Rating: 
Summary: Cute little wierd tale
Review: I didnt like this one.
The effort is good though, it is clear that Madin did his best... Maybe it should have worked... but for me it didnt.
The picture is good, but the story is rather dull (even with the necrophilia thrown in) and... Well I really did not like the director sense of aesthetics.
Dont get me wrong I LOVE and I mean LOVE german expresionism, but the way Maddin did this one... Yuck!
I am giving it 3 stars because although I recognize this review is quite subjective, I acknowledge the production value and the dedication they put in this film... Nevertheless I did not liked it.
(did I mention that I did not like this one?)
If you like little wierd tales that kept themselves far, far away from your nerves you should buy this one, however. You will see it with a smile on your face.
Rating: 
Summary: Too bad...
Review: I was disappointed by this film. It sounded like something that I would really like. I was kind of intrigued at the beginning and I watched carefully throughout the whole thing but, for me, it just never came together to be anything moving. I mean, I think I understood the artisitic statement he was trying to make, but it had no emotional effect on me. Just boring, like reading a text book, you know? A thinking man's movie. But I have to say, there were some really cool shots. But I guess it really felt a student film. A pretty good student film. But a student film, none the less. I don't know. Maybe I don't get it, but I didn't like it. And I usually like these oddball kinds of things.
Rating: 
Summary: My favorite movie of all time
Review: I've watched this movie several times and am fascinated by it. What makes it so terrific is its uniqueness and the wonderfully fitting music that is found throughout the effort. You'll never see another movie like this and I must say that you have to be a little "off center" to enjoy it. If you're looking for something different then I recommend you try it.
Rating: 
Summary: noway
Review: not good at all..... What was the point of it...
Didnt even finish watching it, fell asleep..
another waste of money
Rating:
Summary: extra good film
Review: One has to know icelandic folklore, to be able to begin to appreciate this ingenious film.
the best Icelandic film ever!
Rating: 
Summary: Tales From A Parallel Universe
Review: Poor Einar the Lonely (another of Guy Maddin's hapless heroes) has fallen a victim to the disfiguring pestilence that has been dropping from a great height onto the Canadian/Icelandic community of Gimli, Manitoba. He drags himself to the Gimli Hospital, a strange place where puppet shows are used in place of anaesthetic and the 13-year-old nurses ignore Einar in favor of Gunnar. Gunnar is the occupant of the bed next to Einar's; Einar's initial jealousy turns to friendship... but as the two men begin to exchange confidences, a secret comes out that makes them deadly enemies.Although the story is set in "a Gimli we no longer know", there really is such a place as Gimli, and there is a real Gimli Hospital. The Gimli of the film seems to exist in a time warp in which it is always 2 A.M., 1930; there is a late-night atmosphere over everything, and even the sun seems to give off an artificial light. The production values and the overall look of the film recall the early days of sound films ("White Zombie", "Vampyr", etc.). Maddin has taken great pains to recreate the technical limitations of those old movies, right down to the scratch and hum on the soundtrack. Imagine either SCTV doing a parody of Ingmar Bergman or Ingmar Bergman doing a segment for SCTV-- in fact, in certain shots Kyle McCulloch (Einar) and Michael Gottli (Gunnar) resemble Joe Flaherty and John Candy. There's a great deal of deadpan silliness to this film, but you can't help but like the characters (Gunnar is hapless too); there's no directoral irony that invites us to look down on the cast. This is a film that walks a fine line between honest emotion and kitsch. In that vein, one of the extra features provided with the DVD is the short film "The Dead Father", which has its comedic moments but is ultimately touching and will resonate with those who have lost a family member only to have him or her show up in their dreams. It's a serious film with funny overtones; sort of the flip side of "Tales of the Gimli Hospital". The last ten minutes are especially poignant. Maddin provides a rollicking, often digressive commentary; it may not tell you everything you want to know, but it's a lot of fun to listen to.
Rating:
Summary: Stylish and Cultish and What-Have-You...
Review: that's what "Tales From the Gimli Hospital" is. The Plot? Forget about it...to say it's a "loose" one is to be kind. The string that holds it all together is some epidemic somewhere in a fairy-tale like Manitoba. And what it is is a melange of styles and genres that only a film student with some money to blow could have made. At times this reminds me Ulmer's "Detour," Romero's "Night of the Living Dead," Lynch's "Eraserhead," Wood's "Plan 9 From Outer Space," and Bunuel's "Un Chien Andalou." Trust me....there's more here. I'm a sucker for incomprehensible, cooky, pseudo-artsy stuff like this.
Rating:
Summary: Pure Joy
Review: The only appropriate response to the review by Enea Ceku is to re-quote him: "There are some really good shots with great angles."** Um, OK. If that kind of postcardism nauseates you--and you're intrigued enough to be browsing this title--ignore the USC grads and let this movie blow a few fuses in your head. Maddin is doing lovely, cryptic work here, and you won't be disappointed. **Looks like E.C. has wisely decided to excise that particular line, though he replaced it with one even more troublesome. He wants "a digestible surrealist piece." But the glory of this movie (and so much of the great surrealist work) is that it resists just this kind of pandering. "Tales" refuses categorization, refuses easy digestion. That's what makes it stick in your mind. Ray Carney said of Tarkovsky: "He disorients us completely...he gets us hearing dog frequencies." The same could be said of Maddin.
Rating:
Summary: Pure Joy
Review: The only appropriate response to the review by Enea Ceku is to re-quote him: "There are some really good shots with great angles." Um, OK. If that kind of postcardism nauseates you--and you're intrigued enough to be browsing this title--ignore the USC grads and let this movie blow a few fuses in your head.
Rating:
Summary: The darkly surreal world of the Gimli Hospital
Review: This is a surreal film from Canadian filmmaker Guy Maddin, his first feature. The story focuses on the town of Gimli, Manitoba, a long time ago, during an outbreak of smallpox. Two patients in a strange hospital become friends, then deadly rivals. The film is in its own surreal world, with the town of Gimli featuring unconventional behaviour, like the people washing their faces with straw, squeezing the insides of fish onto their heads, rubbing dead birds onto patient's wounds, a weird black-faced minstrel, a cow that lives under a bed, and many fishes that are present in most scenes. It really is a special piece of low budget surreal filmmaking, and is deservedly compared to David Lynch's Eraserhead. The DVD is quite good too. The picture is in full frame, and the image is good, giving the film its dark & peculiar look well. The sound is in mono and ok. The extras include an insightful commentary by director Guy Maddin, who describes everything about the film, and the trials of making it. The disc also includes two short Guy Maddin films, Hospital Fragment and The Dead Father. Both films are good, and not disimilar to the feature. It's refreshing to see a company like Kino releasing abstract films like this on to the DVD format. If you like surreal films, you have to own this disc.
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