Careful
Tags: comedy, avant garde, bleak, cult, absurd, psychedelic, melodrama

Plot synopsis:
Careful is set in Tolzbad, a fictional mountain town under constant threat of devastating avalanches that can be triggered by any loud noise or even a too-large expression of emotion. The people of Tolzbad suppress their emotions as much as possible, living in constant vigilance against losing self-control. An opening lecture cautions common advice ("Think twice!", "Don't stand so close to the walnut tree!").
The greatest ambition of the citizens of Tolzbad is to become good servants for the reclusive Count Knotkers. Johann and Grigorss are brothers and butlers-in-training. Both are beloved of their mother Zenaida, although she hates their brother Franz, whom they do not speak of and who has been exiled to the attic. The ghost of their dead blind father appears to Franz to warn him of impending doom in the family, yet Franz (paralyzed and mute and covered in cobwebs) can do nothing. The ghost complains to Franz that Zenaida never loved him and harboured love for Count Knotkers instead, although forbidden to marry him by the Count's mother.
Johann is betrothed to Klara, daughter of Herr Trotta, and although Grigorss harbours secret love for Klara he says nothing. Johann, meanwhile, becomes incestuously attracted to his own mother Zenaida. He spies on her through the walls of the chimney as she undresses and bathes. He then concocts a love potion for her, and as she drifts into sleep he assaults her, kissing and groping her breasts. Horrified at himself, Johann burns off his lips with a hot coal, cuts off his fingers with garden shears, and throws himself off a mountain.
Grigorss becomes infuriated when Zenaida reveals that her passion for Count Knotkers has been rekindled since his mother died, so that no obstacles stand in the way of their union. She reveals that the reason she hates Franz but loves her other sons is because Franz reminds her too much of her hated dead husband, but when she conceived Grigorss and Johann she was thinking about the Count. Grigorss challenges the Count to a duel to avenge his father's honour, but Zenaida talks him out of it by finally accepting Franz into the family.
However, Klara convinces Grigorss to go through with the duel. Possessed like Johann with incestuous love for her parent (her father, Herr Trotta, who ignores Klara but lavishes attention on her sister Sigleinde), and inspired after viewing the enchained wild mountain girl Gerda, this duel is the first step of her plan for revenge. They duel with daggers, and Grigorss stabs Count Knotkers. He heads home, where Zenaida cares for him after he collapses from exhaustion. However, when she discovers he has killed her beloved Count, she throws him out of the house and hangs herself in the attic in front of Franz.
Grigorss is taken by Klara to a mountain cave she once hopefully prepared as a love den for her and her father but which she now claims can be their new home. On the gondola ride there, Klara tells Grigorss that her father raped her and they must plan his death. Grigorss takes Herr Trotta on a sleigh ride, during which he shoots a pistol to start an avalanche to bury Trotta. All goes according to plan, except that Klara throws herself into the sleigh to die while kissing her father.
Alone, Grigorss retreats to the mountain cave. A single teardrop causes another avalanche, which traps him inside, where he freezes to death while hallucinating a happy reunion with his parents. As the film ends, Franz and Sigleinde join together to search the mountains for their lost family members, not realizing they are dead.

Review: Guy Maddin's brilliant and hilarious (particularly for early film buffs) `Careful.'  The plot and style of this film have been well explained by other commentaries on this page and elsewhere, so there's no need to go over it again.
In a spoken commentary track with Maddin and screenwriter George Toles (new to this DVD, and obviously not possible on the VHS edition), Maddin admits that he wanted to add an effect through use of the color controls during the digital transfer, but resisted that temptation in order to let this DVD stand as a faithful representation of the film.
While the effect he had in mind might have been interesting, I'm still grateful to him for his restraint.Maddin claims in his commentary that people often obliquely criticize the performances of the actors in this film while, at the same time, telling him how much they like it, placing him in the position of defending those performances.
Maddin states that he absolutely stands by the performances in this film, and that the actors gave him precisely what he asked for.
This should dispel any doubts among people who see this film about the unusual, stiff delivery of lines, which might lead people who know nothing about the cast to suspect they are amateurs, which they are definitely not.
The antiquated sound of this film, along with its look, is all of a piece, and completely intentional, right down to the fake patina of noise added to the mono soundtrack.
If you like this film, do get this DVD now, and tell anyone you know who likes unusual films about it.Near the end of the film, which hints at a continuation of the story, Maddin says that he may make that sequel some day.
