The Heart of the World

Nikolai, a mortician, and Osip, an actor playing Christ in a play, are brothers in love with the same woman. Anna, a state scientist and said woman, is in love with both brothers and studies the Earth's core, the very heart of the world.

Pure fantasia, a race to save the world from a fatal heart attack, juxtaposed against a love rivalry between two brothers - a mortician and an actor playing Christ - for the heart of a scientist studying the earth's core. Whether or not there's any kind of deeper interpretation is hard to tell, with the film racing along in an almost stream-of-consciousness approach, as expressionist cinema conventions are cast against elements of Soviet propaganda films in Maddin's typically exciting and an anachronistic style.

Canadian director Guy Maddin is an artist who has made himself a name thanks to his highly inventive and original short films. His artistic sensibility and great eye for the visual have produced several award winning films that showcase a great surrealist mind and a big (altbeit a bit bizarre) love for early films.

There aren't many artists who are also filmmakers. I suppose part of the problem is that there just aren't that many true artists, never were.

This film is very well made and I was impressed by much of it. However, I would assume that at least 95% of the public would hate the film if they saw it--probably even more!

"The Heart of the World" is a 6.5-minute black-and-white short film from 15 years ago.

The recreation of mid-1920's film is amazing. We are brought into a world where two men, both quite odd, vie for the love of a woman scientist.

Equal parts German Expressionism and Russian Agit-prop, Heart of the World is a six minute epic of Biblical proportions.Maddin's usual idiosyncrasies resurface - Scandinavian Love triangle Melodrama amidst impending social catastrophe.

Few weeks ago I wrote about the last year's biggest and "quietest" black and white silent movie-surprise "The Artist" - "the most charming, original and unexpected" movie of 2011. It is true about the last year but for me, The most original, joyful, and truly unexpected film-homage to the silent era since few days ago has become the six minutes long stunner "the Heart of the World" (2000) from the Canadian auteur, Guy Maddin, which he wrote and made for 2000 Toronto Film Festival.