ΘΟΔΩΡΟΣ ΑΓΓΕΛΟΠΟΥΛΟΣ Theo Angelopoulos
Born April 27, 1935,
Athens Died 24
January 2012
Section 9, Number 178
Finding the grave of Theo Angelopoulos
in the First Cemetery was something of a shock, such is the mesmerising power
of his cinematic art, evoking, as it does, the
epic and essentially tragic march of human history. For a moment I couldn’t
separate the filmmaker from his work. Given his persistent themes: narratives
of loss, muted landscapes filmed in the half-light of dawn or dusk, he surely
ought to have been buried in some more liminal spot - beside an impassable
river, close to a disputed border or, at the very least, near some long
abandoned village with silent women in black emerging from the mist to mourn
his passing.
Instead, his grave sits in dappled
sunlight in the centre of Athens, the city where he was born in 1935.
Early Life:
What is written in your childhood
years is never erased (Angelopoulos)
Theo’s childhood memories were of the
German occupation and the Greek civil war. Being born into a middle class
family could not shield him from that. These early years of occupation,
political polarization, hunger, and fear were formative. During the infamous ‘Dekemvriana’
in 1944,(1)
when communist guerrilla bands briefly controlled parts of Athens, his father was
arrested -taken by a band of guerrillas and accused of not having been enough
of a communist sympathizer at the beginning
of the war. (He had been informed
upon by a cousin!) He managed to escape and return to the family after nine
months during which time they thought he was dead. Imagine the effect of this family
betrayal, the absence, and then the miraculous return on the psyche of an
imaginative young boy.
The Artist as a Young Man
Angelopoulos wrote poetry as a young
man and appreciated all poetry - from Homer to Seferis. In fact, he claimed
that poetry was the most important influence in his life. It certainly
influenced his cinematic approach which time and time again has been likened to
a visual poem. It therefore seems counter intuitive that he studied law at the
University of Athens. He certainly never intended to become a lawyer.
After his military service, he left
for Paris to study his real
interests, literature and film. He mentions that the Paris of his dreams, the
Paris of Victor Hugo, was not the reality he found. Paris was dirty and gritty
and poor. The contrast between an ideal and a ‘real’ city was something he
would evoke again in 1983 when he filmed a documentary of Athens, warts and
all. (2) His capacity to evoke squalor
and loss simultaneously with the magnificence of a place is one of the most
compelling aspects of his vision.
In 1962
he entered IDHEC a Parisian film school (now known as La
Fémis) but was expelled after one year
because his idea of what cinema should be did not agree with that of his
teachers. Even at 27, Angelopoulos knew what he wanted to do with film and that
something was not to ape Hollywood or even the French cinematic greats. His
sources would be many and eclectic (3) but any final
amalgamation, uniquely his own.
The Return
He returned to Greece with the thought of visiting
his family and then leaving, but something kept him in Athens in spite of the fact
that it was once more the backdrop for more political turbulence; the years in
the early 60s that would result in yet another dictatorship. He found congenial
friends and a job as a film critic with the left wing newspaper: Democratic Change (Δημοκρατική Αλλαγή) where he remained
until it was closed down by the Military Junta that took over the country in
April of 1967 –a convulsion that would add yet another layer to the palimpsest
of Greek history he would record as time passed.
In
1966, he started making films. His first finished film, The
Broadcast (Εκπομπή),
won the critics prize at the Thessaloniki Film Festival, but his career really
took off with the release of Reconstruction (Αναπαράσταση) in 1970. In Black and white and made on a
limited budget, the story was based on a true crime about a village woman who
with her lover killed her husband when he returned from years as a guest worker
in Germany. Certain elements of his style become apparent: we never find out
why; instead we get reconstructions by those involved. As viewers, we are kept
out of the loop, often as silent witnesses who are not even sure what they are
witnessing. In one scene, we are shown for long moments the outside of a house
where action is clearly happening but we see only what a bystander might see.
This technique occurs time and time
again in his films. We, as witnesses, are placed towards or at the back of a
scene or at a distance as it plays out and what we see therefore becomes
personal to ourselves. We are drawn in. The elements of many of these scenes,
as in real life, are too complex to focus on every detail at once.
In this film, as in most others, he
uses the cinematographer Georgos
Arvanitis; this is surely one of the greatest collaborations in modern
cinema. Arvanitis translated his vision into scenes which strike such a
sympathetic emotional chord, that they stay with you long after the film is
over.
