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Directed by: Theo Angelopolous Starring: Omero Antonutti, Laura De Marchi, Thanos Grammenos, Eva Kotamanidou Theo Angelopolous is probably the most famous director in the short and not particularly expansive history of Greek cinema. His movies are usually slow, with long takes and slow zooms. Megalexandros is no exception to this. It's almost four hours long, and while I didn't count, I'd guess there were less than hundred cuts in the whole movie. The movie starts with a man explaining to the camera about Alexander the Great's invasion of Greece. We're then shown a prison from which someone escapes. Like everything else in the movie, this is never explained. After the sequence with the prison, a man (Alexander) mounts a white horse in the clearing of a forest. He's wearing a golden helmet. Shortly after he's mounted the horse, he rides out of the clearing. Ten men with black robes enter the scene, pick up guns and run out of the clearing as well. These would be the "main characters" of the movie, if there are any of them. Suddenly, we're in a mansion and some eighteenth-century people are making fun of a man for speaking ancient greek. This is in 1899, if I got the film right. The same people then go out in the street and dance waltz to a moving player piano. More seemingly random and obscure stuff go on until we find ourselves in the middle of a village. This is where the rest of the movie takes place. The villagers and Alexander/black robe men with guns are engaged in a battle for control of sorts, but this is just my wild guess. The slow pace of the movie is an asset, as it allows you time to think about it as it goes, as well as admire the camera set-ups. Musically, this film is very interesting; it has a lot of greek folk music and also some minimalist pieces which I liked. However, it is not clear at all throughout the movie who's who and what's what. I'll be honest and say that I at no point in the movie could understand just what the hell was taking place on-screen, and thought this movie was an absolute bitch to get through without falling to sleep or losing concentration. I'm undecided as to whether I should call this pseudo-artistic bullcrap out of film institute financing hell or not, but I will say that I think that the movie is only interesting on a symbolic level and thus fundamentally flawed in my book. I'd only recommend this for the most hardcore of european cinema lovers. RATING: 2.5 PROS: Interesting cinematography and music CONS: Painfully slow, obtuse and outrageously difficult to follow and understand. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081148/combined
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Feb 21, 2005 23:09
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| # ? Apr 27, 2024 11:02 |
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