Screenings index

Edison & Leo

dir. Neil Burns / Canada 2008 / 78’

subtitles: Polish and English

Cinema of Canada All That She Wants, Before Tomorrow, Carcasses, Edison & Leo, Fig Trees, Imitations of Life, Life without Death, Lost Song, Polytechnique, Pontypool, Stardom, The Corporation, The Fast Runner, The Necessities of Life, The Tracey’s Fragments, 97 Percent True, Barber Gull Rub, Guy Maddin: Waiting for Twilight, Manuelle Labor Section index

Cast

Powers Boothe, Gregory Smith, Carly Pope, Jay Brazeau, Scott McNeil, Quinn Lord

Film description

Edison and Leo is the first feature-length production of stop-motion animation ever made in English Canada. Its arrival represents the culmination of years of work as well as decades of Canadian animation history.

Edison works away in his elaborate laboratory on his new invention. As the result of a train accident, he hears with his teeth, so he listens to phonograph records by gnawing on the machine's metal horn. His latest discovery is sure to be his finest moment, but in his haste Edison endangers those closest to him and the worst happens: his son Leo becomes electrified, rendering him unable to touch anyone for the rest of his life. After ten years with no friends or physical contact, Leo finds hope in Zella, the first person to see past his electrified surfaces.

Set in a surreal nineteenth-century fantasy world, Edison and Leo is a gothic fairy tale based on a story by George Toles, Guy Maddin's long-time screenwriting partner. The sinister, striking landscape is matched by stunning character designs, creating a fascinating, multidimensional film.

Tom McSorley