The Long ‘Take’
Anyone studying Angelopoulos must find
themselves viewing his famous long takes, some lasting many minutes.
Angelopoulos insisted on using his own rhythms and would never compromise on
the time it took for him to present a scene exactly as he envisioned it.
One critic called him a living
anachronism partly because of his love of the long take. Today’s films may
consist of 4,000 takes. It is a sign of our increasing inability to
concentrate, no doubt because of the internet and twitter etc. Watching a film
from the 30s or forties can seem boring to us now – a person might actually
walk across an entire room in real time! The example an ERT documentary used
was the example of Casablanca with its 400 ‘takes’ – still watchable today. But
Theo Angelopoulos made full length films using just 100 takes! These long
scenes, and the dark palette he chose even in coloured films, have frustrated
many viewers who want something to happen. Of course, something is happening –
but you have to accept Theo’s rhythm to see what it is.
The above clip from The Travelling Players is an excellent introduction
to his technique.
1972
saw the release of The days of 36 (Μέρες
του 36) his first colour film about a man accused
of murder who is visited in prison by a member of parliament who is in turn
held hostage causing a prison riot . It
is a very ‘political’ film but, as every Greek knows, history unrelated to
politics is impossible. We are all
members of the polis. This film was made during the military dictatorship and
was meant to be a provocation...
So was The Travelling Players (Ο θίασος)
filmed almost in secrecy - even from the cast - during the Junta although it
was not released until 1975 when democracy had been restored. It tells a story about Greek history that is
sympathetic to the perspective of Greek leftists. This film is considered by
many as his greatest work and is one of his most accessible films to a general
audience. One critic called it the perfect synthesis of cinematic imagery, film
language, and politics. I call it a must see. Critics see his style as
Brechtian. There are long monologues where the speaker speaks directly to the
camera for minutes; there are even single takes that encompass more than one
era –
quite a tour de force!
Greek History, Prehistory, and Angelopoulos
Greek people have grown up caressing
dead stones (Angelopoulos)
During his career, Angelopoulos consistently
used the ambiguities inherent in Greek history and mythology as a metaphor for
life. As in the works of his favourite poet, George Seferis, the Greek
landscape in his films is not a mere burial ground of history, but a living
entity whose tortured ‘children’ from any era, can be recalled
to the surface, and, once disinterred, immediately recognized:
The ancient Greek myths reside in us
and, because they do, we reside in them (Angelopoulos)
This was true of his view of
history as well. In a sense, he believed that all stories were a revising or
consideration of older stories. Echoes of ancient tragedies abound: the story
of Agamemnon in Reconstruction or the
reworking of the Ulysses myth in Journey
to Kythera. Some critics have
suggested that his films cannot really speak to those unaware of the nuances of
Greek history and myth. He disagreed, arguing that he had imbedded so many
potential layers of meaning in a single scene that, even if one dimension were
missed, another could be grasped, - that a specific historical reference could
resonate, regardless of whether it was completely understood. I am not so sure.
I have to say that understanding the historical context has been very important
to my own appreciation of his work.
Journey
to Kythera
1977
saw the release of The Hunters (Οι Κυνηγοί) which takes place on New Year’s Eve
in 1976 when the body of a man from the Greek Civil War is discovered by a
group of hunters, members of the new bourgeoisie - and the body still bleeds!
It is not hard to see we are in highly symbolic territory with a plot like
that. This story is brilliantly told with bizarre expressionistic moments and
time warps that surprise and shock. This film, too, would make a fascinating
introduction to his work for the novice.
