The Forbidden Room

20152 h 8 minFilm: Fiction

Direction: Evan JohnsonGuy Maddin

Production: David ChristensenNiv FichmanJody ShapiroFrançois-Pierre ClavelPhyllis LaingGuy Maddin (Buffalo Gal Pictures Inc.)Phoebe Greenberg (Phi Films)Penny Mancuso (Phi Films)

Script: Guy MaddinEvan JohnsonRobert Kotyk

A Buffalo Gal Pictures and Phi Films Production in co-production with the National Film Board of Canada.

The Forbidden Room is Guy Maddin’s ultimate epic phantasmagoria. Honouring classic cinema while electrocuting it with energy, this Russian nesting doll of a film begins (after a prologue on how to take a bath) with the crew of a doomed submarine chewing flapjacks in a desperate attempt to breathe the oxygen within. Suddenly, impossibly, a lost woodsman wanders into their company and tells his tale of escaping from a fearsome clan of cave dwellers. From here, Maddin and co-director Evan Johnson take us high into the air, around the world, and into dreamscapes, spinning tales of amnesia, captivity, deception and murder, skeleton women and vampire bananas. Playing like some glorious meeting between Italo Calvino, Sergei Eisenstein and a perverted six year-old child, The Forbidden Room is Maddin's grand ode to lost cinema. Created with the help of master poet John Ashbery, the film features Mathieu Amalric, Udo Kier, Charlotte Rampling, Geraldine Chaplin, Roy Dupuis, Clara Furey, Louis Negin, Maria de Medeiros, Jacques Nolot, Adèle Haenel, Amira Casar & Elina Löwensohn as a cavalcade of misfits, thieves and lovers, all joined in the joyful delirium of the kaleidoscopic viewing experience.

Subject categories


  • Psychology and Psychiatry > Emotional LifeIndividual in Society
  • Social Issues > Individual in Society

Credits


casting
Rosina Bucci
Alexandre Nazarian
costume designer
Elodie Mard
Yso South
Julie Charland
colour
Evan Johnson
Galen Johnson
effects
Evan Johnson
Galen Johnson
title design
Galen Johnson
film editor
John Gurdebeke
production designer
Galen Johnson
art director
Brigitte Henry
Chris Lavis
Maciek Szczerbowski
construction foreman
Geoff Levine
director of photography
Stephanie Weber Biron
Ben Kasulke
supervising producer
Jean Du Toit
Liz Jarvis
Emmanuelle Héroux
executive producer
David Christensen
Niv Fichman
Jody Shapiro
François-Pierre Clavel
producer
Phyllis Laing
Guy Maddin
David Christensen
Phoebe Greenberg
Penny Mancuso
writer
Guy Maddin
Evan Johnson
Robert Kotyk
additional writer
Kim Morgan
John Ashbery
co-director
Evan Johnson
director
Guy Maddin
cast
Roy Dupuis
Clara Furey
Louis Negin
Graham Ashmore
Angela La Muse Senyshyn
Kimmi Melnychuk
Charlotte Rampling
Alex Bisping
Gregory Hlady
Kent McQuaid
Melissa Trainor
Kyle Gatehouse
Victor Andrés Trelles Turgeon
Neil Napier
Noel Burton
Marie Brassard
Darcy Fehr
Pamela Iveta
Catherine Treskow
Geraldine Chaplin
André Wilms
Romano Orzari
Céline Bonnier
Slimane Dazi
Jacques Nolot
Caroline Dhavernas
Paul Ahmarani
Judith Baribeau
Victoria Diamond
Mistaya Hemingway
Mathilda Ekoe
Lewis Furey
Éric Robidoux
Karine Vanasse
Sienna Mazzone
Kathia Rock
John Churchill
Matthew Comeau
Alexandre Skeret
Sherpa Macilu
Mathieu Amalric
Jean-François Stevenin
Amira Casar
Vasco Bailly-Gentaud
Maria de Medeiros
Christophe Paou
Miguel Cueva
Andreas Aspergis
Ariane Labed
Arthur Holden
Sophie Desmarais
Adèle Haenel
Marie-Sophie Roy
Anthony Lemke
Victoire Dubois
Elina Lowensohn
Kim Morgan
Udo Kier
Luce Vigo