The Magus

1968
X
1h 57m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

A teacher on a Greek island becomes involved in bizarre mind games with the island's magus (magician) and a beautiful young woman.A teacher on a Greek island becomes involved in bizarre mind games with the island's magus (magician) and a beautiful young woman.A teacher on a Greek island becomes involved in bizarre mind games with the island's magus (magician) and a beautiful young woman.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

5.5/10

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Nominated for 1 BAFTA Award
- 1 nomination total

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Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
Sir Michael Caine lists this, along with The Swarm (1978) and Ashanti (1979), as one of the worst movies he ever made. This is mainly down to the fact that no one, least of all the audience, knew what it was about.

Goofs
In the rented room where the English professor will live while continuing the teaching work of his predecessor in the so-called Greek island, there is a rather conspicuous historical XIX century Spanish painting by José Casado del Alisal which represents the first defeat of Napoleon's armies in Spain, in the city of Bailén, where Marechal Philippe Antoine Dupont de l'Estang surrendered to inexperienced Spanish General Castaños on 19 July 1808. Not quite a Hellenic topic, really.

Quotes
Maurice Conchis: [to Nicholas] Now, I will show you something. The ultimate reality. Not the hammer and sickle, not the stars and stripes, not lysergic acid, not the sun, not gold, not yin and yang. But
[reveals smile statue]
Maurice Conchis: The Smile.

Connections
Featured in Denúncia Vazia (1979)

User reviews49

Featured review

3/10

Book was much better

I loved the gorgeous Greek scenery but the story, which is not something you can follow anyway, was even harder to follow in the movie. I cannot imagine how anyone watching the movie can get any kind of grip on it if they have not read the book, and then, like me, they would probably wonder why Australian Allison turned into French Anne, and many other seemingly pointless changes in the story. The mysteries in the book seemed to be chopped up or left out in the movie. I saw it when it first came out and had the same problems with it then, since I had read the book several times. I recently watched it with my granddaughter (very intelligent at 20 and usually into movies I like) who was mostly amazed at how young Michael Caine and Candace Bergen were in it, but otherwise could not imagine why one would watch it except for the scenery.