Theo Angelopoulos

[Abe]

After enjoying Landscape in the Mist and Eternity and a Day over a year ago but not delving deeper into Angelopoulos, I’m now working my way chronologically through his filmography after picking up the Artificial Eye collection that contains all of his 13 feature films. I’m only up to his third film, The Travelling Players, so a long way to go, but he’s fast becoming one of my favourite filmmakers. Here’s some minor thoughts on the first three, but obviously feel free to discuss all his films and general thoughts on him.

SCFZ Angelopoulos poll thread - https://scfzforum.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=393
SCFZ Angelopoulos poll results on Letterboxd - https://letterboxd.com/fliptrotsky/list ... -poll-167/

Reconstruction / Reconstitution (1970)
This is a fine debut. Its premise of a murder being reconstructed by police, and then the circumstances behind the murder having to be pieced together by the audience and those reconstructing it, is an interesting one. There is definitely a feeling that Angelopoulos is still figuring out his style but it’s a very assured film for a debut, both technically and narratively.

Days of ’36 (1972)
My least favourite of the three, which is not to say it was without merit. It was certainly well shot but its political narrative held little interest for me, perhaps due to ignorance on my part of Greek history. I cannot identify anything that was wrong with the film, merely I just could not seem to connect with it very well.

The Travelling Players (1975)
So far, this is my favourite. At almost four hours, it’s long even by Angelopoulos’s standards (though second in runtime still to Alexander the Great) but perhaps the first good thing I can say about it is that I did not feel the length. I was engrossed and held for the entirety. The film encompasses a period of just over a decade from the start of WW2 through to the end of the Greek Civil War and its aftermath. If I felt lost at all, it was due to my limited knowledge about Greek history and though the film helps somewhat with a few monologues to explain events, I would have understood better had I read up more on the Greek Civil War before watching.

Technically, the film is a marvel. The long takes are superbly done. One of Angelopoulos’s great gifts is his ability to know what to show and what not to. Events often take place off camera and are only heard, while the shot remains fixed in place, and this is often more effective than it would be to show the action. And there were some fantastic full circle shots, such as in the magnificent clip below, where the scene plays out over four minutes, and the camera circles the scene completely two times. I’ve never seen a shot like that executed so well.

Travelling Players Clip - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-2GD7gu8tQ

Then there is the the complex narrative which operates on a number of levels. The rehearsals and performances intertwine with tragic dramas that play out in the troupe’s real lives, some of which mimic Aeschylus’s The Oresteia. All the while historical events play out and impinge upon the group in different way. At times, the film can be incredibly charming and at others shockingly brutal. But this combination of historical events and the dramas of the troupe, with its blurred lines of performance and reality, work really well.

[Holdrüholoheuho]

I didn't watch anything by him yet.
But stumbled upon his name (and his doc about Athens) recently (during the Věra Chytilová poll).
In 1983-1984, RAI 3 produced a mini-series EUROPEAN CAPITALS OF CULTURE (CAPITALI CULTURALI D'EUROPA).
I was adding all the entries (sequels) to KM, so i can easily copy-paste here now.
Quite a notable selection of directors.

1/ BUDAPEST (Miklós Jancsó)
2/ VENEZIA (Carlo Lizzani)
3/ ATHENS, RETURN TO THE ACROPOLIS (Theodoros Angelopoulos)
4/ VATICAN, THE CAPITAL OF CULTURE (Krzysztof Zanussi)
5/ LENINGRAD (Ilya Averbakh)
6/ MILANO '83 (Ermanno Olmi)
7/ ZAGREB (Vatroslav Mimica)
8/ MUNICH (Franz Seitz)
9/ CULTURAL LISBON (Manoel de Oliveira)
10/ MADRID (Marcel Camus)
11/ CECI N'EST PAS BRUXELLES (Benoît Lamy)
12/ PRAGUE: THE RESTLESS HEART OF EUROPE (Věra Chytilová)

[wba]

In 1983-1984, RAI 3 produced a mini-series EUROPEAN CAPITALS OF CULTURE (CAPITALI CULTURALI D'EUROPA).
I was adding all the entries (sequels) to KM, so i can easily copy-paste here now.
Quite a notable selection of directors.

1/ BUDAPEST (Miklós Jancsó)
2/ VENEZIA (Carlo Lizzani)
3/ ATHENS, RETURN TO THE ACROPOLIS (Theodoros Angelopoulos)
4/ VATICAN, THE CAPITAL OF CULTURE (Krzysztof Zanussi)
5/ LENINGRAD (Ilya Averbakh)
6/ MILANO '83 (Ermanno Olmi)
7/ ZAGREB (Vatroslav Mimica)
8/ MUNICH (Franz Seitz)
9/ CULTURAL LISBON (Manoel de Oliveira)
10/ MADRID (Marcel Camus)
11/ CECI N'EST PAS BRUXELLES (Benoît Lamy)
12/ PRAGUE: THE RESTLESS HEART OF EUROPE (Věra Chytilová)

Wow, I need to see those films!!!!

I've seen only the one by Angelopoulos, and it's fantastic! Easily my favorite film by him, though he has done many great things and is one of my favorite directors.

[Holdrüholoheuho]

those films!!!!

duration of each sequel & alternative titles...
https://www.kinometer.com/?lot=246446
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2286153/episodes

[Holdrüholoheuho]

btw. local gossip sources say, RAI3 first approached Jiří Menzel to do the part about Prague.
don't know the details but ultimately it was Věra who did it and it caused some bad blood between Jiří M. and Věra Ch.
and probably more sequels were planned but only these 12 (as far as i know) were realized.

[wba]

As for this thread, my favorite Angelopoulos films would be (all masterpieces, in my opinion):

01. Athens, Return to the Acropolis (1983)
02. The Weeping Meadow (2004)
03. The Suspended Step of the Stork (1991)
04. Ulysse's Gaze (1995)
05. Reconstruction (1970)

When I was 19 years old, I watched his film "ULYSSE'S GAZE" at 3am in the night/morning on television, and it was love at first sight. It was my no.1 favorite film of all time for a few years, and I have seen it numerous times since (often from 35mm at the cinema). I also watched it in hommage to Theo after news of his death broke. My greatest discovery in the cinema of Angelopoulos was the music by his regular collaborator, the composer Eleni Karaindrou. I adore much of her work for his films and find it endlessly listenable.

[wba]

btw. local gossip sources say, RAI3 first approached Jiří Menzel to do the part about Prague.
don't know the details but ultimately it was Věra who did it and it caused some bad blood between Jiří M. and Věra Ch.
and probably more sequels were planned but only these 12 (as far as i know) were realized.

I would have loved to see this done by Menzel (or many other czech filmmakers), but can't say that I'd wish anyone else instead of Vera had done this (maybe Svankmajer or Zeman).

[Cinephile]

I have watched all of the thirteen feature films that have been directed by this highly underrated filmmaker and I consider all of them to be amazing masterpieces, here is my ranking of his complete filmography:

I). «Οι Κυνηγοί» (Θεόδωρος Αγγελόπουλος, 1977);
II). «Ο Θίασος» (Θεόδωρος Αγγελόπουλος, 1975);
III). «Ο Μεγαλέξανδρος» (Θεόδωρος Αγγελόπουλος, 1980);
IV). «Τοπίο στην ομίχλη» (Θεόδωρος Αγγελόπουλος, 1988);
V). «Μία αιωνιότητα και μία μέρα» (Θεόδωρος Αγγελόπουλος, 1998);
VI). «Το βλέμμα του Οδυσσέα» (Θεόδωρος Αγγελόπουλος, 1995);
VII). «Τριλογία: Το λιβάδι που δακρύζει» (Θεόδωρος Αγγελόπουλος, 2004);
VIII). «Μέρες του ’36» (Θεόδωρος Αγγελόπουλος, 1972);
IX). “The Dust of Time” (Theodoros Angelopoulos, 2008);
X). «Ο Μελισσοκόμος» (Θεόδωρος Αγγελόπουλος, 1986);
XI). «Το μετέωρο βήμα του πελαργού» (Θεόδωρος Αγγελόπουλος, 1991);
XII). «Ταξίδι στα Κύθηρα» (Θεόδωρος Αγγελόπουλος, 1984);
XIII). «Αναπαράσταση» (Θεόδωρος Αγγελόπουλος, 1970).