Hey all. Capone in Chicago with a special announcement for all readers who live in or around the Windy City.

Now, before I get into the substance of Guy Maddin's latest masterpiece, allow me to fill you in on some exciting things happening with this weekend's showings of BRAND UPON THE BRAIN!, playing for a week at the Music Box Theatre. Technically, Maddin's (THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD; TWILIGHT OF THE ICE NYMPHS) new offering is a silent film. If you see it during the week, you'll hear it with a recorded music score and a taped narration by Isabella Rossellini. That's how I saw it, and it's fantastic. However, if you see it at certain showtimes on May 18-20 (check the Music Box website -- http://www.musicboxtheatre.com -- for specifics), you'll have a live narration by the lovely and talented Crispin Glover and live orchestral accompaniment and sound effects. I've heard a "castrato" also will be part of the live experience. But these are just the icing on Maddin's provocative interpretation of events from his childhood, which are at times terrifying, outrageously amusing, erotic, and deeply touching.

Sharing remembrances from his life beginning at age 12, this version of Maddin lived his early years isolated in an island-based orphanage run by his mother and father. In Maddin's mind, his mother is represented by a woman manning a large telescope and spotlight, tracking his every movement around the island and calling him home with a shrill cry. His father is a scientist, who rarely leaves his lab. When mom and dad discover strange scarring around the heads of the orphans, they call in celebrity sleuths Wendy and Chance Hale. Guy has had a crush on Wendy as long as he can remember. As the investigation proceeds, the seeming calm of the orphanage begins to unravel into Gothic mayhem.

For anyone who has ever seen one of Maddin's films, you have some idea of what you're in for with BRAND, which is to say, you have no idea what to expect. His films are black-and-white visions, using camera and editing tricks that make the footage look ancient and grainy, like something discovered from another time, perhaps another dimension. Some of his older works were simply beyond my comprehension, but more recently, they seem slightly more accessible without the feeling that he's dumbing down his vision. Maybe I'm just used to his style now, but I also feel there's a newfound maturity and self-realization that makes his often sad and lonely films more universal. Surely Maddin isn't the only person who knows what it's like to have an overbearing mother and a largely absent father. And young crushes are what makes the world go 'round.

BRAND UPON THE BRAIN! also shows Madden as an adult revisiting his childhood haunts, putting a fresh coat of paint over everything that represents his past and influences his every movement as an adult. The painting represents both a whitewashing of the past and some sort of self-enforced penance for an unnamed sin. Or perhaps it's his way of burying a host of terrible memories. BRAND may not make total sense, but as with most of Maddin's work, it's the thought that counts. Still, any film that makes you think about it long after the lights come up has to count for something. This is one of my favorite films of the year, and it marks an excellent chance for you to experience one of the most profoundly visionary filmmakers working today at his peak. I have no clue what nuances Glover's narration will bring to this already satisfying work, but I can image it will be a tremendous, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see this film in such a unique presentation.

Capone