Guy Maddin

I always thought that it was great when people told me that my films are impossible to put in a drawer. So I'd say: 'Oh, thank you', and they'd respond: 'No, that's terrible. You would be doing yourself a big favour if you worked in a genre.' And then they'd tell me I should work in science fiction, a genre I don't find much of a connection with for some reason, even though it has so much potential. To some extent, science fiction and horror seem so close together as an element of fantasy. But I still like my horror films scary yet slightly allegorical to a degree where I'm not sure whether I can figure out the allegory. If I can't figure it out, that's even better. But it has to be rooted in something that we all feel, whether we believe in saucers or vampires or not. We all feel those things but they are dressed up in the horror genre garb. I like that. Show less «

I've never bought that cliché that you should never take people out of the narrative, take people out of that dramatic illusion. I'm more of a person who loves his grandmother. I'm thinking when a grandmother sits at the foot of your bed and tells you a bedtime story, you get absorbed into the story, you notice her style of telling a story. Some parts you should tell badly, other parts charmingly. You're totally sucked into the story. You've been scared, moved, engaged, and then every now and then you notice your grandmother has a dental whistle or a nose hair or that she's getting pretty wrinkly and that she's sitting on your foot, and then you go back into the story. I'm one of those filmmakers that likes to show the grandmother. Show less «