290:) succumbs to a smallpox epidemic and is admitted to the Gimli hospital for treatment, where he meets his neighbor Gunnar (Michael Gottli). While both are at first pleased to have a friend nearby in their time of illness, the two men soon begin competing for the attentions and affections of the hospital's beautiful young nurses. Gunnar outperforms Einar in this regard, given his storytelling abilities and his skill at carving birch bark into the shape of fish. The hospital is built above a stable (for heat from the animals) and director Maddin appears in a cameo as a surgeon who operates while patients are told to observe a badly-acted puppet show as a sort of anesthesia.
258:(Maddin himself is Icelandic by ancestry). Maddin's aunt Lil had recently retired from hairdressing, and allowed Maddin to use her beauty salon (also Maddin's childhood home) as a makeshift film studio (Lil appears in the film briefly as a "bedside vigil-sitter in one quick shot just a couple of days before she died" at the age of 85). After Maddin's mother sold the house/studio, Maddin completed the remaining shots of the film at various locations, including his own home, over a period of eighteen months. Maddin received a grant from the
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Gunnar's protests, then laid her body to rest in the traditional aboriginal manner, on a raised platform with tokens and gifts including the shears. Einar relates to Gunnar the story of how he came to possess the shears: while wandering in the dark one night he discovered the corpse of a beautiful woman on a raised burial platform (who he now realizes must have been Snjófridur). Einar stole the tokens buried with her and had sex with her corpse.
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referred to its "midnight-cult status" and lengthy run at New York's Quad Cinema, and noted that "Many bits of seemingly surreal business supposedly draw on ancient
Icelandic customs, like using oil squeezed from fish as a hair pomade, cleaning the face with straw, and sleeping under dirt blankets."
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Filming occurred over one year from 1987 to 1988. Some outdoor scenes were shot in Gimli and most of the interior scenes were filmed in Maddin's aunt house, a former beauty salon. Several actors in the film were amateurs who were not paid. Maddin hired a cinematographer, but he refused to come after
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giving a public speech. Einar hallucinates that Lord
Dufferin is the mythical Fish Princess. The men end up in a field together along with a Shriners Highland Pipe Band and begin to Glima Wrestle—a traditional competition where fighters graps each other's buttocks and take turns lifting one another
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Einar is later back in his small shack/fish smokehouse and is visited by a recovered and no-longer-blind Gunnar and his new fiance. They happily saunter along the beach of Lake
Winnipeg while Einar regards them jealously, still Einar the Lonely. The scene returns to the present-day Gimli where the
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Gunnar borrows Einar's fish-carving shears and recognizes the decorated pair of shears as uncannily similar to those he buried with his wife Snjófridur (Angela Heck). Gunnar recalls the story of their courtship and her death from smallpox she contracted from Gunnar. His aboriginal friend, despite
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Gunnar is furious but too weak to take immediate revenge on Einar, and coincidentally a fire breaks out on the hospital roof. The
Icelanders put out the fire by pouring milk over it, which then drips down into Gunnar's face and blinds him. A blackfaced minstrel is buried and Einar contemplates
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similarly noted that " self-consciously borrows from dozens of sources, including radio dramas, Our Gang shorts, hygiene films, school plays, stag pictures, Universal horror, ethnographic documentaries, and the indie weirdness of John Waters and David Lynch." The 1989 review in
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children are informed that their mother has died. They ask the storytelling Amma to be their mother and she says "no" but that she will still visit "if your father lets me." They ask about heaven and she prepares to tell another story as the film ends.
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grandmother launches into the grim and convoluted tale of Einar the Lonely, a patient in a far-distant-past version of the same hospital—in "a Gimli we no longer know," as the grandmother puts it. The rest of the film consists of Einar's story.
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reporting a 71% approval rating based on 7 reviews. Reviewers, although generally positive, also seemed perplexed by the film: Jonathan
Rosenbaum commented on its "moment-to-moment invention and genuine weirdness" and Noel Murray of the
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The film earned $ 116,000 in Canada and $ 22,380 internationally by May 1992. $ 105,000 was from television, $ 9,700 from theatrical, and $ 2,400 from non-theatrical sources. Cinephile spent $ 29,000 on the film in the same period.
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premiered at the
Winnipeg Film Group Cinematheque in April 1988, and Klymkiw spent $ 5,000 on the event. Klymkiw submitted the film to the major festivals in Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, and Halifax. The film was rejected by the
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Maddin had himself endured a recent period of male rivalry and noticed that he found himself "quite often forgetting the object of jealousy" and instead becoming "possessive of my rival." The film was originally titled
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was offering a $ 20,000 film grant. The application deadline was the next day and Maddin combined some ideas into three to four pages. He lost the grant competition, but submitted the idea to the
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further destroying Gunnar through carving him up with the selfsame shears stolen from his wife's corpse. Einar and Gunnar exit the hospital and wander around feverishly. Einar observes
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nomination for Best
Original Screenplay as well, although the script consisted of a series of Post-it notes. Along with Maddin's debut short film,
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to market the film. Maddin stated that the official budget figure was inaccurate and "could have been as high as $ 30,000, or as low as $ 14,000".
