While Canadian director Guy Maddin will never direct a comic book movie (although that would be amazing), and pretty much remain a favorite of select die hard arthouse fans, the helmer’s works are always inventive, unique and singular works, owing much to cinema of yore but carving out their own distinct identity. And that certainly seems to be the case for his next effort “Keyhole.”
Starring Isabella Rossellini (in yet another collabroation with Maddin; she also starred in “Brand Upon The Brain” and “The Saddest Music In The World“), Jason Patric, Udo Kier and “Kids In The Hall” member Kevin McDonald this is a crime picture unlike anything we’ve ever heard of and it sounds bonkers and amazing. Here’s what Maddin had to say about the film last year: It’s “a crime film about a family of gangsters holed up in a big house, but there’s been a fissure along gender lines and everyone trembles in fear and loathing within a house divided. In the backstory, you’d [Rosellini] be the adoptive mother of an Amazon warrior. I want to adapt Kleist’s Penthesilea of the ‘30s, an incredibly intense play about the literal battle of the sexes, between the armies of the ancient Greeks and the Amazons. The beautiful Penthesilea and Achilles hate each other so much they transmute the hatred into lust, naturally. They are constantly tearing away at each other’s flesh but don’t know why, or to what end, whether mortal or sexual. The lust is almost entomological….”
Wow. Sounds pretty fantastic and these images via Twitch are absolutely gorgeous. While we haven’t loved everything Maddin has done, there is no doubt the helmer is ambitious as all hell. We are loving the noir vibe here and can’t wait to see some moving footage from the film. Jason Patric takes on the part of Ulysses, Isabella Rossellini is Hyacinth, Udo Kier stars as Doctor Lemke and the gunmen are played Daniel Enright and Olivia Rameau as Big Ed and Rochelle. Kevin McDonald previously described his character as a “gangster who becomes a ghost.” Official synopsis and full images below.
A gangster and deadbeat father, Ulysses Pick (Patric), returns home after a long absence. He is toting two teenagers: a drowned girl, Denny, who has mysteriously returned to life; and a bound-and-gagged hostage, who is actually his own teenage son, Manners. Confused Ulysses doesn’t recognize his own son, but he feels with increasing conviction he must make an indoor odyssey from the back door of his home all the way up, one room at a time, to the marriage bedroom where his wife Hyacinth (Rossellini) awaits.