Wednesday, April 7, 2010

The Weeping Meadow

w/d Theo Angelopolous

An absolutely brilliant film. No one in the world has a better mastery of form, composition or camera movement than TA. He composes tableaux and slowly moves his camera around to highlight or enrich the ideas he's trying to express.

Here he takes on the turmoil that was Greece from 1919 to 1949. Scene after scene of expensively staged and beautifully lit/photographed locations illustrate the human cost of the Nazi invasion, the depredations of natural forces and the pain and suffering endured by the people.

His only deficit here was in the development of his characters...who were not presented as complete individuals but served as representatives, symbols of the common man.

Slow, patient, stunning. A worthy addition to the master's oeuvre.

9

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