Cowards Bend the Knee (2003)
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95% of critics liked it
(19 reviews) -
87% of users liked it
(1,172 ratings)
The wildly idiosyncratic Canadian auteur Guy Maddin created this exercise in semi-autobiographical impressionism. Guy Maddin (Darcy Fehr) is a gifted but weak-willed hockey player who has helped drive the Winnipeg Maroons to a championship season. However, Maddin's sense of triumph is dashed… More The wildly idiosyncratic Canadian auteur Guy Maddin created this exercise in semi-autobiographical impressionism. Guy Maddin (Darcy Fehr) is a gifted but weak-willed hockey player who has helped drive the Winnipeg Maroons to a championship season. However, Maddin's sense of triumph is dashed when his girlfriend Veronica (Amy Stewart) informs him that she's pregnant. Incapable of dealing with parenthood, Maddin escorts Veronica to The Black Silhouette, a combination beauty shop and brothel where a cross-dressing doctor performs abortions. As Veronica is on the operating table, Maddin spies Meta (Melissa Dionisio) and immediately falls in love with her, leaving Veronica behind. While Meta is attracted to Maddin, she will not grant him her favors until he passes a test -- he must track down the man who murdered her father and kill him using her late father's own blue hands. Shot on Super-8 film, Cowards Bend the Knee was originally created by Maddin as an art installation presented at a Toronto gallery and at the Rotterdam Film Festival, where viewers watched the film in six-minute segments through peepholes; it was later released in a conventional full-screen version. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Directed By
- Guy Maddin
- Written By
- Guy Maddin
- Genres
- Drama, Romance, Special Interest
Unrated,
- In Theaters
- Aug 11, 2004 Limited
- Studio
- Zeitgeist
Critic Reviews
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John Hartl, Seattle Times
If you've never seen Maddin's work, Cowards Bend the Knee is a good place to start.
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Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter
There's no denying the imagination and technical ingenuity on display, but this clearly ranks as one of Maddin's less accessible efforts, which is definitely saying something.
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John Anderson, Newsday
Lurid, tawdry and untoward entertainment from Canada's reigning mad genius.
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Jami Bernard, New York Daily News
It's bliss, I tell you!
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Manohla Dargis, New York Times
There is also something rather splendid about this extended-play peep show, as if Mr. Maddin had stumbled across a hitherto lost archive of cinema's less-than-innocent past.
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