Lögberg-Heimskringla - 21.10.2005, Side 11

Lögberg-Heimskringla • Föstudagur 21. október 2005 • 11
My Review is
520 Words Long
My Dad is 100 Years Old
Directed by Guy Maddin
Canada, 2005, 16 minutes
Reviewed by
Todd Gillam
Writing a review about
this exquisite film
feels a bit like shap-
ing a Master’s thesis around
a short story. You know two
things before you begin: that
you will spend more time
crafting your piece than you
did with the original piece of
art, and that it will mercilessly
trounce you in the efficient and
effective communication of
ideas.
After their experience
working on The Saddesl Music
in the World (2003), Isabella
Rossellini and Guy Maddin
collaborate again on something
arguably more personal: a trib-
ute to filmmaker Roberto Ros-
sellini celebrating the centenary
of his birth. Isabella Rossellini
writes My Dad is 100 Years
Old as a gently edged love let-
ter to her father — poignant,
sincere, and forsaking Capra-
esque sentimentality in favour
of a postmodem glimpse into
the relationships of a famous
family.
The film’s tone has an
adorable honesty that meshes
perfectly with the antiquated
visuals Maddin excels at cre-
ating. This happy marriage
between tone and image is
exemplified by a personifica-
tion of Rossellini’s father as a
smooth, rotund, Buddha-like
belly — it’s cute, but not cloy-
ing, and kindly critical. Maddin
crosscuts the jiggling tummy
with stamy expanses and swirl-
ing clouds, and the reverberat-
ing voiceover imparts a greater
cosmic importance to this oth-
erwise comic image of Italian
neorealism’s famous pioneer.
After a brief introduction,
Rossellini imagines herself
joining this vision of her father
in an open debate about the pur-
pose of cinema with some of his
contemporaries. This surreal
“cast” includes directors Alfred
Hitchcock, Charlie Chaplin,
Federico Fellini and producer
David O. Selznick, while later
ex-wives Ingrid Bergman and
Anna Magnani appear.
Each filmmaker springs
from Rossellini’s dreamy
imaginings to argue their per-
spectives on cinema, and to de-
fend their particular approaches
from the harsh criticisms char-
acteristic of her father. Situated
inside a dilapidated theatre,
Selznick announces that film
should simply entertain, while
Hitchcock naturally expounds
on the need (and effectiveness)
of suspense. Fellini’s choices
are probably closest to the or-
ganic artistry of Rome, Open
City (1945) and Paisan (1946),
but here Maddin shows us how
the conversations between
mentors and their protégés can
devolve into passionate battles
where lines in the sand are
quickly drawn.
Though her portrayals of
the others (purposefully) bor-
ders on caricature, Rossellini’s
conversation with herself in the
guise of her mother is breath-
taking in every sense of the
word. Her vision of Bergman
appears, as it seemingly should,
on the deteriorating screen of
the theatre — the other ghosts
clear the room, and Rossellini
joins her mother in an intimate
consideration of the man they
both loved.
The scene is remarkably
compelling, and not unlike
Natalie Cole’s edited “perfor-
mance” with her father on the
song “Unforgettable” — it is
the type of innocent exchange
that we, as fans, imagine in
our hearts with a smile on our
faces. The bittersweet separa-
tion of Rossellini as a person
on a theatre stage in front of
her mother as a projected im-
age speaks volumes.
Rossellini and Maddin
magically juxtapose the physi-
cal and abstract, and shape pri-
vate musings within a distinctly
public art form. The result is a
wonderful short film about how
Rossellini’s father will always
be her dad.

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adds. “This is the kind of thing
that I find very interesting.”
Though the Icelandic emi-
grants have not always been
common knowledge they are
likely known to most Iceland-
ers. “I heard a great deal about
them when I was a child,”
Guðbergur says. He says they
were very much his concern
though he had no relations in
North America. “Nonetheless,
people’s thoughts tumed to this
quite a lot.”
Difficulties
Guðbergur says that lce-
landers have landed in difficul-
ties and so liave Icelanders in
North America. Due to a low
population they did not man-
age to create a model state and
so they were driven across the
country. As a result, all ended
up in many religious factions.
“Seen intellectually, these divi-
sions didn't matter,” says Guð-
bergur. “These are not religious
divisions built on knowledge
of Christianity or a certain in-
terpretation of Christianity, but
rather direct divisions about fu-
tility within the church. Preju-
dices on both sides and other
such things. Seen intellectually
they are very weak, though tliey
have taken all these books along
witli them or had these books
sent to them to feel close to the
country.”
Want a greater connection
-The Icelandic Department
at the U of M, the Icelandic
Collection there and the lce-
landic clubs in Edmonton and
Calgary invited Guðbergur for
a lecture tour, during which
he spoke on distance and how
it impacted his life. “When I
was a child — probably seven
— the people who 1 shared a
house with received a card from
America and then the distance
seemed less; then again it was
far away to me. Good children
were allöwed to sleep with this
card; their grandparents had
some relatives who had gone to
America. These children didn’t
know that, nor where where the
card came from, but the distance
seemed shorter.”
Guðbergur is taken by the
interest in Icelandic matters in
Manitoba. both at the Univer-
sity of Manitoba and among
people of Icelandic descent in
Canada.“I find that people want
to have in some way a greater
connection with lceland,” Guð-
bergur says. “I don’t know why
it’s not just as easv to ily to Win-
nipeg as to Minneapolis, which
is not very far away,” he adds,
mentioning that with it Icelan-
dair could introduce activity
better in Canada.
The Icelandic community
in North America is unique and
nowhere more so than in Mani-
toba. “It’s completely, com-
pletely different,” Guðbergur
says when he compares the the
community with others he has
known. “These are people who
hold on to their ethnicity on a
peculiar level which is veiy dif-
ficult to understand. It’s difficult
to account for it, and I have not
been able to conie up with an
adequate explanation for it.”
People who have visited
Icelandic settlements in North
America have readily noticed
how unique their reception was.
“One becomes tremendously
amazed over the immense
warmth one encounters and
their great interest,” Guðbergur
says.“You come somehow to
your amma. This is something
you have had but has lost. But
they keep you in their posses-
sion. They have not lost you.”
The wide expanse of the
Canadian prairie is more than
the average Icelander is used to
and Guðbcrgur says it’s inter-
esling to see a different kind of
expanse than is seen in Iceland.
There there are various things
that Icelanders could leam from.
Just as special is seeing the
older people in Icelandic wool
sweaters. “It sleeps in wool
sweaters, in some memories
that they get through the wool.
lt’s something very mysterious
and awakes a kind of deep emo-
tional response in you.”
Minnist
Remember
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