My Dad is 100 Years Old
d. Guy Maddin, 2005
It was six years ago that Maddin gave the world his brilliant The Heart of the World, a 7-minute film that was more challenging and enjoyable than almost everything released that year. Having never seen any of Maddin's feature-length films (for no good reason, mind you), my familiarity with the filmmaker ends there. Nevertheless, I found My Dad is 100 Years Old, Maddin's collaboration with Isabella Rossellini (who scripted and is the sole actor of this film), to be quite spectacular. In essence, Ms. Rossellini is paying tribute to her father, neo-realist filmmaker Roberto Rossellini (another director whose films I haven't encountered; I really am that ignorant). In the process, however, Maddin and Rossellini are exploring different aspects of film history--through Rossellini's impersonations of Fellini, Hitchock, Chaplin, her mother, Ingrid Bergman, among others. A gem. Maybe I'll actually watch one of Maddin's feature films now...
