The Magician of Lublin (film)

Last updated

The Magician of Lublin
Magician of Lublin.jpg
VHS cover
Directed by Menahem Golan
Screenplay by
Based on The Magician of Lublin
by Isaac Bashevis Singer
Produced by
Starring
Cinematography David Gurfinkel
Edited byDov Hoenig
Music by
Production
company
Distributed by Cannon Films
Release date
Running time
114 minutes [1]
Countries
  • Israel
  • West Germany
Languages
  • English
  • German
Budget$6 million

The Magician of Lublin is a 1979 drama film co-written and directed by Menahem Golan based on The Magician of Lublin by Isaac Bashevis Singer. The film's title song was performed by Kate Bush. [2] [3] Its soundtrack contains an original song written by British singer Kate Bush.

Contents

Plot

Yasha Mazur (Alan Arkin) is a turn-of-the-20th-century Jewish stage magician, womaniser, con man, and mystic. His ambition is to figure out how to fly. He tours the western reaches of the old Russian Empire. Yasha is married to Esther (Linda Bernstein), but he is rarely home in Lublin, and they have not been able to have any children. His mistresses included Zeftel (Valerie Perrine) and Magda (Maia Danziger), who tours and performs with him. The great loves of Yasha's life are the aristocratic but penurious widow Emilia (Louise Fletcher) and Emilia's daughter Halina (Lisa Whelchel) who he regards as his own daughter. Halina is ill and needs medical care, and Emilia knows Yasha will never be able to provide; so she must keep herself free to marry someone who can pay for the medical treatment her daughter needs.

Yasha's big break looms. He convinces his manager/impresario Wolsky (Lou Jacobi) that he can fly. Wolsky arranges for a booking at the prestigious Alhambra theatre in Warsaw. Yasha anticipates success, but Zeftel announces she is emigrating to America – to "Buenos Aires" – where a man has promised her work. Yasha knows that Buenos Aires is in Argentina, not America. He also knows that the man who is going to take her there is a pimp, who is selling her into sexual slavery. To save Zeftel, Yasha performs a special show of magic and card tricks for the pimp and gives him money.

The next morning, Yasha learns that Zeftel had lied to him, after he attempted and failed to burglarise the home of Count Zaruski to steal the money Emilia needs to take Halina to Italy for her cure, and so that Emilia will marry him instead of the Count. His attempt at burglary had failed because of a disturbing vision of violence. Yasha is emotionally fragile, knowing that he has lost Emilia and Halina, as well as his career. He returns to his rooms and discovers that Magda killed herself.

Fully broken, Yasha returns home to Esther. His mystic vision of death having come true, he encloses himself in a brick hut with only a window, through which to receive food and communicate with people as a holy man, dispensing wisdom and blessings. Wolsky arrives, having read in the Warsaw papers about the holy man of Lublin who lives in a grave. He has brought Emilia with him, who asks Yasha's forgiveness and asks him to pray for her. She is now the Countess Zaruski, and Halina is at least in a sanitorium in Italy receiving treatment.

Another visitor from away has also come. She is a widow, heavily veiled in black mourning, who has also heard of the holy man in the brick hut who spends his days in prayer and study of the Torah. She has come to seek his advice what to do: mourning the loss of her daughter who killed herself for love of a man, she cannot forgive the man. Suddenly she pulls back her veil and reveals that she is Elzbieta, come with Bolek and some friends to avenge Magda's death by killing Yasha. A battering ram is brought and attacks the brick hut repeatedly until its walls collapse and the hut is opened. Elzbieta and Bolek are ready to kill the man they blame for Magda's suicide. Yasha is not inside the brick. He is nowhere to be seen. All fall back dumbfounded by an apparent miracle, and then they see a skein of geese in the sky, and one goose in particular, chasing after it.

Cast

ActorRole
Alan Arkin Yasha Mazur, a magician from Lublin
Linda Bernstein Esther, Yasha's wife
Louise Fletcher Emelia, an aristocratic but poor widow
Lisa Whelchel Halina, her daughter
Elspeth March Yadwiga, their servant
Valerie Perrine Zeftel, one of Yasha's regular girlfriends, whose husband is in prison
Maia Danziger Magda, Yasha's assistant and lover
Shelley Winters Elzbieta, Magda's mother
Zachi Noy Bolek, Magda's brother
Friedrich Schoenfelder Count Zaruski
Shaike Ophir Shmuel, a friend of Yasha at home
Lou Jacobi Wolsky, theatre impresario and Yasha's manager
Warren Berlinger Herman

Reception

The film was a box office and critical failure. [4] As an example, Time Out London wrote "Golan overdramatises, tips into hysteria, and substitutes a specious mysticism that is sadly literal." [5]

Related Research Articles

<i>Music Box</i> (film) 1989 film by Costa-Gavras

Music Box is a 1989 film by Costa-Gavras that tells the story of a Hungarian-American immigrant who is accused of having been a war criminal. The plot revolves around his daughter, an attorney, who defends him, and her struggle to uncover the truth.