It's a little like reading a hysterical comic book, and finding original paintings by old masters salted throughout!This brilliant Canadian film heavily borrows from the high-camp expressionism of German silent films and early talkies, especially the "mountain" films of Leni Riefenstahl.
Anyone who's read FROM CALIGARI TO HITLER will recognize dozens of scenes in this film as near carbons of stills from the book.
Perhaps more than any other films before or since, German silent cinema created compelling images that tap into universal race consciousness, portraying grainy, moving archetypal images all of us vaguely recognize from dreams or nightmares.
But there are plenty of laughs in between, (with "sick," 70's style National Lampoon-like humor).
If you've never laughed at seeing an eye poked out, leave political correctness at the door and give this film a whirl!The soundtrack if often deliberately scratchy or muffled, and in several scenes easter-egg like colors are used that resemble the early two-strip technicolor process.
This bizarre film is salted with unexpected dialogue like this: BOY: "My, aren't you the frisky one today." GIRL: "Even the reindeer are such, when Spring is coming!"Enough of the aesthetics, what is the film supposedly about?
Jackie Burroughs does a brilliant bit part as the puritanical teacher, who closely resembles the Cloris Leachman role in YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN.All of the characters display a surface naivete; actresses speak in the perky, breathless voices reminiscent of badly dubbed post-war European B films; "strapping" young sons still wear short pants'd school uniforms.
The film quickly descends below the surface to show the village as a cauldron of incestuous flirtations, violent retaliation and explosive "family secrets." The plot follows an arc of forbidden loves and passions, leading to retribution on a biblical scale.
What may appear to the modern audience as "cheap" special effects are actually loving recreations of how ghosts and visions were portrayed in silent and early talking German films.
Uncoated lenses and back lit hair make some closeups resemble images from early Garbo or Dietrich films.CAREFUL warrants multiple viewings.
Watch it with a friend; this is definitely a film you'll want to dissect over several capuccinos..
Careful you don't miss a great film!.
His films have a look all of their own; blending surrealism with German style expressionism.
The grainy slightly faded style of his films, make them appear from another era.
"Careful" is filmed in a bright Technicolor style that's visually dazzling.
This is one strange film, with picturesque landscapes that look like they jumped out of a Salvador Dali painting.
If you are looking for a disturbing candy colored dark comedy, careful you don't pass this opportunity up..
Be Careful of So Many Things - But Watch This Movie.
I love Guy Maddin's work and this is my favourite of his films.
It's odd and unsettling and it sticks with you long after you've watched it.It's definitely not the most accessible of his works, but I like it.
It's been described as a "pro-repressionist" movie, but I don't think that's entirely accurate.The people portrayed in the village are deeply repressed and one small push makes their whole stack of cards morals come tumbling down.
I recently watched the film, Careful, by Guy Maddin on television and found it to be very interesting indeed.
The person introducing the film called Maddin a Canadian David Lynch and while both directors do have a certain flair for the unusual, I believe Lynch to be a surrealist while Maddin's style to be something else entirely.
Granted, Careful is the only film of Maddin's I have seen except for excerpts and press for The Saddest Music in the World, but his style, at least in this film, is one of sentimentality and homage.
I have seen plenty of German Expressionist films and Careful would seem to fit right into that mold.
I myself have often toyed with the idea of producing a film in the Expressionist style if only for the exercise of it.
Maddin has produced an Expressionist film in the year 1992 which flawlessly mimics the films of Ufa, Wiene, Murnau, and Lang from the early 20th century.
Any viewer, even those versed in early Expressionism, who would happen across this film without any context would be forgiven for mistaking it to be an actual 80-year-old film, so true is Maddin's style, so exacting is his pacing.
Full frame color tinting, sound stage shooting, post-produced soundtrack, rigid acting style, and obsolete directorial choices, combine to provide the viewer with a disturbing portrait of repression, duty, and mountain goats.
This is the second Guy Maddin film that I've seen (the other being "Twilight of the Ice Nymphs") and in both cases, the films wore out their welcome about half an hour in.I enjoy the offbeat style of the humor, the intentional visual stylization patterned after early silent films (this one reminded me particularly of the work of Melies), and I have no problem with the flat acting style (which is an honest homage to early film acting) or the coloring (which, again, is based in films of yesteryear).
