Chinese Bamboo Bed Mats

ANGELOPOULOS # 02 - The Suspended Step of the Stork (1991)

Sometimes I have the impression that European cinema is a cinema that is made from the border. Since the concept of border. A film that tries to combine border with patience the different identities of what we might call the "European soul" or the "European reality", a tragedy much more consistent and notable that our nationalism to walk at home. Europe is a fragmented, frayed, confused. In the European strain of these painful fractures of the soul, the tragedy comes an invention that (like it or not) is purely European.

The other day an acquaintance was debating whether postmodernism is actually a European invention in response to ultra-American pragmatism. Apply it to film: United States creates one of the machinery of production and distribution of the planet and most implacable filled rooms throughout the world during the forties and part of the fifties. His films are basically propaganda of the "American Way of Life" and some other glorious piece (think of "The Misfits", which is the real "Brokenback mountain "in the history of cinema, not the blunder of Ang Lee). In contrast, in Europe starts a stream of" No-cinema "or" Other "Film" not only embodies the Nouvelle Vague (although Godard is undoubtedly one of its greatest exponents), but a spatial / film that covers from the far reaches of Tarkovsky or Sukorov to the dramatic near Kieslowsky or our minds Angelopoulos . The film "author" as something that can not absolutely useless. It does not make money, not ideology is to maintain a "European" to other countries (perhaps in all case that the Europeans are very tormented beings we smoke a lot and suffered bitterly in front of an unbearable reality.) European auteur cinema has responded to a subjectivism so exciting that you have configured the curious (and dubious) phenomenon that is "American independent cinema."

said, "The Suspended Step of the Stork" starts with the wisdom of creating intelligent, from the beginning, a middle border, a magical place (the border between Greece and Albania) where a step ahead of us the wrong line full head and body lead. Families scattered, confused immigrants, the poor Tabernillas where couples dance the ugly. All this is Europe tape, including political decision (an acceptable Marcello Mastroianni unable to make a glorious shade Gregory Kar).

The film seems to deny even its dreamlike nature. There is almost a dream in "The Suspended Step of the Stork." Everything looks as if it were spun from a strange documentary or a "making of" incomprehensibly long. The feeling is almost eerie spectatorial, noting those crisp sets, those gray areas where the camera glides like a murderer to seek a victim. This absolutely fabulous and personal way to plan scenes reminiscent of the spirit of the border slip on this strange village where everyone expects.

And there's more: a second or third viewing brings us closer to a very impressive figure: there is not a damn close throughout the film. In a film that exceeds two hours and which are dealt with unbearable conflicts of the characters, or a close! Angelopoulos makes the aesthetic revolution of the European revolution and build the image from afar, from outside, perhaps getting their puppet characters remind us that wander confused for a Europe brittle.

Exterior Tropical House Colors

ANGELOPOULOS # 01 - Eternity and a Day (1998)

One night I dreamed about this man. It was a confused old man that ran a foggy street walking a dog wandering in search time. A man who seemed to have lost the whole story, able to turn a blind eye to check unstoppable death. I do not know how I ever loved, suddenly, this film until recently caused me a sincere jealousy (is told below.)
"Eternity and a Day" is a peaceful acceptance of death. It reminds us very much to "Wild strawberries" Bergman, as the old man's unfathomable journey to the final conflict with beautiful memories and the caress of social decay, as a backdrop. Perhaps this film manages to take a small step Beyond the key work of Swedish director. In "Eternity and a Day" there is an oppressive shadow of religion, or the urgent need to suffocate the viewer. Quite the contrary, Angelopoulos seems to have drawn on the blank canvas of the screen a strange path of colors and sounds that seek our memories that are stuck fiercely on our own experience, and quite gently pushing toward the concept death. A death is not torture, or anguish, but only a final resort but necessary, a hug. The last hug, of course.
The other day, reading pages of cinema in the net I came across one that was billed as "The only cinema page where the critics are bitter. "The joke, which apparently is quite successful, lets out a stupid (in the worst sense of the word) that surprised all and sundry. I would say that one can approach the work of Angelopoulos or Von Trier, Haneke or , and leave with a smile. But you will agree with me if you come out smiling in the screening of "Funny Games" or "Breaking the Waves" , is a chronic jerk. The cinema of truth (the film as art, film and hope, film and content) has managed to reach a capacity for reflection (also metareflexión, which already is commendable) plunges us headlong into the bottomless tunnel of postmodernism. "Eternity and a Day" is not a float, not a movie lively and contains no message full of optimism. There are plans criminally long sequence, a narrative between the confused and frail, some sharp dialogue and concise. Do not spare a word in the entire tape, not a gesture, not a fucking character. Everything is linked to an unrelenting awareness of themselves nostro (our finitude, precisely) invades us when you finish the show.
Only one show in "Eternity and a Day", now that I think.
The spectacle of death itself.

Piriformis During Pregnancy

About the film of Theo Angelopoulos


you do not know if they also passed. I'm talking about the fourth coffee of the day, take a month to quit smoking (without really knowing why), it does not work, the printer stalls, the bus is late and it's raining out there. I'm talking about that close your eyes when you get home at midnight, or perhaps later, watching hours of sleep escape between your fingers, you have several outstanding mails and bed, of course, is full of distances. I do not know if you too are alive, if you put up the type, if sometimes blaspheme.
The first movie I saw was Theo Angelopoulos' Eternity and a day. " For nearly three years in a series on Greek Cinema who gave of Fine Arts. That struck me as a pain unbearable, I lost patience several times during the screening and that cigar, cigar later, was undoubtedly one of the best of my life.
My second contact with the films of Angelopoulos was while writing the script for a short film, "Diary of a movie buff, in which I dared to say:" Life is absurd as a comedy of the Marx, implacable as film Bergman, and slow as a film of Angelopoulos. " I think to some extent, I was right.
Now, in 2006, thanks to the reissue of some of his works on DVD (Intermediate ), I've Angelopoulos, discovering what your film very exciting. I found that, for now, I want no more assemblies MTV, no more post-modern cinema, popcorn and more tragedy. That is kept on Aeon Flux, its Geishas and future Da Vincis. I want to sit in front of the screen to go for fifteen minutes, fixed plane, the shadow of a boat on the Mediterranean. A moment of calm. This is my country, this is my root. Those are my dreams. Angelopoulos
invented the Mediterranean theater, cinema and aesthetic Homeric absolutely aesthetic, sometimes reminiscent of Tarkovsky's Nostalgia (his film more Mediterranean, on the other hand) and sometimes merely reinvents the notion of time. Angelopoulos is the Mediterranean Wim Wenders, one of the most unabashedly European directors, able to take the pulse of the continent and to assist with an enlightened vision, to cancers of the bourgeoisie in 2006. It is a film that I have maligned in recent years with all my strength against that of a sudden, I can only keep quiet and take off my hat. We must learn to make mistakes, and the problem that presents the film (art in general) is that the works remain unchanged. It is we who change. (This is a bit of Pero Grullo, but it must be said). Start today
-cycle tribute to Angelopoulos, perhaps because of a while now, its very slow and dense film is offering me new perspectives. A boat to an Odyssey computer in a world of shit. As I use to get this right now to you.