Before Yorgos Lanthimos Theodoros Angelopoulos was one of the few international Greek directors. His films however were never mainstream, and there were a couple of reasons for that. His films were long ("The travelling players" 3h 50m) and slow ("The travelling players" has an average shot length of approximately 3 m). On top of that they presuppose a certain knowledge of Greek history and Greek mythology.
Angelopoulos had a preference to build up his oeuvre out of trilogy's. "The travelling players" is part 2 of the histotry-trilogy and treats the period 1939 - 1952. This were 13 tumultuous years for Greece with the following governments c.q. Events:
Dictatorship of Metaxas War with Italy Occupation by Nazi Germany Civil war between State troups and Communist insurgents Intervention by the Allied forces leading to the dictatorship of general Papagos.
This period is seen through the eyes of a group of travelling players. In the past this perspective was also used by directors as Yasujiro Ozo ("Floating weeds", 1934 & 1959), Ingmar Bergman ("Sawdust and tinsell", 1953) and last but not least Federico Fellini ("La strada", 1954).
Typical Angelopoulos is however that in order to understand the members of the travelling players you need to have some knowledge of Greek mythology. Their names (and views?) are derived from the ancient play "Elektra" by Sophocles.
As can be seen from the resume of the Greek history from 1939 until 1952 given above, democratic government is the great absentee. In many of the cities visited by the travelling players they meet a sinister atmosphere. An atmosphere that reminded me very much of "Werckmeister Harmoniac" (2000, Bela Tarr). By Tarr the atmosphere refers to an abstract situation, Aneglopoulos however applies it to concrete history.
At different moments in the film members of the group have a monologue of nearly 10 minutes. During this monologue they are filmed in close up. For me these scenes were the highlights of the film. The rest of the film mainly uses overview shots. How beautiful they may be, they do create distance. I can't help wondering if using more close ups would have made the film more accessible. In my opinion a missed opportunity!
Angelopoulos had a preference to build up his oeuvre out of trilogy's. "The travelling players" is part 2 of the histotry-trilogy and treats the period 1939 - 1952. This were 13 tumultuous years for Greece with the following governments c.q. Events:
Dictatorship of Metaxas War with Italy Occupation by Nazi Germany Civil war between State troups and Communist insurgents Intervention by the Allied forces leading to the dictatorship of general Papagos.
This period is seen through the eyes of a group of travelling players. In the past this perspective was also used by directors as Yasujiro Ozo ("Floating weeds", 1934 & 1959), Ingmar Bergman ("Sawdust and tinsell", 1953) and last but not least Federico Fellini ("La strada", 1954).
Typical Angelopoulos is however that in order to understand the members of the travelling players you need to have some knowledge of Greek mythology. Their names (and views?) are derived from the ancient play "Elektra" by Sophocles.
As can be seen from the resume of the Greek history from 1939 until 1952 given above, democratic government is the great absentee. In many of the cities visited by the travelling players they meet a sinister atmosphere. An atmosphere that reminded me very much of "Werckmeister Harmoniac" (2000, Bela Tarr). By Tarr the atmosphere refers to an abstract situation, Aneglopoulos however applies it to concrete history.
At different moments in the film members of the group have a monologue of nearly 10 minutes. During this monologue they are filmed in close up. For me these scenes were the highlights of the film. The rest of the film mainly uses overview shots. How beautiful they may be, they do create distance. I can't help wondering if using more close ups would have made the film more accessible. In my opinion a missed opportunity!