THE FORBIDDEN ROOM
WAVELENGTHS D: Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson. Canada. 119 min. Sep 16, 9:15 pm, TIFF Bell Lightbox 2 Sep 18, 3:15 pm AGO. See listing. Rating: NNNN
Trying to summarize the plot of The Forbidden Room would sound like the rantings of a madman. Like most of Maddin’s previous work, it’s less a narrative than a fugue state of half-remembered images from 20s and 30s cinema amped up with feverish desire.
Diving into and out of dozens of nested stories (seriously, Inception has nothing on this picture), Maddin and co-director Johnson craft a shifting, unstable landscape of thrilling adventures, performed by a massive international cast that includes Roy Dupuis, Mathieu Amalric, Charlotte Rampling, Jacques Nolot, Geraldine Chaplin, Karine Vanasse, Clara Furey, Caroline Dhavernas, Ariane Labed and the inevitable Udo Kier.
Coherent? Almost. Demented? Pretty much. But once the undead banana monsters show up, resistance is futile.
