My Winnipeg

My Winnipeg is a wonderful portrayal of art in film. Some will say that film and movies are two different forms and in this case I am ready to agree. This film touches on some of the most beautiful part of reality and bearing to get away from home, but your internal struggle to part because of the momentous void that falls into the pit of your stomach. Guy Maddin included some very influential parts in this movie that can relate closely to many people looking to leave their hometown. Inquisitively, everybody has a part of them that wants to venture off into the unknown, most may not do this, but there is that sense of wonder that brings itself to be apparent in mortality. Maddin really brings out the loneliness of Winnipeg and how the city treats it’s architectural past like garbage. The buildings that were formed with the city, the buildings that held the memories and infidelities the city possessed were destroyed. With every one of these buildings destroyed, a part of the cities original character went with it. Maddin expresses that this is an important part of his growing up and with every part of the city that dies, it takes a piece of him with it.
My only disagreement with Maddin on this issue is, he expresses such hate for the future of his city, and I think that he would want to get out. It seems as if he is pushing himself to leave, but cannot because the loneliness of being away from home is barring his mind for the exact thought. It would seem more plausible that he left for a long time then came back rather than living in the city the whole time. That is why they call it “homesickness.” It is the “sleepy” city so maybe the relaxing qualities of the city keep him there. Also, the architectural phenomenon that eats at his very notions appears to be useless. It is true that keeping the original buildings of a city does keep a significant amount of the original character, but buildings die and the city needs to thrive on any economic output that may become of this. Maddin appears to realize it, but in the movie it appeared that he fully did not in his awful scorn of the situation.
The chilling history was very interesting indeed. Every city has that one place where something detrimental, at least to the cities population, has happened. In a melancholy way this seems to spark another interest of “homesickness” before even leaving the home. Maddin is sparked by numerous memories of his mother’s hard, but influential issues, in which he has to part and the old salon that his mother used to own. This surrealist movie touches on some issues that are definitely universal; everybody has issues leaving their hometowns, whether it is along the road or right away. This brings up the constant questioning of him in the town and what he should do.
The most interesting question that was commonly being asked throughout the movie is, what if? Maddin commonly questions himself to help formulate different reasoning for his decision on leaving. He wonders what if this would have happened to make the city stand as a whole, would it make him stay? Or what if there was still an ice rink that the original hockey players played at, would that make him stay? He is constantly questioning morals around him to help identify his own, it seems as if he hates to love the city. Maddin is an original “sleep-walker” in the city that most coin as the “sleepy city.”