Eternity and a Day
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Movie Reviews of Eternity and a Day
Movie Review: The Longest Take
Summary: 5 Stars
Angelopoulos is admittedly married to the long, single take. This will put off most viewers conditioned by the fast cutting of popular Western cinema. Hey, I like a lot of popular Western cinema, and I like Angelopoulos, as well. A time and a place for everything. His weaving of the past and the present is a beautiful thing to behold if one is able to allow the time and space to let it work its way in. Since this film is the antithesis of an action film, and intentionally akin to a long poem, it will have a limited audience. But do take the plunge if you have an appreciation of the ethereal, of film pacing from another era, and of just quiet beauty itself.Movie Review: A visual poem
Summary: 5 Stars
What is eternity for a life not shared? Is a day enough to capture all that has slipped away? This movie, with magnificent pictures and captivating music, made me rethink my own life and wonder, "what if this was my last day this time?"
To find yourself asking this question at the end of the movie, is proof that Angelopoulos did it again: he told a story in a way that touches somewhere deep in the viewer. Too bad we stopped "buying new words" though. It explains the impoverishment of our vocabulary.
Movie Review: An Interesting Look At The End Of Life
Summary: 4 Stars
ETERNITY AND A DAY is a Greek film about a man named Alexandre, a well known writer (played by Bruno Ganz). We meet him as he is about to enter a hospital for the terminally ill. It will be his last day, at least as he knows life, and we see him go through a number of experiences. Two significant things happen that day. First is his visit to his daughter's home where he learns that she's sold his beloved house by the sea. He gives his daughter a letter by her mother which gives us insight into Alaxandre's character and see he was a writer first, husband, lover, and father second. The second significant occurrence involves a street child (Achileas Skevis). Alexandre saves him from kidnappers and sees a life he never knew existed.
The film has a number of flashback scenes where the older Alexandre returns to his past. There are also some puzzling scenes as well. Still, as a whole it's an interesting film about a man's final days as he attempts to make sense of life. We also see some touching scenes between Alexandre and the boy. The director uses the Greek scenery to its advantage. The coastal scenes are beautiful and easily evoke the images of Alexandre's happier moments. Alexandre's home seems to be a place with little life, again rather appropriate. The scenes of where the lower classes of Greece, particularly the street children, most of whom who are exiles from Albania, has the grittiness and hopelessness of life on the streets.
The film is a little over two hours, and while it's not a fast paced film, it is engrossing and keeps the viewer interested. The acting in the film, particularly that of Ganz who does cause us to feel sympathetic and the endearing but never cutesy performance of Skevis is superb. It's a fine work and one that if viewed more than once will likely yield more insights about what's important in life and what we might change if we could.
Movie Review: Flawed but moving and thoughtful
Summary: 4 Stars
The most Bergmanesque of Angolopoulos's films. Simpler and less epic than most of his work, with fewer of his trademark breathtaking images and grand themes. Yet this story of a dying writer spending his last day before entering the hospital -- never to leave -- has a deeply elegiac melancholy, and his attempts to find meaning by saving an Albanian street urchin are often moving, if occasionally sappy. The same is true of Bruno Ganz' (unfortunately dubbed) relationship with his wife and family, told mainly in flashback. Much is moving, some is hokey and forced. But Ageloupolus' use of images to make film a poetic medium is always worth watching, even when flawed.
The Greek 'New Star' disc, only available a short while, was supervised by Angelopoulos, and is an improvement over the other available discs.
Movie Review: Great visually and a good story
Summary: 4 Stars
I thought this was an interesting story about a poet that also touched upon the immigration issue in Greece. The slow panning and single shots evoke beauty in scenes that Hollywood editing would miss. The film reminds me that we have been so habituated by the 3 second shot, that we are unsettled by the camera's deliberate lingering. We need films like this to slow things down again.
The film absorbs the viewer because of its dreamlike images and light- diffuse scenes. I would have even been satisfied if the film was a series of wide, single shots and no dialogue.
If you want or need a serious departure from Hollywood mind candy and cuteness, I recommend this film.
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