I watched a total of three films, "Landscape in the Fog", "Travel to Sether Island" and "Stork Hesitating". Some obvious common features can be found: in Anzhe's films, Greece is never sunny blue sea and blue sky, always cold and damp dilapidated streets shrouded in clouds in the old picture quality, and from time to time there is pouring rain or fog. Long shots, usually slow panning, are always wet and cold scenes, all characters are frozen, wearing dark and bloated trench coats, or looking at the sky or the camera, as if scanning an old photo. The rhythm is extremely slow but not romantic, the empty shots like Antonioni, accompanied by endless repetition of low strings, revealing infinite depression.
The theme of Landscape in the Fog is travel. In particular, it explores why people leave to travel, and whether travel has a destination, whether it is physical or psychological. One bleak winter, the sister and brother quietly ran away from home, thinking of looking for a father they had never met in Germany. It is said that Angelopoulos himself has not seen his father, so he took the audience and his siblings on this journey of pursuit. Looking for their father seems to be their motive, but in fact it is more like an opportunity. In any case, they are going to leave home to travel, and they don't know where or why they are going, just like many people in the world. The good people and good deeds they encountered along the way did not make them more excited, and the difficulties and obstacles they encountered did not make them shrink back. It is not that they are strong, but that they do not care whether they advance or retreat. So the entire 120 minutes of the film are basically on the go, and it doesn't really matter if they find their father in the end.
In order to highlight the theme of travel, I don't know how many shots of trains, roads, and driving in the film. Many of them are impressive: for example, a group of police officers are standing on the street, looking up at the sky, staring at the snow without moving, and the camera pans slowly. Maybe the purpose of the trip is to enjoy the scenery? Another example is a chicken in the waiting room of the station, and the audience stared at it silently until it was cut off and caught, and the world returned to noise. Maybe travel is just an escape, and people are destined to have no way to escape like this chicken? Another example is a gang of eccentric old theater troupes who hang their clothes on the beach as a funeral for their dead troupe. Maybe the purpose of the trip is to mourn the past? In the misty drizzle, the little girl met a young man riding a motorcycle, and she fell in love. Maybe travel is the only way to grow?
But the truth of youth, broken roads, dying horses, and broken hands all declare that the journey is not so easy, and it is difficult for people who travel to find the ethereal goals they seek, such as "father". The last "it was dark at first, and then slowly there was light" also just said that the journey appeared slowly, and there was no end in sight. Like the two brothers and sisters, we were always on the way.
WeChat public account: feidududu watching movies (feidudumovie)
View more about Landscape in the Mist reviews
