Angelopoulos are composed of several trilogy: the "Trilogy of Modern Greek History" in the 1970s, "The Years of 1936", "The Wandering Artist", and "The Hunter" in an allegorical manner. The plot makes a unique reflection on the modern history of Greece; in the 1980s, the "Silence Trilogy", "The Journey to Sether Island", "The Beekeeper" and "Landscape in the Mist" were full of explorations on the philosophy of life; The Hesitation of a Stork, The Gaze of Ulysses, and An Eternal Day further demonstrate the charming charm of his unique long-shot, which has established Anzhe as a master of modernism. In his more than 40 years of film career, he has created 13 feature films and 2 documentaries. These films have uncovered the painful scars of history and tore apart the peaceful appearance of modern society.
In his films, wandering, pursuit and exile have become common motifs, and the form of road films has become his best vehicle for expressing these themes. "I pay attention to how borders block communication between people. In a chaotic world, people lose their center and their roots," Angelopoulos once said. As a result, the characters in his shots often show a root-seeking complex, finding themselves by embarking on a journey, intending to break through the "boundary" formed by disputes over politics, history, religion, and race. However, most of these characters' journeys have no end. As An Zhe himself said, "I came to a place, if I can live in harmony with myself and the environment, then it is a home. A home is not a house, not a country. The place does not exist, because when I come back I will leave again.” The
European Union signed the Schengen Agreement in the 1980s, which stipulated the elimination of national borders within EU countries from 1995, and Greece joined the agreement in 1998. As a result, a large number of refugees began to pour into the Greek border, causing many social problems. In the face of this situation, Anzhe was determined to show a new humanitarianism. So at the end of "Landscape in the Fog", the young lady and brother finally came to a gloomy water and wanted to row to Germany. A beam of searchlights suddenly came on, and several gunshots echoed on the water. They can never stop wandering and wandering.
In "The Wandering Artist" in the 1970s, from the autocratic rule of General Metasachs in 1939 to the rise of the rightist general of Papagos in 1952, Greece experienced World War II, civil war, a series of political turmoil and the control of Britain, the United States, Germany and other countries. The troupe's "Gulf the Shepherdess" was constantly interrupted by political events. The beginning and end of the film are shots of troupe members standing in front of the train station, echoing back and forth, which fits the theme of reincarnation. Just like the famous 360-degree rotating shot - after the end of World War II, people cheered and celebrated in the square, the Soviet Union, the United States and the United Kingdom were mixed together, but the gunshots suddenly sounded, and the camera turned around with the people fleeing. After the circle, it returned to the original point. Only the Soviet flag was left on the screen, and there was a slogan that said drive away the United Kingdom. People who thought that a peaceful age had come to realize that history has just come to the origin of new disputes. Greece, a troubled and troubled country, has changed from a multi-national division to a dictatorship of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The situation is not much better. New rulers continue to appear on the stage of history, the state of occupation is endless, and people are forced to start new wanderings.
"The Beekeeper" in the 1980s featured the wandering beekeeper Spiro (a name that appears many times in Angel's films), who says goodbye to his family and hits the road. Along the way, I meet a lovelorn girl and childhood friend, and my thoughts are constantly opened. After 35 years of absence, his hometown has become a foreign land. The beekeeper has long lost his belonging, and he is accompanied by only a car of beehives. The girl has the vitality he once had, but he can no longer find his past self. So the hive opened and he died brilliantly in this way. "The Beekeeper" inherits the theme of the previous work "Journey to Sether Island". The elderly who lost their identity return to their hometowns, and they embark on a journey again due to indifference and alienation. In the end, the leaves fall but cannot return to their roots.
In Search of a Nation's History
"Landscape in the Fog" is about a painful experience of children's growth. The little heroine of the movie is named Ula, the name of An Zhe's younger sister, and this ups and downs journey of the sister and brother seems destined to have no happy ending. There is a difficult connection between the world of children and adults, and hope and despair are staged in turns. The sister and brother set out on the road together just for a nihilistic goal in the mother's mouth. This journey is comparable to a Nirvana-like coming-of-age ceremony. In front of the singing and dancing crowd, the younger brother squatted down and wept bitterly for the dead horse; the elder sister held up her little hand stained with the blood of a virgin, and her resistance was pale in the face of this world. "Where are you going?" "A very far place!" They still can't predict the hardships on the journey, and they can't understand the heaviness of life. They finally came to a dream-like waters, the pictures in the long and deep focus shots were foggy, and they couldn't see the direction of the future.
"The Gaze of Ulysses" in the 1990s opened with a long pan shot in one go, the camera on a tripod, the transition from black and white to color, the photographer who suddenly fell, and the blue light passing slowly in the distance. sailboat. Time passes quietly in one shot, and it also explains why the protagonist embarks on the journey. Looking for three rolls of film is also looking for the history of a nation. Like "Landscape in the Fog", there are also huge surrealistic stone statues in this film, as well as the misty white fog that obscures the future, as well as the jubilant singing and dancing on the surface and the gunshots piercing the sky, all of which are intertwined into a heart-wrenching song. Blood and Tears Poems. The journey to find the roots in "The Gaze of Ulysses" is still unsuccessful, the devastated ruins of war make people homeless, and Sarajevo is saturated with Soviet culture. The silent films of those days no longer exist, and life and history are lost in the years.
Lamentably, like his characters, Angelopoulos failed to complete a journey with a beginning and an end. One day in early 2012, 76-year-old Anzhe was on his way to the set of "The Other Sea" in Piraeus when he was hit by a motorcycle that rushed out, and died of a brain hemorrhage. His worries about the motherland have not dissipated, and the story he wants to tell has not yet been told. Perhaps this is the answer to the philosophy master's pondering throughout his life. There is no home in life, and every return means a new wandering.
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