The Pier

My Winnipeg (2007) [The Criterion Collection #741]
A film by Guy Maddin
DVD9 | Untouched | ISO+MDS | NTSC 1.33:1 (4:3) 720x540 VBR | 80 min | 7.67 GB
Audio: English AC-3 2.0 @ 192 kbps 48.0 kHz | Subtitles: English
Genre: Documentary, Comedy, Drama | Country: Canada

The geographical dead center of North America and the beloved birthplace of Guy Maddin, Winnipeg is the frosty and mysterious star of Maddin’s “docu-fantasia.” A work of memory and imagination, the film burrows into what the director calls “the heart of the heart” of the continent, conjuring a city as delightful as it is fearsome, populated by sleepwalkers and hockey aficionados. Take part in Winnipeg’s epic annual scavenger hunt! Pay your respects to the racehorses forever frozen in the river! Help judge the yearly Golden Boy pageant! What is real and what is fantasy is left up to the viewer to sort out in Maddin’s hypnotic, expertly conceived paean to that wonderful and terrifying place known as My Hometown.

Surf band from Southern California. The Lively Ones made recordings built around storming, reverb-drenched Fender guitars embellished by occasional raunchy sax breaks. Over a period of about 12 months, they ground out about five albums, filled out with many covers or retitled numbers based on rock and R&B compositions. They had a couple of hits in the L.A. area in 1963 ("Surf Rider" and "Rik-A-Tik"), but their best moment was probably "Goofy Foot," whose staccato gunfire of riffs deservedly propelled the track onto several modern best-of-surf anthologies. They ranged far and wide for source material, giving surf treatment to "Telstar", "Exodus", "Rawhide", and Cole Porter's "Night and Day."

The Coral return with a vividly evocative body of work in the form of their Tenth and first, ever double-album: Coral Island.