Theo Angelopoulos' Trilogy: The Weeping Meadow

[arsaib4]

TRILOGY: The WEEPING MEADOW

Summary from Berlinale 2004:

"Painting the past with the most beautiful of imagery, master filmmaker Theo Angelopoulos’ Trilogy: The Weeping Meadow is a story of exile in which 20th-century Greek history mirrors that of classical Greek tragedy. The film begins in 1919, after the Red Army’s invasion of Odessa, and follows the main character, Eleni, as she faces life and war, her saga echoing that of her country’s mythological heroes. An elegiac study of the human condition, Trilogy is saturated with stunning long takes that highlight the expansive panoramic wilderness as a backdrop to Eleni’s life."

[The second part of the trilogy will be a "road" movie that begins in Uzbekistan in 1953 on the day of Stalin’s death and crosses Russia to Siberia and Moscow. In the third part the action shifts to Hungary, the Austrian border and Italy before ending in New York in 1974.]

Greek director Theo Angelopoulos was born to a family of merchants in Athens, in 1935. He studied law at the University of Athens and practiced as a lawyer. After completing his military service in the late 50s, he went to France to study at the Sorbonne, then later enrolled in the prestigious French film school IDHEC. He worked for a time at the Musée de l’Homme under the tutelage of Jean Rouch, the ethnographer and pioneer of cinema vérité film. He returned to Athens in 1964 and, until 1967, worked as a film critic. Angelopoulos made his first full-length feature film, Reconstruction, in 1970, and since then his films have participated in countless international festivals and have won numerous awards that have established his reputation as one of the most influential directors in contemporary cinema. Major retrospectives honoring the work of Theo Angelopoulos have been held all over the world.

It's a shame that most of Angelopoulos' work (including The Travelling Players, his masterpiece from 1975 which is only available on vhs here) remains inaccessable to his admirers all over the world. Angelopoulos could be held partly at fault because up till now, he's only wanted his films to be seen in a theater, and has taken measures against the home-video format. However, since film distribution continues to suffer at the hands of major studios, his stance has wavered. Hopefully, more of his work will be available on DVD soon.

Trilogy: The Weeping Meadow premiered at the Berlin film festival in 2004. It went on to play at Toronto, Chicago, and London film festivals. The film won the FIPRESCI (Critics) prize for "Best Film" at the 2004 European Film Awards. Angelopoulos won the Audience Award for "Best Director."

Artificial-Eye distributed the film theatrically in the U.K. earlier this year, and are now ready with their disc. Trilogy: The Weeping Meadow will be released on DVD on the 27th of June. The film doesn't have a U.S. distributor at this point.


*More on the film at a later date.

[arsaib4]

WPQX and all other Landscape lovers: Start saving dammit! (I know I have.)

And hail the New Yorker. Coincidence? I think NOT!

One question remains: The Travelling Players, WHERE ART THOU?

[wpqx]

Oh rejoice indeed. New Yorker is surprising the hell out of me lately, with their summer releases I've been downright shocked with their output. I've made no mistake about my love for this film, and would even put it in my top ten favorite foreign films. Won't get greedy for Travelling Players yet. Luckily I got an import of Eternity and a Day on DVD as well, but hey at least they're putting something out, and still have heard nothing about the theatrical release of The Weeping Meadow.

[arsaib4]

Believe it or not, I've heard that The Weeping Meadow might get a theatrical release here thanks to New Yorker Films.

[wpqx]

New Yorker is set to release this film theatrically. Their website has no specific details, in fact nothing more than a movie poster. But at least the film has a US distributer, so hurrah.

[oscar jubis]

New Yorker released it last friday but, to my knowledge, only in NYC. It's likely to open elsewhere soon. I'm assuming they are showing the shorter cut of the film (170 vs. 185 minutes).

[wpqx]

I hope not, nothing remotely on the horizon for Chicago yet.

[arsaib4]

No, it's not scheduled for Chicago yet. I'll let you know if anything comes up.