To access printable images, contact Tami Kennedy: tami@maine.rr.com
.jpg)
CLEOPHAS AND HIS OWN
by Marsden Hartley
(PRESS RELEASE 3/14/08)
In 1936, the Maine painter and poet, Marsden Hartley, endured a tragedy that was to change the course of his life and work.
Long known as America’s finest Expressionist painter, Marsden Hartley was also a distinguished and under-appreciated poet. Throughout his life, both painting and poetry infused his creative life and spirit.
In 1936, while boarding with a Nova Scotia fishing family – the Francis Mason family – Hartley had one of the most important experiences of his life.
This experience has been made into a feature-length movie in Maine, using a Maine cast, a Maine crew, and Maine locations.
“This all starts with Hartley’s enormous love for all of the members of the Mason family,” says the film’s director, Michael Maglaras. “The great tragedy in the story occurs when the two Mason brothers – one of whom Hartley was deeply in love with – drowned in a terrible hurricane in September, 1936.”
Based on Hartley’s narrative poem, Cleophas and His Own, (Hartley used the pseudonym “Cleophas” for the patriarch of the family, Francis Mason, and used pseudonyms as well for all of the members of the Mason family) the film is the creation of first-time movie director Michael Maglaras, who also produced an audio recording of the great narrative poem in 2003.
“Once I recorded the narrative, I became obsessed with telling the story on film,” Maglaras says. “Additionally, and rather immodestly, I thought I would direct the film, as well as play the role of Marsden Hartley.”
The film was shot predominantly in and around Freeport and Corea, Maine. “We’re lucky, in that our production company, 217 Films, found Maine locations that provided backdrops very close to those Hartley would have seen in Nova Scotia. We also found a great crew, as well as wonderful actors, right here in Maine. From that point on, I decided that this needed to be a Maine film, celebrating a Maine artist, using the incredible talent that Maine has to offer,” added Maglaras.
In the film, Maglaras (as Marsden Hartley) wears a prosthetic nose and chin, as well as several inches of padding. The resemblance between Maglaras and Hartley (who died in Ellsworth, Maine in 1943) is amazing and unnerving. “Once I am in makeup and in front of the camera – I feel as if I become Hartley. It is an amazing thing that I cannot explain,” says Maglaras.
Facing the camera while seated in a reconstruction of Hartley’s ramshackle studio in Corea, Maine, Hartley (Maglaras) speaks the great narrative, and tells us the story of Cleophas and His Own. It is 1943, and Hartley is very near the end of his life. Flashbacks to vignettes of life with the Mason family, and to the deaths of the two brothers – as well as cutaways to many paintings by Hartley – complete the action of the film and enhance the narrative. The flashbacks, and the paintings, serve as a haunting reminder of Hartley’s storytelling ability, as well as the prodigious achievement of Hartley as an artist.
“The film employs 24 paintings by Hartley, including much of the work he was inspired to create after the death of the two Mason brothers,” says Maglaras.
Maglaras moves quickly from behind the camera to before the camera in his dual roles as director and star. His wife, Terri Templeton, the film’s executive producer and one of the actors in the film, watches carefully as each scene unfolds. “Michael’s performance as Hartley is mesmerizing,” she says.
Filming in Maine concluded in February 2005. It had its World Premiere in Lewiston, Maine on June 22, 2005. It is currently touring the United States.
Maglaras says, “I was determined to do the premier of this film here in Maine and was delighted that it could be shown first in Hartley's birthplace, Lewiston. The people of Maine should know more about this great Maine artist; and just as importantly, they should know that the film-making community in Maine can produce work of exceptional quality and achievement.”
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)