Cowards Bend the Knee (DVD)
Adapted from a ten-part peephole installation, Cowards Bend the Knee is jam-packed with enough kinetically photographed action to seem like a never-ending cliffhanger. In this twisted and poisoned wish fulfillment, the mythomaniacal Maddin casts “himself” (actually, Darcy Fehr) as a hockey sniper made lily-livered by mother and daughter femme fatales, and resurrects his father as the team’s radio broadcaster and his own romantic antagonist. Set in a shadow-suffused hockey arena and a Mabuse-like beauty salon/abortion clinic, the plot drips with Grecian formula, as sordid family secrets spawn unintentional murder most foul.
COWARDS BEND THE KNEE is also available on DVD as part of the QUINTESSENTIAL GUY MADDIN box set.
- Audio commentary by Guy Maddin
- Love-Chaunt Workbooks: Four short-film blueprints from a lost Maddin feature, plus audition reels
- Behind-the-scenes look at Maddin’s new feature—and Cowards companion piece—The Brand upon the Brain!
- Cowards Photo Archive: Production photos, plus vintage beauty shop and hockey shots from Maddin’s personal collection
- Watch the film as a whole, or as 10 individual short films
- Plus: Artistic statement, character sketches, missing chapter script excerpt and the essay “A Note on Hands”
- Guy Maddin - Director
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