Vlissingen 2024 Review: THE MAGNET MAN Mesmerizes

One of my favorite films of all time is Gust Van den Berghe's Lucifer, a film that is so stylistically audacious it is hard to compare it to anything else. Based on a famous Flemish version of the Lucifer-story and set in Mexico, that entire film is shot in a circle aspect ratio. It is a film that calms the viewer into a sense of safety with its deceivingly simple story and hypnotic pace, until a final rug pull turns everything on its head. It is an ending that feels like a betrayal, deliciously, devilishly so.

Now Van den Berghe is back with The Magnet Man (originally De magneet man), an equally allegorical tale with roots in historical Flemish religious and cultural practices. In the far past it was custom that traveling theater companies trekked the land. Often, their plays were allegorical in nature, with a religious aspect to them. For the layman, who did not read or speak latin, and were often illiterate, these morality plays served a function. They were a connection to the biblical stories they didn't have otherwise access to, as church services were in fact spoken in latin.

The titular Magnet Man is an unassuming farmers son whose mother just passed away, and who has a supernatural talent: metal sticks to him. In some light Buster Keaton-esque slapstick the protagonist eventually stumbles upon a traveling theater company which he promptly joins. There he develops a mutual attraction to the company owner's daughter. Most of the runtime is spent on the lightly farcical ins and outs of working in a group of artists. Every member has their role, often played by famous Dutch and Flemish acting royalty. That these roles are largely metaphorical again is not a surprise given the stories origin in the archaic theater form it aspires to emulate. In that it succeeds, blending it with some light comedy in the styling of silent era stars. This is, in other words, a staggeringly out-of-time film, in a good way.

Van den Berghe has become an even more self-assured filmmaker since Lucifer, which results in him playing it small. Yes, the film is a morality tale full of metaphors, but the allegories and morals are so subdued they barely scan as symbolical. In other words, The Magnet Man is as unassuming as its protagonist, being so small in its gestures, some people might underestimate it. But for those that feel the pull, it might attract attention. And for those willing to look further, you get a beautiful rumination on the power of art, and the struggle to pursue your passions. And the ways in which life can get in the way of your goals and the question if that is a bad thing. Lucifer was a film with something to say, which it shouted from the rooftop at the end. There are no such big gestures here. The Magnet Man has something to say, but says it quietly. It whispers. And only those who stop speaking loudly themselves, will hear it. It dares you to quiet down.


(The Magnet Man played at Vlissingen's FILM BY THE SEA Festival, and is currently travelling the festivals circuit)