Going into this, you need some background, because the beginning does not much help you enter this ambitious world.
When this was made, the expectation was that much streaming online video (like Netflix) would be via websites with the suffix "dot TeeVee." That domain (the word itself is significant) was assigned to a tiny Polynesian island nation, who subsequently sold rights to internet speculators. The irony of watching a film, itself a pretense, in such a pretend domain is something that would have given me a chuckle. As there are a number of people like me, there is an audience for extensions of this comic notion.
The film features a wasteland of rubble, in the midst of which is an ornate old-fashioned moviehouse. Every narrative detail is built around various elements of the film experience, and the fantasies that it both evokes and rides on. You would not know that from the film itself however, and I suppose that is intended.
Once entering the building, having passed the box office (you can pay with a button), the immersive experience is a swimming pool. The success of this is fabricated for the senile owner, and threatened by "the authorities." It is powered by a complex steam device, clearly labeled "Imperim," incidentally the name (at the time) of a large movie file sharing website.
Built on this are many overlapping references to film-fantasy borders, using overt film references, mostly from the era of "pure" cinema. One narrative thread has to do with a romance, woven into another with the notion of escape via sea. The "engine" of the cinema is literally moved to the boat of this romantic escape while the moviehouse collapses. It is all something of a muddle, but a muddle in such respectful and complex notions of film, you end up glowing at the sharing of the thing.
If you like Guy Maddin, you will like this. Some scenes simply charm your soul. The one most often cited is our love interest swimming nude underwater with her beloved pet goldfish in a bowl.
Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.
When this was made, the expectation was that much streaming online video (like Netflix) would be via websites with the suffix "dot TeeVee." That domain (the word itself is significant) was assigned to a tiny Polynesian island nation, who subsequently sold rights to internet speculators. The irony of watching a film, itself a pretense, in such a pretend domain is something that would have given me a chuckle. As there are a number of people like me, there is an audience for extensions of this comic notion.
The film features a wasteland of rubble, in the midst of which is an ornate old-fashioned moviehouse. Every narrative detail is built around various elements of the film experience, and the fantasies that it both evokes and rides on. You would not know that from the film itself however, and I suppose that is intended.
Once entering the building, having passed the box office (you can pay with a button), the immersive experience is a swimming pool. The success of this is fabricated for the senile owner, and threatened by "the authorities." It is powered by a complex steam device, clearly labeled "Imperim," incidentally the name (at the time) of a large movie file sharing website.
Built on this are many overlapping references to film-fantasy borders, using overt film references, mostly from the era of "pure" cinema. One narrative thread has to do with a romance, woven into another with the notion of escape via sea. The "engine" of the cinema is literally moved to the boat of this romantic escape while the moviehouse collapses. It is all something of a muddle, but a muddle in such respectful and complex notions of film, you end up glowing at the sharing of the thing.
If you like Guy Maddin, you will like this. Some scenes simply charm your soul. The one most often cited is our love interest swimming nude underwater with her beloved pet goldfish in a bowl.
Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.