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in August. He did not know who Maddin was, but paid $ 5,000 to buy the distribution rights for his company
Cinephile. Five English-language
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for $ 20,000 and often cites that figure as the film's budget, although also estimates the actual budget between $ 14,000 and $ 30,000.
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up until one collapses. They tear each other's clothes and claw at each other's buttocks until they bleed, then both collapse.
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and begins to compete with another patient, Gunnar (played by
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The film had a budget of $ 22,000 (equivalent to $ 48,542 in 2023 and Greg
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It became a cult success and established Maddin's reputation in independent film circles. Maddin received a
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in Montreal closed and exhibitors opened a new one in a 1,000 seat theatre. The revival house asked for
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The mayor of Gimli criticized the film for portraying the town's people as "some sort of barbarians".
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after the amateur history book produced locally by various Icelandic members of the community of
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to be the first film shown at the theatre. Klymkiw agreed and it opened on 30 September 1988.
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camera. Maddin hid powerlines that were in frame by applying vaseline onto the lens.
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when a divided jury mistook its anachronistic style as unintentionally ill-crafted.
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stated that it was the best Canadian film of the year. David Chute, writing in
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the first day of shooting. He instead taught Maddin how to use the 16mm
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as he could show the film at the Berlin forum for non-competing films.
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Odilon Redon, or The Eye Like a Strange Balloon Mounts Toward Infinity
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The film received generally positive reviews, with review aggregator
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228:. His feature film debut, it was his second film after the short
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Ron Eyolfson as Pastor Osbaldison / Patient (as Ronald Eyolfson)
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Canadian Dreams: The Making and Marketing of Independent Films
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Greg Klymkiw, who met Maddin while they were studying at the
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was shot in black and white on 16 mm film and stars
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hospital. During a visit to see her, the children's
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584:Nominated: Best Original Screenplay – Guy Maddin
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319:as Einar the Lonely (and also a minstrel in
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816:. Dir. Guy Maddin. Kino Video, 2000. DVD.
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827:"Tales from the Gimli Hospital (1988)"
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981:One Hundred Years of Canadian Cinema
494:was released to home video on DVD.
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436:Andre Bennett saw the film at the
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1332:English-language Canadian films
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986:University of Toronto Press
224:is a 1988 film directed by
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392:The film uses music from
329:Angela Heck as Snjófridur
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341:Don Hewak as John Ramsay
326:Michael Gottli as Gunnar
338:David Neale as Grandson
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1225:The Heart of the World
571:Awards and nominations
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856:Jonathan Rosenbaum.
606:Waiting for Twilight
602:Noam Gonick (1997).
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146:Cinephile (Canada)
1169:The Forbidden Room
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639:Vatnsdal, Caelum.
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517:. You can help by
498:Critical reception
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561:Film Comment
559:
556:Gerald Peary
554:
548:
543:
536:
523:
519:adding to it
514:
491:
485:
479:
475:
468:
450:
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269:
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248:
235:
229:
220:
219:
218:
177:Running time
154:Release date
72:Greg Klymkiw
1301:Louis Negin
1239:Night Mayor
1196:Short films
1153:My Winnipeg
941:Works cited
931:Posner 1993
919:Posner 1993
802:Posner 1993
790:Posner 1993
778:Posner 1993
737:Posner 1993
725:Posner 1993
713:Posner 1993
701:Posner 1993
689:Posner 1993
677:Melnyk 2004
660:Posner 1993
612:Documentary
482:Genie Award
465:David Lynch
400:Vess Ossman
98:Angela Heck
57:Produced by
39:Directed by
33:Film poster
1322:1988 films
1316:Categories
1074:Guy Maddin
995:080203568X
967:1550541145
905:2013-01-02
884:2013-01-02
863:2013-01-02
842:2012-12-28
764:2013-01-02
617:2012-11-21
589:References
470:Eraserhead
364:Gimli Saga
360:Guy Maddin
355:Production
252:Gimli Saga
226:Guy Maddin
210:Box office
181:72 minutes
165:1988-09-30
128:Guy Maddin
120:Guy Maddin
63:Guy Maddin
52:Guy Maddin
49:Written by
43:Guy Maddin
1204:Accidence
1097:Archangel
411:rough cut
321:blackface
280:Icelandic
213:$ 138,380
125:Edited by
1027:AllMovie
978:(2004).
950:(1993).
837:Flixster
276:Manitoba
244:smallpox
205:$ 22,000
194:Language
133:Music by
81:Starring
1260:Seances
1185:Rumours
1161:Keyhole
1105:Careful
421:Release
286:Einar (
197:English
186:Country
163: (
1188:(2024)
1180:(2017)
1172:(2015)
1164:(2011)
1156:(2007)
1148:(2006)
1140:(2003)
1132:(2003)
1124:(2002)
1116:(1997)
1108:(1992)
1100:(1990)
1092:(1988)
992:
964:
647:
202:Budget
189:Canada
387:Bolex
272:Gimli
256:Gimli
1016:IMDb
990:ISBN
962:ISBN
645:ISBN
311:Cast
266:Plot
1036:at
1025:at
1014:at
521:.
467:'s
1318::
988:.
984:.
960:.
956:.
835:.
829:.
744:^
667:^
626:^
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398:,
274:,
234:.
1066:e
1059:t
1052:v
998:.
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604:"
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489:,
323:)
167:)
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