<i>Non Sequitur</i> (comic strip) American comic strip

Non Sequitur is a comic strip created by Wiley Miller starting February 16, 1992 and syndicated by Andrews McMeel Syndication to over 700 newspapers. It is also published on gocomics.com and distributed via email.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kate Austen</span> Fictional character of the TV series Lost

Katherine Anne Austen is a fictional character on the ABC television series Lost, played by Canadian actress Evangeline Lilly.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Menahem Golan</span> Israeli film director and producer

Menahem Golan was an Israeli film producer, screenwriter, and director. He was best known for co-owning The Cannon Group with his cousin Yoram Globus. Cannon specialized in producing low-to-mid-budget American films, primarily genre films, during the 1980s after Golan and Globus had achieved significant filmmaking success in their native Israel during the 1970s.

The Silver Brumby is an Australian animated children's television series written by Jon Stephens, Judy Malmgren and Paul Williams based on Elyne Mitchell's Silver Brumby books. A total of 39 episodes were produced by Media World Features between 1996 and 1998 and was originally broadcast on Network Ten.

<i>The Consul</i> Opera by Gian Carlo Menotti

The Consul is an opera in three acts with music and libretto by Gian Carlo Menotti, his first full-length opera.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black Bull of Norroway</span> Scottish fairy tale

The Black Bull of Norroway is a fairy tale from Scotland. A similar story titled The Red Bull of Norroway first appeared in print in Popular Rhymes of Scotland by Robert Chambers in 1842. A version titled The Black Bull of Norroway in the 1870 edition of Popular Rhymes of Scotland was reprinted in an Anglicised version by Joseph Jacobs in his 1894 book More English Fairy Tales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Hut in the Forest</span> German fairy tale

"The Hut in the Forest" is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm. Andrew Lang included it in The Pink Fairy Book (1897). It is Aarne-Thompson type 431.

The Sprig of Rosemary is a Catalan fairy tale from Spain collected by Dr. D. Francisco de S. Maspons y Labros in Cuentos Populars Catalans. Andrew Lang included it in The Pink Fairy Book.

Klan is a Polish soap opera that premiered on 22 September 1997 on the public TVP1 channel. With more than 4,000 episodes spanning 25 seasons, the show is the longest-running Polish TV series. It airs from Monday to Friday at 5.50 p.m. on TVP1.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Man with the Child in His Eyes</span> 1978 single by Kate Bush

"The Man with the Child in His Eyes" is a song by Kate Bush. It is the fifth track on her debut album The Kick Inside and was released as her second single, on the EMI label, in 1978.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Night of the Swallow</span> 1982 song by Kate Bush

"Night of the Swallow" is a 1982 song by Kate Bush. Written and produced by her, it was included on the album The Dreaming. The song has a significantly Irish theme in that it features many Irish musicians and instruments. It was released as a single in Ireland in late 1983, making it the fifth release from the album.

<i>Linfedeltà delusa</i> Comic opera by Joseph Haydn

L'infedeltà delusa, Hob. 28/5, is an operatic burletta per musica in two acts by Joseph Haydn. The Italian libretto was by Marco Coltellini.

<i>The Burning Soil</i> 1922 film by F. W. Murnau

The Burning Soil is a 1922 German silent film directed by F.W. Murnau. It was made the same year as Murnau's Nosferatu and released in Germany around the same time. The film follows the struggle over a plot of petroleum-rich land.

<i>When the White Lilacs Bloom Again</i> (1953 film) 1953 film

When the White Lilacs Bloom Again is a 1953 West German drama film directed by Hans Deppe and starring Willy Fritsch, Magda Schneider and Romy Schneider. It was shot at the Tempelhof Studios in West Berlin and on location around Wiesbaden in Hesse. The film's sets were designed by the art directors Alfred Bütow and Ernst Schomer.

<i>The Magician of Lublin</i> (novel) Novel by Isaac Bashevis Singer

The Magician of Lublin is a novel by Nobel Laureate Isaac Bashevis Singer. Though originally written in Yiddish, it was first published in English in 1960 in the United States by Noonday, and in 1961 in the United Kingdom by Secker & Warburg. In 1971, the book was published in Yiddish by Hamenorah.

<i>Hear My Cry</i> (1991 film) 1991 Polish film

Hear My Cry, is a 1991 Polish documentary film directed by Maciej Drygas.

<i>Child of Kamiari Month</i> 2021 Japanese film

Child of Kamiari Month is a 2021 Japanese animated supernatural fantasy adventure film produced by Liden Films and directed by Takana Shirai. It premiered in Japanese theaters on October 8, 2021, and in Netflix internationally on February 8, 2022. The film follows Kanna, who has a passion for running until she lost it after her mother's death. She, along with a rabbit named Shiro and a demon named Yasha, race to Izumo in Shimane in time for an annual feast of the deities, collecting the feast offerings for them from shrine deities along the way before the consequences of not doing so happen.

References

  1. ↑ "The Magician of Lublin (X)". British Board of Film Classification . 19 November 1979. Retrieved 8 December 2016.
  2. ↑ "FAQ: rec.music.gaffa – Love-Hounds – Kate Bush". Faqs.org. Retrieved 12 April 2011.
  3. ↑ "The Magician of Lublin (1979) Soundtracks". IMDb.com. Retrieved 29 June 2021.
  4. ↑ Fountain, Clarke. "The Magician of Lublin > Overview". AllMovie. Retrieved 12 April 2011.
  5. ↑ "The Magician of Lublin Review". Time Out London. Retrieved 12 April 2011.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.