Synopsis
A submarine crew, a feared pack of forest bandits, a famous surgeon, and a battalion of child soldiers all get more than they bargained for as they wend their way toward progressive ideas on life and love.
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Cast
- Roy DupuisCesare
- Clara FureyMargot
- Louis NeginMarv / Smithy / Mars / Organizer / Mr. Lanyon
- Udo KierCount Yugh / The Butler / The Dead Father / Guard / Pharmacist
- Gregory HladyJarvis / Dr. Deane / A Husband
- Mathieu AmalricThadeusz M___ / Ostler
- Noel BurtonWolf / Pilot / The Captain
- Geraldine ChaplinThe Master Passion / Nursemaid / Aunt Chance
- Paul AhmaraniDr. Deng / Speedy
- Caroline DhavernasGong
Recommendations
- 100
Slant Magazine
Its utter indulgence in esoterica paradoxically leaves it most vulnerable to the beating heart of this great artist of self-therapy. - 91
The Playlist
The Forbidden Room is a cinephile’s delight, another Maddin dream fantasia that’s visually distressed, suffused in feverish melodrama, and strangely poetic. Surrender yourself to its demented genius. The Forbidden Room will trap you in its bewitching spell, and you’ll be better for it. - 91
The A.V. Club
For those attuned to Maddin’s goofy sense of humor, it’s easily the funniest movie he’s ever made—a series of several dozen comic shorts strung together on a ludicrous clothesline. The only downside is that the experience, at just shy of two hours, can be a trifle exhausting. - 90
Screen Daily
The Forbidden Room is a tour de force that takes Maddin’s ambition through a maze of magical melodrama. - 80
CineVue
The Forbidden Room (2015) is Maddin's aesthetic nearing critical mass, a whimsical, genre-spanning opus that demonstrates the totality of his enigmatic style. - 80
The Guardian
Maddin’s zeal for old cameras and stocks is matched only by his revelry in evoking an entire genre with a single image. The film’s apogee literally opens up The Book of Climax in a sequence of pure, knowing cinematic joy. Film-lovers, this ludicrous movie is for you. - 80
The Hollywood Reporter
With no through-story or strong continuity to hold it together, the film does go on a bit and becomes repetitive; it's hard to remain stimulated by the same techniques, however imaginative, at such length without some connective dramatic tissue.... Still, for cinephiles and aficionados of the singular, The Forbidden Room represents a very particular kind of feast. - 80
Village Voice
The experience is two-thirds thrilling to one-third enervating, a winning ratio for what's essentially a tightly curated anthology film.
