There's no mistaking a Guy Maddin film. The eerie sets, artificially coloured backgrounds, uninflected dialogue and minimalist acting all testify to the unique sensibility inherent in his films, Tales of the Gimli Hospital, Archangel, Careful and his latest release, Twilight of the Ice Nymphs.

In Twilight, the Winnipeg based Maddin transports us to the mythical land of Mandragora. The very quirky characters include a Germanic doctor (R.H. Thomson), who has nearly been crippled by a falling statue of Venus, his exotic girlfriend (Pascale Bussieres (*NB: accent on e \), a lovelorn farm woman (Shelley Duvall) and her contrary hired man (Frank Gorshin). Oh, yes, there's also the lead actor, who through a scenario, almost out of a Maddin movie, is uncredited.

That actor, Nigel Whitmey, asked that his name be removed from the credits when the film's producers decided that his slightly Alberta tinged accent was unsuitable for his character, Peter Glahn, a political prisoner who interacts with the denizens of Mandragora. Despite a plea by director Maddin, Whitmey lost the fight to save his voice, an experience he calls “excruciating.”

That controversy aside, Twilight is a typical Maddin project. The situations owe more to old, silent movie melodramatic conventions than to a recognisable reality and he characterisations are of the arch sort. Add a mix of actors that one wouldn't normally cast in the same film, including Alice Krige (Chariots of Fire), Duvall (Three Women) and Gorshin (The Riddler on the old Batman TV series) and the result is unique, to say the least. Shlomo Schwartzberg

Prod: Richard Findlay

Dir: Guy Maddin

Scr: George Toles

Ph: Michael Marshall

Cast: Alice Krige, R.H. Thomson, Frank Gorshin, Pascale Bussieres and Shelley Duvall.

Running time: 91 mins

Int Sales Marble Island Prouctions