Angelopoulos
made many films after that:
1980: Ο Μεγαλέξανδρ
Megalexandros
1983: Αθήνα, επιστροφή στην Ακρόπολη Athens, Return to the Acropolis
1984: Ταξίδι στα Κύθηρα Journey to Kythera
1986: Ο Μελισσοκόμος The Beekeeper
1988: Τοπίο στην Ομίχλη Landscape in the Mist
1991: Το Μετέωρο Βήμα του Πελαργού The Suspended Leg of the Stork
1995: Το βλέμμα του Οδυσσέα Ulysses’Gaze
1998: Μια αιωνιότητα και μια μέρα Eternity and a Day
2003: Τριλογία - Ι. Το λιβάδι που δακρύζει The Weeping Meadow
2008: Τριλογία - ΙΙ. H Σκόνη του Χρόνου The Dust of Time
1983: Αθήνα, επιστροφή στην Ακρόπολη Athens, Return to the Acropolis
1984: Ταξίδι στα Κύθηρα Journey to Kythera
1986: Ο Μελισσοκόμος The Beekeeper
1988: Τοπίο στην Ομίχλη Landscape in the Mist
1991: Το Μετέωρο Βήμα του Πελαργού The Suspended Leg of the Stork
1995: Το βλέμμα του Οδυσσέα Ulysses’Gaze
1998: Μια αιωνιότητα και μια μέρα Eternity and a Day
2003: Τριλογία - Ι. Το λιβάδι που δακρύζει The Weeping Meadow
2008: Τριλογία - ΙΙ. H Σκόνη του Χρόνου The Dust of Time
He was still
filming in 2012 when he was struck down in a road accident in Piraeus while
filming the third film in a trilogy which was never completed.
Throughout his career, he never compromised
his vision. For The Weeping Meadow, an
entire village was built in summer on the dry bed of a lake in northern Greece
so that it could be shown flooding when the rains came.
He never
lost his eye for epic grandeur coupled with meticulous detail and a kind of
sadness at the weight and layers of the stories themselves.
Theo preparing for the
tableau shown below
The Weeping Meadow
See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyjDPa854aU for the trailer of this film which
gives some idea of the scope of the content but completely destroys his style with
the many takes trailers seem to demand – the very antithesis of his own rhythm!
All this and
we still have not mentioned the important role of music and dance in his films,
the constant echoes of ancient tragic tableaux, the role of cities, of ruins,
even the significant place of water in his narratives. The number of scenes on
or by water is astounding. Nor have we
listed the innumerable prizes he won internationally or mentioned the many
famous actors who chose to be in his films. This last is easily available on
the internet. Many of his films were specifically made to be shown at
international film festivals, one of the reasons his works are tagged as ‘art
films’– a tag that is often the kiss of
death for many when making a choice of what to download and view today. But he
was much more. He was a true genius whose mark on the films he made was so
unique, that, even after a few minutes, you immediately recognize his work.
It is worthwhile to ‘slow down’ and take the
time to really see an Angelopoulos
film.
A Small Footnote
I was recently
watching the ending of the Tree of Life
directed by Terrence Malick and thought that the many
‘takes’ far too intrusive for the message being presented. I couldn’t help
wondering what Theo could have done with that scene...
His Grave
Section 9, Number 178
He is buried in his wife’s family
grave well back in the cemetery
There is no epitaph, but a poem he himself
wrote would have been fitting:
LEAVE ME AT SEA
I wish
you all health and happiness; but I cannot share your journey.
I am only a guest here.
All things I touch, they wound me
and then they no longer belong to me.
There’s always someone declaring ‘this is mine’.
I possess nothing, I once said. Arrogance –
for now I finally realize that nothing really is nothing.
I don’t even have a name;
I must seek one, now and again.
Grant me a landscape to look at.
I am only a guest here.
All things I touch, they wound me
and then they no longer belong to me.
There’s always someone declaring ‘this is mine’.
I possess nothing, I once said. Arrogance –
for now I finally realize that nothing really is nothing.
I don’t even have a name;
I must seek one, now and again.
Grant me a landscape to look at.
(Translated
by Pascalis Nikolaou)
Map
Footnotes
(1) The Dekemvriana (Δεκεμβριανά) " refers to a series of
clashes fought during from December 3,
1944 to January 11, 1945. The conflict was the culmination of months of tension
between the leftist EAM
and its sympathizers and the Greek government which had just returned from
exile, supported by British forces. Many guerrilla gangs (and right wing gangs)
took it upon themselves to exact revenge
and settle old scores. Anarchy and terrible atrocities occurred before a
semblance of order was restored.
(2) Angelopoulos treats the viewer to a ride
through Athens’’ main streets and listing many of the terrible things that
occurred in various places along the way – not your usual documentary of the
glory of the Parthenon!
(3) Angelopolos was inspired by Homer, the Greek
tragedies, modern poets like Seferis and T.S. Eliot, filmmakers from France
(Goddard) , America (Orson Welles), even Eisenstein – but all influences would
be filtered through his own vision.
Sources
There is no
shortage of sources on Theo Angelopoulos – some as long, or longer than his
films. I found the ERT six part series with an English over voice and subtitles,
especially good.
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