Magdalen (1998)

Director:

Andrew Repasky McElhinney

Writer:

Andrew Repasky McElhinney (writer)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

"A gossipy meditation on art, drinking, smoking and screwing." |

Cast

Alix D. Smith	...	Magdalen McElhinney
David Semonin	...	Edward Semonin
Moira Rankin	...	The Old Lady
Jace Gaffney	...	Jace
Terry Jones	...	Mr. Jones
Phil Hooven	...	Phil
Nathan Hopson	...	Nathan
Suzanne B. Repasky	...	The Heroine Of Jace's Novel
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Andrew Repasky McElhinney	...	Andrew

Runtime:

70 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

ARM/Cinema 25 Pictures Inc.

A curious mixture of film noir and cinema verity.

Magdalen is a curious mixture of film noir and cinema verity, an effort which will probably be of interest to scholars, in the event that Andrew Repasky McElhinney becomes a cinematic force majeure. The problem with the film is that it never truly focuses on its profoundly intuitive theme--that life is largely illusory, a story made up out of whole cloth. The theme is best expostulated in the dialogue between Magdalen and Andrew, a dream encounter between the filmmaker (as God), and Magdalen (as His creature), in which God hands Magdalen the essence of Himself, to be altered, edited, adapted, or discarded as she sees fit. Beautifully shot in places, with a low bow in the direction of French existentialism and Eugene O'Neill, the film nevertheless lacks the skillful interweaving and truncation of thematic materials in A Chronicle of Corpses. Still, as the chanteuse says, "no regrets".