THE MAGUS
UK, 1969, 111 minutes, Colour.
Michael Caine, Anthony Quinn, Candice Bergen, Anna Karina, Corin Redgrave, Julian Glover.
Directed by Guy Green.
The Magus is a fascinating film, especially if you like John Fowles novels or T.S. Eliot's poetry. Fowles has given us a mysterious parable (allegory) of modern man and uses as its ingredients most of the issues, interests and fads of our century: the two world wars, education poetry, cinema, psychiatry, planes, symbolic masks, superstitions and fears, Tarot cards, dreams, love, betrayal, challenge to death.
The Magus almost defies a narrative synopsis. The hero, Nicholas Urfe (Michael Caine), is meant to be the modern man who undergoes a mysterious purgatorial experience while he is working in Greece. The theme is that of Eliot - in my end is my beginning ... to return to this beginning and know it for the first time. He seems to be under the guidance of Dr. Conchis (Anthony Quinn) who may be seer, magus, film director, psychiatrist war coward or victim or a judge in a dream. One of his helpers (or is she also being cured?) Is Lily (Candice Bergen) an actress, a patient? The only real person is the air hostess Nicholas has loved and betrayed (Anna Karina). The film is principally Urfe's encounter with Dr. Conchis' therapy and his purgation and re-discovery of himself.
Many people do not like The Magus. They find it too difficult to give it the attention it demands. Those who like it find it fascinating and a source for endless discussions. John Fowles' novels include The Collector (William Wyler made an interesting film of it with Terence Stamp and Samantha Eggar) and The French Lieutenant's Woman. The film is very clever and beautifully photographed in Greece.
1. Did this film appeal to you? Why? Was it too difficult for the average filmgoer?
2. Could you pinpoint a theme of the film? (were there several equally important themes?)
3. Greece is the traditional land of Apollo and oracles. How did the photography of Greece - the sea, sun, bright light contribute to the atmosphere of the film?
4. Was Nicholas Urfe meant to be a 20th century Everyman? What kind of man was he - how much of a cad, selfish, self-centred, searching for something? What did his relationship with Anne show? Why did she love him (her searching, abortion, superstition)?
5. How is T.S. Eliot's text of never ceasing from exploration and after all the searching to arrive back at the beginning and know it for the first time illustrated? Is it a good text for this film?
6. How was the psychological technique of psychodrama (acting out - in make believe or fact - one's feelings and searching) used in the film as a means of therapy and insight both for Nicholas and for the audience?
7. What was the symbolism of the Magus and its meaning:
- Maurice Conchis (conscious).
- the masks (the use of masks, both physical and psychological throughout the film) - the Magus in the Tarot Cards (and the Priestess and the hanged man)
- the Magus as a divine-human manipulator, doctor and judge, counsellor. (The 20th century Magus is not completely God-like because he needs to be purged. His conscience has been tested for a crisis; he has been asked to do the impossible - the 2nd World War sequence).
- the wisdom of the Vagus and Confucius,
- the eyes, penetration and seeing of the Magus- Conchis.
- the ordinary man being roused by the Magus - at least his curiosity,
- the challenge of the tablets and death. What is the test and why did Urfe pass? How much was his life worth?
8. There are so many strands in the film that they are difficult to sort out. Take each strand, explore it and try to discover what it contributes to the meaning of the film:
- the Greek statuary, Diana, the masks.
- the World War 1 story, the music, patriotism, jingoism, Lily and the posters.
- the flashbacks to Anne, Urfe as an "existentialist" hero, interested in going and belonging NOWHERE,
- Athens, missing Anne and reunited with her, his happy time with her,
- Anne's flower - its core of purity, everything she said she lacked. Did Urfe have a real core of purity? Does the flower serve as a symbol: that man is redeemable? Nicholas' break with Anne, Her death.
- Urfe's collusion with Lily - emotional involvement, the photos of him kissing her on the pier,
- Lily as Julie the 'schizophrenic patient? How symbolic?
- the film and Julie's career, rehearsing and improvising all to test Urfe's reactions. Life as an unfinished novel or film with the possibilities open (and to be recognised).
- Urfe the traitor - the World War II story, What was its point? How universal was it because set in this war? Conchis ' choice -death of 80 because of a man's inability to commit violence.
- Urfe and the dream of Lily. Love in the dressing room. The betrayal of Anne. Julie turning on him.
- Urfe 's nightmare trial and judgment - before a cross-section of the world.
- the point of the computer's judgment - "not worthy of consideration", typical vain, superficial male parasite.
- his revulsion at Julie, yet she acted out his lust; the impossibility of whipping her.
- Urfe confronted by his callous words and masks.
9. Were had Urfe arrived by the end of the film?
10. Was The Magus a film about a purgatorial experience? Why?
11. How successfully did the film use the details of our 20th century way of life for exploring man to-day?
12. How much was the audience supposed to identify with Urfe and undergo something of the same experience with him?
