Guy Maddin is one of Canada's most celebrated and original filmmakers, the director of such delirious films as Tales from the Gimli Hospital, Careful, Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary, The Saddest Music in the World and My Winnipeg. Few know, however, that he is just as gifted a writer, and his resolutely purple prose, as eccentric and enchanting as his film work, is a true delight. From the Atelier Tovar gathers, in one volume, the best of Maddin's writing: his journalism (originally published in the Village Voice, Cinema Scope, Film Comment and points beyond), unpublished short stories and film treatments (including the riotous Child Without Qualities), and selections, both lurid and illuminating, from the filmmaker's personal journals. Here are Maddin's feverish musings on hockey, the Osmonds, divas of the Italian silent cinema, Bollywood, his own twisted biography, and much, much more. What emerges finally is both a fragrant potpourri and a treasure trove, a singular portrait of this very unique artist.

From the Atelier Tovar: Selected Writings of Guy Maddin

Arts & Photography

Maddin, Guy

Photography & Video

Coach House Books

A herd of horses frozen in a river. A bargain bridge. Séances. Golden Boy pageants. A demolished hockey arena. St. Mary's Academy for Girls. Spanky the Guide Dog through Time. An epidemic of sleepwalking.
This is the Winnipeg of Guy Maddin, the world's foremost cinéaste planant, and it's not the Winnipeg you'll find in tourist brochures. When the iconoclastic auteur of The Saddest Music in the World decided to tackle the subject of his hometown, it could only have become a 'docu-fantasia,' a melange of personal history, civic tragedy and mystical hypothesizing. The result is wildly delirious, deeply personal and deliciously entertaining.
Herewith, venture deeper into the mind of Maddin with the text of his narration, wantonly annotated with an avalanche of marginal digressions, stills, outtakes, family photos, emails, essays, deoculations, animations, notebook pages and collages. There's even an X-ray of Spanky the pug and an in-depth interview with Michael Ondaatje.

My Winnipeg

A herd of horses frozen in a river. A bargain bridge. Seances. Golden Boy pageants. A demolished hockey arena. St. Mary's Academy for Girls. Toby the dog. An epidemic of sleepwalking.The Winnipeg of Guy Maddin, the world’s foremost cinéaste planant, is not the Winnipeg of tourist brochures. When the iconoclastic auteur of The Saddest Music in the World and Brand upon the Brain! decided to tackle the subject of his hometown, it could only have become a 'docu-fantasia,' melange of personal history, civic tragedy and mystical hypothesizing. He relates historical information, from the factual to the dubious, and returns to his childhood home with actors hired to replicate his family (including B-movie icon Ann Savage as his mother) and revisit traumatic scenes from his youth. Through it all we see a man on a train trying feverishly, again, continuously, to leave his hometown.Wildly delirious, deeply personal, and deliciously entertaining, My Winnipeg was the opening night selection at the Berlin Film Festival’s Forum and has received rave reviews worldwide. At the heart of the film is Maddin's voiceover, told in his infamous purplish prose. The book offers up this narration — extensively annotated by Maddin with a cornucopia of illuminating arcana.Venture deeper into the mind of Maddin with marginal digressions, stills, outtakes, childhood photos, animations, diary entries, collages, archival images and nascent treatments. There is a hand-drawn map of Maddin's personal landmarks. There is an interview between Ann Savage and Maddin’s mother, and between Maddin and Michael Ondaatje. There's even an x-ray of Toby the dog.This version includes a DVD of Maddin's My Winnipeg.

My Winnipeg [With DVD]

Humor & Entertainment

Coach House

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Maddin, Guy. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Maddin, Guy

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Maddin, Guy. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

From the Atelier Tovar: Selected Writings of Guy Maddin

My Winnipeg

My Winnipeg [With DVD]