
Lt. John Boles, a one-legged soldier, is assisting the White Russians in the Russian Arctic during World War I. He finds himself in Archangel, a crystalline city of spires and domes, inhabited by some very confused people. Boles loves Iris, who is dead, and meets Veronkha, whom he mistakes for Iris. But Veronkha is already married to Philbin, who forgets he is married to Veronkha. Veronkha thinks Boles is Philbin...... (Full plot summary below)
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Lt. John Boles, a one-legged soldier, is assisting the White Russians in the Russian Arctic during World War I. He finds himself in Archangel, a crystalline city of spires and domes, inhabited by some very confused people. Boles loves Iris, who is dead, and meets Veronkha, whom he mistakes for Iris. But Veronkha is already married to Philbin, who forgets he is married to Veronkha. Veronkha thinks Boles is Philbin...
Leave your thoughts about Archangel.
| Parallax ViewSean Axmaker... a surreal silent movie melodrama of love, war, and amnesia for the sound era: an absurdist silent WWI epic that never was. |
| Chicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumWhat comes across is a fascinating fetishist delirium, where memories of remote war movies get recycled into something that's alternately creepy and beautiful. |
| Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovAt 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. |
| User ReviewShane DAfter watching this I'm not quite convinced that Maddin and Lynch weren't separated at birth. Maddin doesn't make movies, so much as he transfers dreams to celluloid. I've given up on trying to explain his plots, since no synopsis ever really does the them justice. I'll just say that if you're a fan of surrealism, you should give this one a shot. I can almost guarantee that you won't be disappointed. |
| User ReviewScott RAs usual, you will either love or hate this Guy Maddin film. |
| User ReviewArt Sthis is some cult for sure!! love it or leave it!! hail and honnor to earlies 30's movies... |
| User ReviewTodd Jhis very early Maddin feature has a more direct silent approach than his later works, but it's still very innovative in what it does with the form. The story of a Czarist solider in the midst of the Bolshevik revolution, Maddin works with amnesiac characters to get at the outmodeled ways of the 19th century as the 20th century moved on. Naturally, there are love triangles aplenty, but luckily, the individual characters are all quite well-defined and followed. Even the cowardly husband of one major character gets a huge moment in which his guts are literally splayed out by Bolsheviks for him to scoop back up to reassert his manhood. Maddin's exquisite photography makes it all the better and brings to mind Communist war pics from Eisenstein to Kanal. **** out've ***** |
| User ReviewMichael LThough at first I wasn't particularly impressed, this really grew on me. It's very silly, which is nice. |
| User ReviewJack SBeautifully protagraphed homage to early 20th Century films. References to the German Expressionist style and silent films in general highlight this story set in the Russian seaport of Murmansk. |
| User ReviewSammi LVery original take on the silent black and white film format, in the sense that it is not silent and not always black and white! Has an interesting and twist-laden storyline. Cleverly amusing, this is a perfect sit-down-on-an-afternoon-with-a-cuppa-and-a-biscuit style film! |