Keyhole
Keyhole is a 2011 Canadian film directed by Guy Maddin, starring Jason Patric, Isabella Rossellini, Udo Kier and Kevin McDonald. A surreal combination of gangster film and haunted house film, which draws on Homer's Odyssey as well, Keyhole tells the story of a Ulysses Pick (Patric), who returns to his home and embarks on an odyssey through the house, one room at a time. Filming began in Winnipeg on July 6, 2010. Maddin shot Keyhole digitally rather than his usual method of shooting on 16mm or Super-8mm.
Plot
The gang of Ulysses Pick (Jason Patric) shoots its way into his former home, which the police have surrounded, with a hostage and a stuffed wolverine (named "Crispy") in tow. Big Ed, the gang's second-in-command, then evicts the dead gangsters (who seem otherwise alive), after asking them to identify themselves: "Those of you who have been killed, stand facing the wall." They leave reluctantly, and the gang waits for Ulysses. The film's narrator, the ghost of Ulysses's father-in-law Calypso/Camille (Louis Negin), reveals that the house is haunted (and not only by him) because although a house's happiness is able to vacate the premises after its inhabitants have left, its sorrow is doomed to remain inside forever. This house had once belonged to Ulysses and his four children with his wife Hyacinth (Isabella Rossellini).
More details
author | Guy Maddin |
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director | Guy Maddin |
editor | John Gurdebeke |
genre | surreal |
keywords | adopt be right back bullet hole chain coming home dead man doomed love drown electric chair follow haunt home alone injured kill locked door louis negin scream seclude secret passage summon surround their way to remember tragic story young girl young woman |
musicBy | Jason Staczek |
producer | Guy Maddin Jean du Toit Jody Shapiro Lindsay Hamel Phyllis Laing |
productionCompany | Buffalo Gal Pictures Entertainment One |
publisher | monterey media inc. |
theme | gangster |