MONTREAL ? Guy Maddin was lying on the floor of the PHI Centre, showing Karine Vanasse and Gregory Hlady how he wanted them to play a scene. Just outside the makeshift train cabin stood crew members, photographers and journalists ? and on most days through July 20, you could join them, too.
The three were on the set of the acclaimed Canadian director?s ambitious new project Seances, an installation/performance/movie shoot during which Maddin will make 12 short films in 13 days, employing 66 Quebec actors including Roy Dupuis, C?line Bonnier, Carole Laure and Caroline Dhavernas. The event is open to the public, and free.
The concept? To recreate 12 lost films from the silent era. On this day, they were reviving Frederick Sullivan?s 1916 movie Saint, Devil and Woman, originally starring rumoured Qu?b?coise actress Florence La Badie (played by Vanasse).
?The facts are murky,? Maddin said, of both the film and La Badie?s backstory, ?but I prefer myths to facts. This one is a mad love story on the Bogota express, in which a psychiatrist falls in love with his patient, but it can?t be.
?These movies are exhumed from the dead, so it?s going to be a bit delirious.?
Other films to be revived include: Tsunekichi Shibata?s simply titled Tokyo?s Ginza District (1898, Japan); Elvira Notari?s Gabriele, the Lamplighter of the Harbour (1919, Italy); F.W. Murnau?s Der Januskopf (1920, Germany); Guan Heifeng?s Women Skeletons (1922, China); and Albert Tessier?s Journ?e scoute (1929, Quebec).
In making 10-minute versions of these movies, Maddin?s goal is not faithful recreation but to capture something more ephemeral ? the essence of a bygone era. Each day will begin with a seance, during which the director and his actors stand in a circle, holding hands, and summon the spirits of the original production team.
?I?m not exactly remaking it perfectly,? Maddin said. ?In some cases, I?ll be channelling the spirit of a lost F.W. Murnau movie. He?s maybe the greatest filmmaker of all time. I?m just Guy Maddin, the second- or third-best filmmaker in Manitoba at any given time.
?The way the muse visits and the spirits make their presence felt, imitation is the last thing that pops up. It?s always something coming through me. Mediums and seances were widely considered to be (performed by) charlatans and frauds. I consider all directors ? to be frauds, at the best of times. So who not just embrace it and enjoy.?
Known for his experimental, mostly silent, black-and-white films, Maddin was made a member of the Order of Canada in 2012. His 2007 movie My Winnipeg won best Canadian feature at the Toronto International Film Festival.
In 2009, the National Film Board commissioned him to make the 12-minute short Night Mayor (say it fast) to commemorate its 70th anniversary (the film can be viewed on the NFB website).
Asked about his attraction to silent films, Maddin got a glint in his eye.
?There?s something haunting about them,? he said, ?something more free. Just by dint of not having audible dialogue, they?re less literal-minded, that much closer to being fairytales. They can do what fairytales do, but better than fairytales ? they?re more allegorical and universal, about the human condition, more free.
?Not only that, they can embrace non-naturalistic acting performances. I?ve never been the kind of director who would know how to get a naturalistic acting performance. So I get silent movie fairytale performances and I?m a lot more comfortable with that.?
Seances is co-produced by the NFB, the PHI Centre and Buffalo Gal Pictures. This instalment follows a 17-film project he directed at Paris? Centre Pompidou in February and March. After Seances? run at the PHI Centre, a selection of the resulting short films will be combined into a feature.
There are also plans for an interactive website, in collaboration with the NFB, in which people will be able to watch and randomly combine different films for a unique viewing experience.
?Anyone on the Internet will be able to hold their own seance,? Maddin said.
Meanwhile, through July 20, Montrealers can experience the real thing first-hand, and maybe channel a few spirits of their own.
Guy Maddin?s Seances continues to July 20 (Tuesday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturday, noon to 5 p.m. ? except the July 9 shoot, which has been switched to July 8) at the PHI Centre, 407 St-Pierre St., in Old Montreal. Admission is free. Call 514-225-0525 or visit www.phi-centre.com
tdunlevy@montrealgazette.com
Twitter: tchadunlevy
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