An English teacher arrives on a sleepy Greek island to take up a vacant teaching post. The last man to hold the post committed suicide under mysterious circumstances. Slowly but surely, he is drawn into a bizarre game engineered by a reclusive local magician. The deeper into the game he is drawn, the more he senses danger... yet cannot seem to untangle himself from the fascinating and compelling influence that the game is having on his mind.
R**N
A flawed masterpiece
The Magus is a great book, full of nuances and complexity. John Fowles' screenplay is a very skilful synopsis of the book, but comes nowhere near the richness or weight of the original. The film seems a little short, and could have done with an extra quarter of an hour. With more pace from the director, more strange incidents at the Villa Bourani and more of Conchis' mystification could have been included.Perhaps the most unsatisfactory aspect of the film is the casting of Michael Caine as Nicholas. A more thoughtful actor was needed; Michael Kitchen would have been excellent, though of course too young at the time the film was made. Candice Bergen and Anna Karina are also miscast. In the book, Fowles makes Nicholas' girlfriend Alison a down-to-earth Australian, the reality he should never have turned his back on, and it is unclear why the film turns her into a lightweight Frenchwoman; I could have understood a transformation into an American better.Worse still is the score, written by John Dankworth - possibly the worst film music ever written, and showing no awareness at all of what the film is about.But Anthony Quinn is remarkable as Conchis, and it is he who saves the film. The locations and the photography are great too.
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