Hey folks, Harry here - got this second review from Joel on BRAND UPON THE BRAIN. This sounds like a great Alamo Drafthouse film, where scoring silents and having live theater foley is old, but beloved hat. Here ya go...
hi harry,
i managed to get a review into you last year from the toronto film festival about the movie thumbsucker. well it's 2006 and i just saw guy madden's new gutsy film called brand upon the brain.
for anyone who doesn't know, it is a silent film that runs in 12 chapters. but the cool thing was there was a full orchestra, live narrator and foley artists in the theatre.
after a false start with the orchestra missing their cue, all the elements fell into place in a pretty seamless venture. the movie is definately not for everyone and i doubt it will be at your local multiplex but it was a very cool experience to see everything live like that.
i'll try and describe the plot as best i can but it's a toughy. the main charachter, guy, goes back to the island where he grew up with his parents who ran an orphanage. his mother is very controlling and and his father is always working in a lab doing experiments.
the entire time, his mother is watching his every move, making sure he and his sister are home for dinner. as the plot moves on we learn that really his mother has incestuous feelings for guy and some of the kids in the orhpange. meanwhile, the father, whose face we never see, is harvesting brain fluid from the kids at the orphange to keep the mother young.
there's a sub plot of the sister falling for a teenage crime detective who is really a girl but tricks guy's sister into thinking she is a boy. they get married but the sister (whose name is sis) doesn't care.
all the while, guy is secretly in love with that same teenage crime detective, but also has feelings for his mother eventhough she is controlling. i swear, that's the basic plot eventhough it sounds like i'm making it up.
other things happen, but it's too complicated to get into. so, having seen the movie with all the live music and sound effects, i have to say it was a really interesting film that was quite funny at some moments and very sad at others. really something to see, as it was shot in black and white and looked like a 1920s nickelodeon or something to that effect. i'm not sure it would work in any other environment outside the festival, but the crowd had a great time.
joel
