Theo Angelopoulos

Theodoros Angelopoulos (born April 27, 1936) is a noted Greek film director.

He studied law in Athens but after military service he went to Paris to attend the Sorbonne. He soon dropped out to study film at the IDHEC before returning to Greece. Back home he worked as a journalist and film critic until the coup.

He made his first short film in 1968 and went on in the 1970s to make long films concerned with modern Greece - Meres Tou 36, O Thiassos and I Kynighoi. He quickly established a characteristic style, marked by slow, episodic and ambiguous structure and long, "sequence shot" takes. He moved into less political works after the end of the dictatorship, gaining Italian funding.

His distinct visual style is characterised by very slow, long, meticulous takes. The Travelling Players for example, consists of around 80 shots in about four hours of film.

His collaborators include the cinematographer Giorgos Arvanitis, and the composer Eleni Karaindrou. Karaindrou's soundtracks are available from ECM records.

The film critic David Thomson counted Angelopoulos as one of the world's greatest living directors in his 1994 Biographical Dictionary of Film.

Awards

• O Megalexandros won the Golden Lion at the 1980 Venice Film Festival
• Topio stin Omichli (Landscape In The Mist) shared the Silver Lion at Venice in 1988.
• To Vlemma tou Odyssea (Ulysses's Gaze) won the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes in 1995. Disappointed at not winning the Palme d'Or that year, he told his audience "If this is what you have to give me, I have nothing to say" before storming off the stage.
• Mia aiwniothta kai mia mera (Eternity and a Day) won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1998.
• Trilogia - To livadi pou dakryzei (Trilogy - The Weeping Meadow) won the European Film Academy Critics Award 2004 - Prix FIPRESCI in 2004.

Filmography

• Broadcast (I Ekpombi) (1968)
• Reconstruction (Anaparastasis) (1970)
• Days of 36 (Meres tou 36) (1972)
• The Travelling Players (O Thiassos) (1975)
• The Huntsmen (I Kinighi) (1977)
• Alexander the Great (O Megalexandros) (1980)
• Athens (Athina, epistrofi stin Akropoli) (1983)
• Voyage to Cythera (Taxidi stin Kythera) (1984)
• The Beekeeper (O Melissokomos) (1986)
• Landscape in the Mist (Topio stin Omichli) (1988)
• The Suspended Step of the Stork (To Meteoro Vima tou Pelargou) (1991)
• Ulysses's Gaze (To Vlemma tou Odyssea) (1995)
• Eternity and a Day (Mia aiwniothta kai mia mera) (1998)
• Trilogy: The Weeping Meadow (Trilogia I: To Livadi pou dakryzei) (2004)
• Trilogy: The Third Wing (Projected English title)
• Trilogy: The Eternal Return (Projected English title)

External Links

• IMDB entry.
• Theo Angelopoulos Internet Library.
• Musicolog entry.
• Interview with the British Film Institute (November 2003).