Where Maddin's films run into trouble is, as soon as the novelty has worn off and the character based introductory jokes have played out, there is simply nothing beneath it all for the film to fall back on.The story is actually very simple, yet it is so relentlessly bizarre that it borders on surrealism.
(Not that one can't come up with various things after the fact; I simply doubt that the director intended them or had any control over them if I can only interpret the vaguest elements of the story.)The concept of Oedipal lust and such simply aren't enough to sustain a film of this length.
It then withers quickly, as the last real belly laugh comes in the first few minutes of "Part Two." The remaining hour or so limps along to a decent though unsatisfying end.Guy Maddin is without doubt a clever and unique director, and I look forward to the day when I can say that I've seen him at his best.
But he's far from it in this film in my opinion.Endless homages to early films aren't enough to last 100 minutes...
If you are a fan of German Expressionism, then you will enjoy this modern homage to a beautiful and arresting style perceived and captured wonderfully by Guy Maddin.
There is a ton of symbolism and exploration of the sexual taboos found in both the Oedipus and Cassandra complexes of Greek mythology while allowing for quite humorous character developments which certainly make the film that much more enjoyable than just an "art" film.
Maddin's use of light and especially color adds to the classic expressionist model which gets a gorgeous injection of modern fare.
While I can enjoy the notion of one reviewer calling this a cross between "The Wizard of Oz and Eraserhead", I definately saw this as a much more direct colorful homage to "Caligari" than anything Lynch-esque.
This is the fourth Guy Maddin film I've seen--the others are The Dead Father, Tales From the Gimli Hospital, and Twilight of the Ice Nymphs--and I have yet to be impressed.
Maddin's obsessive need to reproduce the conventions of old film styles isn't the problem, it's his utter inability to tell a compelling story.
And while Careful looks quite good--though the tinting is at times oversaturated--his insistence on having his cast read the script in an arch deadpan style is simply annoying and frankly an insult to the films to which he is supposedly paying tribute.
Maddin is the arthouse equivalent of Quentin Tarantino--reasonably well versed in film history, in awe of his cinema predecessors, and woefully unable to turn his love and knowledge into anything more than a game of spot the influence..
I saw the film Careful and I loved the cinematography of this film.
So many different techniques of photography and color correction were used in the film.
I feel that a lot of films stick with the three act structure but this was something different.
I praise the filmmaker for being brave and daring to make a film like this.
German Expressionism, Guy Maddin style.
Influenced by the German Expressionist films of the 1920s and filtered through the oddball sensibilities of writer/director Guy Maddin, Careful is a film like no other.
Maddin appropriates silent cinema's monochrome aesthetic in multiple scenes but even when color is being used in a more traditional way he tends to fill the screen with garish brightness.
The film has (melo)dramatic elements but is primarily comedic, albeit with a wink and a nudge subtlety almost altogether absent from silent film's heyday.The bizarre plot of the film is centered on a repressed mountain community, particularly the brothers Johan and Grigors and their mother.
The boys' father, who lost both his eyes in separate freak accidents, is long since dead and their older brother is locked in the attic where he silently watches.
Naturally, characters become involved in murder plots, duels, and suicide as they're too repressed and shut off to resolve their problems in a less dramatic fashion.Thematically, Careful is too jumbled to have much coherence but like most Maddin films this is more about style than plot or meaning.
Maddin's creative visual style is engaging enough on its own to make Careful a worthwhile film..
Bizarre but affectionate homage to the German Expressionist style.
Hilariously demented: Take camera work and set design inspired by "The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari" and the early talkie "Svengali", scenario and dialogue that might have been written by Ibsen (under the influence of peyote), then put a creature from Alpha Centauri doing his first English-language film in the director's chair and you get some idea of what this movie is like.If there's not something wrong with you, you won't like this movie at all, but there's much here that twisted sensibilities will find appealing.
Guy Maddin does German expressionism...or at least he tries..
On the one hand you have an original movie, that taking an unique vintage approach but on the other hand it's something that just doesn't always work out too well.First of all, I can really appreciated Guy Maddin and his style of unique film-making, that is often a throwback to the classic early movie's era.
With this movie Guy Maddin went back to the early days of German expressionism, which in the past had provided us with many great classic and very memorable and beautiful looking movies, mostly during the early 1920's.
Why not use consistently an one color filtering throughout the entire movie?
They applied some filters during and after filming but what it mostly does is making the colors look a bit dim.
