While up to their elbows in old films for an online interactive project, cult auteur Guy Maddin and his newcomer co-director Evan Johnson set for themselves a personal challenge: how many stories within stories can a filmmaker nest? After consulting numerous screenwriting books (well, back covers, that is), their answer can be found in The Forbidden Room.
No Film School caught up with the entertaining duo at Sundance 2015, where the film premiered in the New Frontier section, to talk about anything from the two-fold structure of the film to the new “aggressively modern” direction of Guy Maddin.
Here is the “living poster” for the film, The Forbidden Room‘s variation of a trailer:
Here is one clip from the film, with a handful more to be found on Guy Maddin’s Vimeo page:
Thank you, Evan and Guy!
How many stories-within-stories have you seen a filmmaker successfully nest in a film? Are you looking forward to the new films of Guy Maddin?