Twilight of the Ice Nymphs

🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿

🎙️ EPISODE 630: 12.29.22 🇨🇦 𝙿𝙰𝚁𝚃 𝙾𝙵 𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝙳𝙸𝚁𝙴𝙲𝚃𝙾𝚁 𝙵𝙾𝙲𝚄𝚂 𝙾𝙽 𝙶𝚄𝚈 𝙼𝙰𝙳𝙳𝙸𝙽 🇨🇦 Maddin's biggest and brightest venture to date also turned out to be one of his biggest challenges, and ultimately a film which he felt dissatisfied with in the end. But Twilight of the Ice Nymphs is still undeniably fun. It's a testament to just how WEIRD Maddin is that this could easily be described as his most "normal" movie (and it's still weird as fuck!). Working with name brand actors, some live ostriches and his largest budget to date, this is accessible in a way the others aren't. Most obviously, it eschews all silent movie conventions which immediately draws you into the story with far greater immediacy. What you make of that story is, as always, up to you and your ability to submit to such madness.

Because this functions more like a standard film, there's a lot more conventional dialogue. But because this is a Maddin film, all of that dialogue had to be re-recorded in post. This creates a disconnect in its own right and in the case of the lead actor, Nigel Whitmey, a different voice actor was utilized for the recording (leading to his performance being uncredited). This device isn't new to the Maddinverse, of course, but here the dubbing is becomes much more centerstage. I personally find it fascinating and delightful, but I can certainly see how it would be a challenge for the average viewer. It creates hyper-unreal moments like Shelley Duvall's frantic ASMR here...


Some of the difficulties in production were chronicled in the documentary Guy Maddin: Waiting for Twilight, and as such, this entry remains one of the more polarizing movies in the catalog among fans and critics alike. But I genuinely enjoyed it quite a bit, and feel it might be screenwriter George Toles's best work to date.

CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ EPISODE 629 - (YOU ARE HERE) - EPISODE 630 ⫸

---

Twilight of the Ice Nymphs is a 1997 fantasy romance film directed by Guy Maddin. The screenplay was written by George Toles and inspired by the novel Pan (1894) by Knut Hamsun, with an additional literary touchstones being the short story "La Vénus d'Ille" (1837) by Prosper Mérimée. Twilight of the Ice Nymphs was Maddin's second feature film in colour and his first shot in 35 mm, on a budget of $1.5 million. As seen in Noam Gonick's documentary Waiting for Twilight, Maddin was dissatisfied with the filmmaking process due to creative interference from his producers It was released on January 23, 1997.