Cowards Bend the Knee

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cowards_bend_the_knee

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FIPRESCI Prize (Specia...
International Film Festival Rotterdam
2003
Maine International Film Festival
2004
La Rochelle International Film Festival
2004
  
  

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Alternate Title: The Blue Hands

Directed by: Guy Maddin

year: 2004 64 minutes

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 Guy Maddin casts 'himself' (actually, Darcy Fehr) as a hockey sniper made lily-livered by mother and daughter femme fatales and resurrects his father as as the team's radio broadcaster and his own romantic antagonist. Set in a shadow-suffused hockey arena and a Mabuse-like beauty salon-slash-abortion clinic, the plot drips with Grecian formula, as sordid family secrets spawn unintentional murder most foul.

Zeitgeist Films

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Reviews

dschweisguth

So many of Guy Maddin's preoccupations are packed into this lurid little melodrama: Mom & Dad, Winnipeg, severed members, slapping (hockey and non-hockey) and of course "Guy" himself. The first-time Maddin viewer might find there to be a little too much epileptic editing here, and a disturbing early scene will probably scare off some before the film gets really fun, but if you only have an hour and want to see what Guy Maddin is all about, this is your ticket.