Ulysses' Gaze

"Angelopoulos' film is lyrically evocative but painfully self-important." - Ed Gonzalez

Urgh. Great idea but horribly executed, this was a labour to get through. Painfully self-important.

Angelopoulos = ''artiste manque''

Mi favorita de Angelopoulos

https://letterboxd.com/ladyspiggott/film/ulysses-gaze/

A complex elegy on war, history and cinema containing some memorable and powerful images and sequences, but if Angelopoulos wants to create a cinema not just of the emotions but of the mind, then he is held back here by the weak dialogue he and Guerra foist upon the actors. But as reflective European-Danubian odysseys from ancient Greece until the end of the 20th century, it does seem that this 1995 film, Tony Harrison's PROMETHEUS (1998), and THE ISTER (2004) form a decade-long triple feature.

It's well made and has a lot of memorable scenes; besides, the concept of an odyssey through the Balkans in the middle of the war is interesting in its own right. But I feel like the film is taking on rather too much thematically; perhaps it needed another three hours to explain itself.

An ode to cinema that feels far more serious and important than all the other ones, as this places it's storyline in the midst of a ruthlessly controlled society. During certain moments, the film delves into a dream-like state that feels malleable with time and space (including the fabulous party scene/shot) -- this is not only an extraordinarily well-shot film with some terrific acting and original mise en scene, but it's also often very moving and occasionally funny.

Much of the tone is too self-serious and self-important, and the English dialogue is laughably pretentious, but otherwise it's very good.

Rerun: It's been long time I've seen this story before. Now I have to say that some passages were really extented too much. The first half especially and details time to time were difficult to follow if you're not familiar with that part of history, but it was a modern (1995) Ulysses' journey into very deep inside.