Neos Kosmos takes a closer look at the esteemed career of prolific Greek filmmaker Theo Angelopoulos, by looking at three classic films by the Greek master: Ulysses’ Gaze; Eternity and a Day; and The Weeping Meadow. The award winning filmmaker passed away last month after being hit by a motorcycle. He was aged 76.
1. Ulysses’ Gaze – the movie that garnered him the Grand Jury prize at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival, Ulysses’ Gaze is undoubtedly the most internationally recognised film by Angelopoulos. Starring Hollywood actor Harvey Keitel, the movie follows the journey of a Greek-American filmmaker returning to Greece in search of the lost reels of the Manakis brothers. The epic journey takes him across the Balkans hoping to locate the lost footage, on the belief that the brothers went through the Balkans – ignoring national and ethnic strife – to record ordinary people on film. Their images hold the key to the lost history of the Balkan countries. Keitel’s character, like a latter-day Ulysses, finds his ‘Ithaca’ – the missing, undeveloped film and is at last united with the work of the Manakis brothers.
2. Eternity and a Day – this 1998 Palme d’Or winner is about the life of seriously ill author, who, after discovering he has a terminal illness, goes about resolving his affairs. He tries to find an owner for his dog. He visits his thirty-something daughter, only to find out she has sold the seaside apartment he lives in: he feels he is already dead. During the film, we see Alexander wandering the streets of Thessaloniki reliving old memories. The film becomes a projection of his inner thoughts. During the movie, we see Alexander’s hope for life is restored after rescuing an Albanian boy from a gang, initiating a journey where Alexander attempts to find the boy’s grandmother.
3. The Weeping Meadow – a film that draws on Greek myth to describe a tale of tragedy, The Weeping Meadow opens in 1919, as a band of refugees return to Greece after years of exile in Odessa. One of the refugees, Eleni, is taken in by a family and becomes pregnant to her adoptive brother. The twins are taken away at birth and Eleni is forced to marry her adopted father, but escapes with her brother. Together they reclaim their songs and live through the rise of fascism in Greece and the beginnings of World War II. The haunting score and the stark images project a vision of a mythical world outside the one they are living in.