales from the Gimli Hospital is a feat of structural ingenuity, with stories embedded within stories within stories, all with the same gleeful abandon as 2015’s The Forbidden Room. While Maddin’s rhythmic use of editing and sense of pacing isn’t as fine-tuned here as it is in his later work, his subversive humor and deadpan whimsy emanates from every scene as smallpox-infected friends Einar the Lonely (Kyle McCulloch) and Gunnar (Michael Gottli) become gripped by jealousy, paranoia, and, eventually, madness in the female-staffed Gimli Hospital.
As the film’s various stories unfolds and Maddin piles on digression upon digression, we’re treated to a cornucopia of perversions and fantasies, from grave robbing to bark carvying, bathing beauties to a bout of traditional Icelandic wrestling called Glíma. If Tales from the Gimli Hospital doesn’t come close to reaching the aesthetic heights of some of Maddin’s later works, his channeling of the spits of silent and pre-Code-era filmmaking is as clever as it is infectious.
Image/Sound
The new 4K digital remaster of the film by Zeitgeist Films and Films We Like included on this release was supervised by Guy Maddin. Though some of the softness of the original 16mm is lost, the added sharpness and depth of the image allows you to appreciate all of the film’s minute production and costume details and stylistic flourishes. Darkness plays a big role in the look of the film, whether in the negative space of the more avant-garde segments or the backgrounds of nighttime exteriors, so the deep black levels, with no sign of crushing, ensure the best possible viewing experience. The audio is serviceable, with the dialogue sometimes retaining an echoey quality likely related to the film’s lo-fi roots, but it’s still relatively clear.
Extras
On his newly recorded audio commentary, Maddin is his typically droll self as he discusses everything from the history of Icelandic immigrants in Gimli to how many of the film’s oddest touches are based on actual cultural norms and rituals. He also goes into his own Icelandic-Canadian roots, the additional scene, shot in the late 1990s, that has been added to the cut on this Blu-ray, and the many family members and friends who appear in the film. This track alone is worth the price of the Blu-ray, but the folks at Zeitgeist and Kino Lorber sweeten the deal with the inclusion of Maddin’s best short film, The Heart of the World, from 2000.
Overall
The beautiful 4K transfer included on this Blu-ray release will make you want to grab your bark-carving shears and head to the strangest corner of the Great White North.
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