The Forbidden Room (2015)

Interesting facts

The Forbidden Room is a 2015 Canadian experimental fantasy drama film co-directed by Guy Maddin and Evan Johnson, and written by Maddin, Johnson, and Robert Kotyk. The film stars Roy Dupuis, Clara Furey, Louis Negin, Jacques Nolot, Charlotte Rampling, Udo Kier, Gregory Hlady, Sparks, Karine Vanasse, Adele Haenel, Mathieu Amalric, Maria de Medeiros and Geraldine Chaplin.

Production

Many of the stories within the film's nesting doll structure were inspired by a lost film and then reimagined in an absurdist way, sometimes based only on the title. When asked how the idea for the structure came about, Johnson said he is a fan of Raymond Roussel.

The film was shot on digital in public studios (where the public could visit and attend the film shoots) at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, France and the Centre PHI in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

There was so much material that did not make the final cut that the directors decided to turn it into a web series, called Seances, which Maddin calls a "companion piece" to the film. The final cut of the film is slightly shorter than it was on its world premiere at the Sundance Festival; the directors had to do some re-editing anyway, because the soundtracks on the DCP "were out of synch with each other." Maddin said: "It was a nightmare.

Most of the film's music was composed by Galen Johnson (who was writing music since 2005) and Guy Maddin, who sometimes traded their files for mutual input. Maddin worked primarily in Audacity to create ambient soundscapes, while Johnson used software from Ableton and Reason Studios, pitch-shifting and chopping old public domain records, at times adding his own MIDI keyboard elements.

For some of the tracks Johnson baked LP records and then recorded the results and use that as a basis for some compositions.

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