X
- 1991
- Not Rated
- Zeitgeist Films
- 1 h 18 m
- 1991
- Not Rated
- Zeitgeist Films
- 1 h 18 m
Summary An amnesiac soldier, seeking his lost love, arrives in Archangel in northern Russia to help the townsfolk in their fight against the Bolsheviks, all quite unaware that the Great War ended three months ago.
Directed By: Guy Maddin
Written By: John B. Harvie, George Toles, Guy Maddin
- 1991
- Not Rated
- Zeitgeist Films
- 1 h 18 m
- 1991
- Not Rated
- Zeitgeist Films
- 1 h 18 m
Archangel
68
User Score
Available after 4 ratings
tbd
Summary An amnesiac soldier, seeking his lost love, arrives in Archangel in northern Russia to help the townsfolk in their fight against the Bolsheviks, all quite unaware that the Great War ended three months ago.
Directed By: Guy Maddin
Written By: John B. Harvie, George Toles, Guy Maddin
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 8 Critic Reviews
68
63% Positive
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
38% Mixed
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 8 Critic Reviews
68
63% Positive
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
38% Mixed
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Archangel, defying every contemporary cinema convention as it does, won't be to everyone's taste. But for those interested in the wilder possibilities of what film can do, it's an absolute must
Archangel is a perfectly self-contained aesthetic object, maddening in its arbitrariness and opacity, yet wholly absorbing in its flurry of urgent yet incomprehensible significations.
What comes across is a fascinating fetishist delirium, where memories of remote war movies get recycled into something that's alternately creepy and beautiful.
The war scenes are extraordinary, although thrown in far too liberally; even better are the daft tableaux vivants which seem to comprise Archangel's only entertainment.
From its flickering, inky cinematography to its wavering late 1920's-style sound track, to Veronkha's kohl-eyed vampish look, the movie is an expert parody of a period movie style.
Wonderfully theatrical in conceit and frequently beautiful to look at, Archangel is nevertheless choppy and listless in pace, and has little of the surrealist zing of the earlier film (Tales from the Gimli Hospital). [03 Sep 1990]
At once perplexing and joyous, Maddin has crafted a film that, for all the confusion inherent in the tale, unfolds on its own unique (and rather tedious) terms. Love it or hate it, this is one film that just doesn't give a damn what you think.
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