Archangel

Archangel (1990)

  • 75% of critics liked it
    (8 reviews)

  • 75% of users liked it
    (317 ratings)

Archangel is a courageous if not altogether successful attempt to emulate the styles and techniques of silent films within a talking-picture framework. Kyle McCulloch plays a crippled British officer, who during World War 1 takes up residence in the Russian town of Archangel. Here he falls in love… More

Unrated,
Directed By
Written By
John B. Harvie, Guy Maddin
Genres
Drama, Comedy, Special Interest
In Theaters
Jul 19, 1991 Limited

Critic Reviews

  • Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader

    What comes across is a fascinating fetishist delirium, where memories of remote war movies get recycled into something that's alternately creepy and beautiful.

  • Geoff Andrew, Time Out

    Confused? No matter; so are the characters in this absurdist melodrama.

  • Stephen Holden, New York Times

    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.

  • Sean Axmaker, Parallax View

    ... a surreal silent movie melodrama of love, war, and amnesia for the sound era: an absurdist silent WWI epic that never was.

  • Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews

    Inspired absurdist melodrama.

Read all 6 critic reviews

See more critic ratings and reviews on Rotten Tomatoes

Fresh (60% or more critics rated the movie positively)

Rotten (59% or fewer critics rated the movie positively)

Featured Audience Ratings

  • Greg S


    In frozen Archangel in 1919, a one-legged lieutenant meets a woman whose husband has amnesia and believes it is always their wedding day, while the local militia fights both Germans and Bolsheviks, not realizing that both World War I and the Russian Revolution are over. A dreamlike… More

  • Walter M


    It is Archangel, Russia in 1919 between World War I and the Russian Civil War. British Lieutenant John Boles(Kyle McCulloch) is assigned to billet with a native family where he winds up saving the life of Geza(David Falkenburg), their young child, but then he ends up having to be… More

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