Careful

In the remote alpine village of Tolzbad, residents speak softly and move with caution, because any loud noise could set off an avalanche that would bury them all. This constant fear breeds repressed emotions, and those feelings surface as obsessive loves involving a German widow and her sons. Guy Maddin directs the film in the style of 1920s expressionist cinema.

Careful was released in 1992 and runs 100 minutes. Maddin wrote the screenplay with George Toles, and Tracy Traeger and Greg Klymkiw produced. The cast includes Kyle McCulloch as Grigorss, Małgorzata Dobrowolska as Zenaida, Sarah Neville as Klara, Brent Neale as Johann, Paul Cox as Count Knotkers and Victor Cowie as Herr Trotta. It is a Canadian production, made with support from the Canada Council for the Arts, CIDO and The Manitoba Arts Council, and it mixes comedy, drama and fantasy.

The film sits at the start of a career that includes two later features, My Winnipeg in 2008 and Rumours in 2024. On IMDb it holds a rating of 7 out of 10 from around 2,000 votes, while on TMDB it has 6 out of 10 from a much smaller group of 31. Critics gave it 6.4 out of 10 across 12 reviews, close to the audience score on IMDb.