Archangel (film)

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Archangel

VHS Cover
Directed by Guy Maddin
Produced by Andre Bennett
Greg Klymkiw
Written by George Toles
Guy Maddin
Starring Kyle McCulloch
Kathy Marykuca
Sarah Neville
Michael Gottli
Cinematography Guy Maddin
Editing by Guy Maddin
Running time 90 min.
Country Canada
Language English
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Archangel is a 1990 film from Canadian director Guy Maddin.

The film is a surreal comedy-drama set just after the end of World War 1, in 1919. News of the war's end has not yet reached the remote Arctic Ocean port of Archangel in Russia, so they fight on. The Russian Civil War is also underway. The film's protagonist is Lt. John Boles, a soldier missing a leg and quite a few of his memories. He mourns his dead lover, Iris. Boles has a "billet" in the home of Veronkha and her soldier husband Philbin, who forgets he is married to Veronkha, while Boles obsessively believes that Veronkha is Iris. Fat crybaby Jannings proves he isn't such a coward after all, young Geza's admiration for Boles seems a bit extreme, and Danchak imparts her beliefs about darkness. Meanwhile, the wars rage on in the Arctic night, and everyone performs heroically, albeit in a sort of amnesia.

The film is shown in grainy black & white. It satirizes the grotesque propaganda common in older wartime film and literature. The Bolsheviks and Germans (described as "Huns") are shown as subhuman and ape-like, who among other atrocities engage in cannibalism.

[edit] External links

  • Canadian Film Encyclopedia [A publication of The Film Reference Library/a division of the Toronto International Film Festival Group]
Guy Maddin
1980s
Tales from the Gimli Hospital
1990s
Archangel | Careful | Twilight of the Ice Nymphs
2000s
Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary | Cowards Bend the Knee | The Saddest Music in the World | The Brand Upon the Brain
Shorts
The Heart of the World