In subterranean Mandragora, the sun never sets and the population of six is involved in obtuse romantic entanglement. Recently released prisoner Peter Glahn one of many allusions by screenwriter George Toles to Knut Hamsun’s Pan returns to the family farm, presided over by his spinster sister. When not sleephunting, Peter becomes enraptured with both Juliana, tantalisingly subservient to the nefarious Dr. Solti, and pregnant rainforest sprite Zephyr (who, like Solti, idolises a hilltop statue of Venus). With a Romantic score ripped from Bernard Herrmann’s dead hands, Maddin’s florid fairie tale is his only 35mm film, and, abetted by an allstar cast enunciating in a mélange of accents, his most decadent. Twilight of the Ice Nymphs would be a film blanc were it not shot in a colour palette inspired by Gustave Moreau: Toles’ purple prose is readily matched by Maddin’s iridescent magenta fauxsunlight. At its hermetic heights, Twilight of the Ice Nymphs also recalls another allstudio forest romp: A Midsummer Night’s Dream. (Though unlike Max Reinhardt, Maddin shot in an abandoned Winnipeg iron works.) This unfashionable, obscure object emerges from the nether regions very lush, and full of ostriches. Maddin: ‘I had a wee bout of syphilis whilst making this, but I really struggled to get any of the fever onto the screen.’ (M.P.)