Besides, if this was supposed to be like a German expressionistic movie, then where are all the great looking sets and backgrounds that made expressionistic movies what they were.
Instead this movie is looking like a modern but also cheap movie, that does absolutely nothing with its environments or sets.One thing that also doesn't seem very consistent with its style and approach is the fact that this is a talkie.
The movie would had probably worked out better if it was more being like a silent movie, using title cards and perhaps a narrator, like Maddin for instance did previously with "Tales from the Gimli Hospital", a movie that did a far better job with its silent movie elements and more modern film-making elements and approach.The story would had probably worked out far better as well that way.
Silent movies can simply get away with a lot more.
Yes, it obviously is already a bit of a weird movie in the first place but all of its dialog and story lines make the movie even more odd to watch.
It's just not very compelling and the characters are far too (intentionaly) flat to care about.
It really doesn't make the movie a very consistent one.So all in all, I can appreciate Guy Maddin's approach and the weirdness he brings to this movie but it ultimately doesn't always works out too well for this particular movie, which makes it a bit of a mixed bad to watch.
Best described as a combination of "The Wizard of Oz" and "Eraserhead," "Careful" is a wacked-out tale of repression and unnatural desires, set in an alpine village where no one can speak too loudly for fear of starting an avalanche.
Hilarious and sinister, "Careful" is also one of the most visually arresting films I've ever seen, with impossibly rosy-cheeked characters inhabiting a hallucinatory dream world of intentionally fake sets and intense easter-egg pastels.
Watching it you will feel like you've stepped into the middle of a Ricola ad gone horribly, horribly wrong..
I really like Maddin.
I like the way he thinks visually first.
They experience the world, the same way we experience the film: by what some call a surrealistic dream world.
He makes a trade-off by investing in what is often - including here - called "German Expressionism." Actually, the model is German mountain films, a quite different beast: one that is more genuinely pre-noir.The world behind those films has a people in tune with a nature that limits their lives, often controlling.
It is pre-noir tragedy with noir-like conventions, cast using those German pre- noir images.It is a stretch to merge German notions of superior harmony with the mountain homeland with the Nazi comfort with the cruelty of nature.
But heck, others do; there is the tradition of Riefenstahl's mountain films and then her similarly inspired Nazi propaganda; and after all, films like this encourage such stretches.
Herzog continues this even today.But all that is predicable and easy to read, compared to Maddin's deeper stuff.Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching..
Don't get me wrong, I like to watch arty films and can find all the Freudian symbolism, but the asthetic was just plain awful (no matter how remeniscient of "German exprssionistic mountain films" {wot does that actually mean anyway???} it is) and the acting is purely crumby.
As a lover of B-Movies, I wouldn't even rank this as a "so bad it's good" film.
(PS: The documentary accompanying on the DVD shed some light on the small, closeted life of Mr Maddin and helped to explain the films fixation with homoerotica and insest, but didn't really make me want to rush out and find all of this directors work in a hurry!!).
Rape, murder, suicide, incest, and the constant overbearing threat of a great avalanche triggered by as little as the volume of one's voice...it's all just another day at the office inside the imaginative mind of Guy Maddin."Careful" is a coldly comic drama that bathes merrily in its own strangeness.
The story is all over the place, even if it is pretty straightforward and coherent for a Guy Maddin production.
Plot twists, love affairs, suicides, deaths, secrets, sexual desires, and more cause the story's simple foundations to spiral into a madman's epic of absurd and surreal measures.
Painted with the tears of tragedy and the spit of black comedy, "Careful" is not a love story, but a collection of love stories that aren't really love stories...it's hard to describe, like any great Guy Maddin film is.
This is an essential work for any fan of film in general, as long as this "hypothetical fan" I am referring to is willing to broaden his or her horizons and delve into a more disturbing, weird, and experimental piece of filmmaking that is not afraid to make the viewer directly uncomfortable, sickened, humored, and depressed in a matter of minutes..
I saw this at the Sundance Film Festival in 1993 and have been telling all my friends to see this unique film ever since.
I'm happy to hear that it is on DVD (my probing into every video store was fruitless)and I can't wait to purchase my very own copy of this brilliant film..
The use of sound, the characters, and the pacing combine to give this film a uniquely mesmerizing feel.
This said, far from being esoteric or overly symbolic, I found this film extremely accessible and easy to watch, and was quickly drawn into the dark and offbeat storyline..
Look past the style.
Bizarre and highly imaginative film with a distinctive style.