Guy Maddin is clearly a cinephile, and in ‘Brand Upon the Brain!’ he explores the tangibility of his craft.

Director Guy Maddin shows a joyful love and earnest respect for the history of cinema in his film, “Brand Upon the Brain!” (Canada/US, 95 min, 35mm, 2006). The film is shot beautifully in high-contrast black-and-white, and employs the use of many early cinematic techniques, like title cards.

At times, “Brand Upon the Brain” feels like a silent film that was given sound; the soundtrack is at times nondiegetic (its sound has no on-screen source), and feels like more like an expression of the film than a direct soundtrack.

The characters have no voice (with the exception of one scene near the end); the only way they speak is through the narrator (Isabella Rossellini), who acts sometimes as Guy, sometimes as his mother, and sometimes as an omnipresent character.

The film is told in 12 chapters, set in the memory of the main character, Guy. We visit Guy’s childhood on an island, where his older sister attempts to rebel against their mother, his scientist father invents things, like the aerophone (a device that allows two people to communicate over a great distance, especially effective when the people are in love or in rage), and his overbearing mother runs an orphanage.

Guy’s mundane life is enlivened when a celebrity visits the island: a teen sleuth sensation named Wendy Hale, sent to the island to investigate strange marks appearing on adopted orphans’ heads.

Guy falls head over heels for Wendy, and is deeply saddened when she leaves, replaced by her twin brother Chase. What Guy doesn’t know is that Chase is secretly Wendy in disguise.

The film climaxes with the discovery that Guy’s father has been harvesting brain nectar from Sis and the orphans. Sis murders Guy’s father, and a distraught mother resurrects him.

Guy’s mother, driven by her desire to be young, feasts on one of the orphans in an attempt to reclaim her youth. Guy, in a fitful walk through the woods, discovers Chance and Sis in a lovers embrace, and his mother in carnage, collapses.

He is awakened by the aerophone: Sis is sending his mother and father away. She then sends Guy to be adopted, and takes over as lord of the island. The film concludes in the same time that it began. Grown Guy returns to the island reunited with his mother, father, and his love, Wendy. He is forced to revisit his painful past, as his visit is not entirely pleasant.

“Brand Upon the Brain!” is all about secrets. Maddin’s frames are frequently marked by a circle of light, illuminating only a fraction of the world he has created. When Guy meets Wendy for the first time, it is clear he knows more about the goings on at the orphanage than he lets on.

And while Guy quietly pines for Wendy, Sis is smitten with Chase. Even the viewer is left in the dark; Guy’s mother, from her vantage point in the lighthouse, creates her own perspective of the world with a spotlight she moves across the island.

Guy Maddin is clearly a cinephile, and in “Brand Upon the Brain!” he explores the tangibility of his craft. He shows how the camera shakes and distorts the image when it moves. He uses primitive and special effects, like mattes.

Maddin also pays homage to the theatrical elements of early cinema in dramatic, emphasized performance (in one scene Guy and Sis re-enact their mother’s birth), as well as in the stylizing and makeup of early film stars.

The editing of “Brand Upon the Brain!” is at times frantic and impressionistic. Maddin attempts to capture the fragmented natures of memory and dreaming. We are not all seers. Much like in our dreams, our view is limited and distorted. We must guess, interpret and infer. We must care and we must invest.

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