ETERNITY AND A DAY (MIA EONIOTITA KE MIA MERA)
Reviewed by Harvey Karten, Ph.D. Merchant Ivory Films Director: Theo Angelopoulos Writer: Theo Angelopoulos, Tonino Guerra Cast: Bruno Ganz, Isabelle Renauld, Achileas Skevis, Despina Bebedeli, Iris Chatziantoniou, Helene Gerasmidou, Fabrizio, Bentivoglio, Vassilis Seimenis
Not too many great directors are sitll working in the cinema. Lovers of good film would doubtless know men like Godard, Bertolucci (whose latest "Besieged" takes him into personal waters he had not previously charted), of course Martin Scorcese, and maybe Zhang Yimou. But few in America are familiar with the films of the 62-year-old Greek master Theo Angelopoulos, whose earlier works were politically on the left (in the days of the Greek military junta) and which include, recently, "Ulysses' Gaze" starring Harvey Keitel, about the downfall of Communism in Eastern Europe. Now that Greece is again a democracy, Angelopoulos has turned--like Bertolucci--to making more personal films, perhaps even more poetic than before with the occasional burst of melodrama. He is best known for the unique use to which he puts his camera, the very opposite of MTV style. He tends to track his subjects slowly, eschewing the fancy editing that Bertolucci freshly used to capture various expressions on the face of that remarkable new actress, Thandie Newton, in "Besieged." Yet he is no fan of naturalism. As his camera slowly pans, he may throw in a sequence of magic realism, placing his hero effortlessly into time travel--which is perhaps the most fascinating aspect of his latest work, "Eternity and a Day."
Known in Greek as "Mia eoniotita ke mia mera," this Palme D'Or winner at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival is a deeply felt character study highlighting a dying poet named Alexandre (Bruno Ganz). He has been diagnosed with a terminal illness. We see him on his final day before he is to check into a hospital, an eventful day that leads him into one high adventure which, in turn, helps him to reminisce about his some of his better times with his late, lovely wife Anna (Isabelle Renauld). As he shifts back and forth in time from the seaside home in which he spent many happy days, Angelopoulos's cameraman, Girgos Arvanitis, appropriates both the coastal beauty of the country and the craggy rocks which give off a desolate, wintry feeling. Two events cause Alexandre to drift off into Proustian memories: one, the discovery of several letters which his departed wife had left for him; the other, his sheltering of an Albanian orphan boy of Greek ethnicity (Achilleas Skevis), who is at first chased by police while washing auto windshields with a gang of other abandoned kids and later abducted by band of brigands to be sold to rich tourists as illegal adoptions.
The present-day scenes are the more compelling ones, particularly one which takes place at a deteriorating, vacated hotel, where tourists stop, look at the boys who are lined up in a rogue's gallery, and make their selections. By helping the boy run away and befriending him, Alexandre, now facing death, is able to restore his own spirit while protecting the lad. His strong identity with the boy is fed by his own view of himself as an outsider. At an earlier time, his parents took him to Italy, where he lost not only his sense of place but his language. Upon his return to Greece, the alienated writer found that he had actually to purchase words from others--a situation which he dramatizes for us by having his new disciple literally go up to people, carry back Greek words to Alexandre, and gain the reward of a few drachmas.
At 132 minutes, "Eternity and a Day" may feel like just that to the MTV generation (who would not likely be seen in the Angelopoulous' audience) but despite the director's inadequacy fully to capture the character of Anna, the film is quite worth viewing particularly for the scenes between Alexandre and the boy he has saved. We see elements here of "Voyage to Cythera," which deals with a filmmaker who wants to make a movie about an elderly political refugee, who watches the old man and follows him, until the old man's life takes on the elements of story. In this case the refugee is a kid, who acts as catalyst for the poet's own meditative journey. We're not clear whether the remarkable Bruno Ganz is actually speaking Greek through the film. If so, the dubbing is remarkable as is the English translation--which appears to capture the poetry of the spoken Greek. For a specialized audience, especially attuned to this director's previous political works like "The Travelling Players," the current, more personal film is a fine reflection on the life of a man who felt himself an outsider for a good deal of his days but has begun the process of healing through his memories and through his existential commitment to an orphan boy.
Not Rated. Running Time: 132 minutes. (C) 1999 Harvey Karten
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews