| The Heart of the World | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Guy Maddin |
| Written by | Guy Maddin |
| Produced by | |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Guy Maddin |
| Edited by |
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| Music by | Georgy Sviridov |
Release date |
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Running time | 6 min. |
| Country | Canada |
| Language | English |
The Heart of the World is a short film written and directed by Guy Maddin, produced for the 2000 Toronto International Film Festival. Maddin was one of a number of directors (including Atom Egoyan and David Cronenberg) commissioned to make four-minute short films that would screen prior to the various feature films at the 2000 festival as part of the special Preludes program.[1][2] After hearing rumours that other directors were planning films with a small number of shots, Maddin decided that his film would instead contain over 100 shots per minute, and enough plot for a feature-length film. Maddin then wrote and shot The Heart of the World in the style of Russian constructivism, taking the commission at its literal face value, as a call to produce a propaganda film. Even in its expanded, 6-minute version, The Heart of the World runs at a breakneck speed, averaging roughly two shots per second, a pace intensified by the background music, Time, Forward! by Georgy Sviridov.
- ^ Vatnsdal, Caelum. Kino Delirium: The Films of Guy Maddin. Winnipeg: Arbeiter Ring Publishing, 2000. Print. ISBN 1-894037-11-1
- ^ "Guy Maddin: Imagining 'entirely original worlds'". Canada Council for the Arts. Archived from the original on 2013-06-01. Retrieved 2012-12-12.