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Eternity and a Day
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The Mastery of Theo Angelopoulos
Eternity and a Day
Unrated
1998, New Yorker
The home cinema release of Theo Angelopoulos' latest film is a highly anticipated event for film buffs. Eternity and a Day, Angelopoulos' 11th feature film and the 1998 Palme d'Or winner at the Cannes Film Festival, is a stunning and powerful drama.
Aged writer Alexander (Bruno Ganz) is getting ready to leave his lifelong home by the sea. He plans to go to the hospital, following his doctor's advice to do so "when the pain becomes unbearable."
Before leaving, Alexander finds letters from his long-dead wife, Anna, and is overtaken by his memories. He realizes how much Anna loved him and how he took her love for granted. The letters unleash long-dormant emotions, and Alexander is soon haunted by feelings of lost happiness. A chance meeting with a young Albanian boy offers him the opportunity to recapture those moments of happiness. Alexander attempts to reunite the boy with his grandmother in Albania. During this mysterious journey, Alexander develops a touching relationship with the child. Finally, Alexander is able to reconcile his past and present lives with emotional satisfaction. As a result, his burden of memory is lifted to reveal a heightened sense of reality.
It's no surprise to discover that Angelopoulos' life is immersed in film. He was a movie critic for a Greek newspaper in the 1960s. He began work on his first feature, Formix Story, in 1965, but never completed the film. His first finished film, The Reconstitution, was released in 1970. Critics consider the 65-year-old Angelopoulos to be one of contemporary world cinema's most important filmmakers. But Angelopoulos' significance is not just because his films -- including The Traveling Players (1975), The Beekeeper (1986) and Ulysses' Gaze (1995) -- have won numerous awards. His films are masterworks in humanistic storytelling.
Like all of Angelopoulos' films, Eternity and a Day tells its story at a deliberate pace. The changing weather and Greek landscape play significant roles. By experiencing the world around him, Alexander is finally capable of discovering newfound emotions and a sense of humanity.
Angelopoulos' long-time cameraman, Yorgos Arvanitis, accentuates Eternity and a Day with elaborate zooms. But the film's stunning photography is only part of the package. What makes Eternity and a Day exceptional is Angelopoulos' storytelling. In Alexander's journey, he captures a poetic portrayal of human emotions. (Grade: A)
And the rest
Montgomery Clift's powerful performance as a poor young man determined to win the heart of a pretty socialite (Elizabeth Taylor) remains the best thing about director George Stevens' earnest moral drama, A Place in the Sun (Paramount). Paired with Shelley Winter's tragic portrayal of a poor factory worker, Clift's character, the status-obsessed George Eastman, captures the film's themes about America's declining social values. ... Screen icon Steve McQueen's last film was also his worst. A meandering script about real-life bounty hunter Ralph "Pappy" Thorson (McQueen) squashed McQueen's steely presence in The Hunter (Paramount). A rooftop chase on a Chicago elevated train gives the film its one scene of suspenseful action.
