We veer into the realm of the avant garde with The Heart of the World, a short film directed by Guy Maddin: cinephile, auteur, Canadian. If you watch this film without reading the review, you might mistake it for some sort of silent-era classic, digitized and given new life through YouTube. But this is in fact simply the director’s style, creating new films that seem of another era, down to the scratches and grain on the film. In this case the obvious reference is Russian silent film, what with the bombastic score, quick-hitting montages, and Constructivist visual elements. Oh yeah, and unless you mistake me for an actual, informed critic, the consistent use of the word “kino” is a hint as well.

Made for a special program at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival, the story is about a scientist named Anna who studies the “Heart of the World!” and two brothers who are both in love with her. The Heart of the World (envisioned here in a literal way) is susceptible to heart attack though. What can be done? What choices will they make?

The film can be difficult to watch, it is all energy and motion, quick cuts, and non-sequiturs. There are layers and layers of symbolism at play here, and the references are numerous and wacky. What it means I have no clue, but what it is, is pure melodrama, larger than life characters with larger than life aims, and watching it is a blast. What is clear is that Maddin has a true love for cinema, and that spirit is fully expressed here.