O Thiasos

Great movies can be long, and great movies can be slow, but when it's long AND slow, you better have a damn good reason for it. And Angelopolous does not have a good reason. Endless shots of people walking from one place to another. Another big stumbling block is that it requires some knowledge not only about mid-20th century Greece, but ancient Greek mythology. I won't deny that there are some interesting scenes. But the boring stretches in between are too great, and it's not worth the wait.

Count me among those who just aren't captivated by this. It's long, it's slow, and it has an uncertain focus. The players are pretty nondescript and really the film is about Greek history, but while it expects a lot from the viewer it doesn't have much for the unprepared, who are treated to allusions to pre and post WWII Greece and its politics with little substance. The bits of music were kind of nice.

Beautifully filmed and elaborately staged, although barely written, acted or edited (230 minutes of people walking around and almost every scene is a single take), "O Thiasos" is a sleep-inducing autopsy of modern Greek history, an epic of apraxia. The haunting, wintery imagery, the wonderful tracking shots and the fine music are unforgettable elements in a film that's too boring and too inflated to like but too important and too brilliant to ignore.

After many years waiting, The Travelling Players has been a big disappointment. As with Angelopoulos others films, it is beautifully shot and staged, and very long and slow. Unfortunately the narrative is very confusing, and my limited knowledge of Greek history in the 20th century (and Greek mythology), combined with the film slow pace and limited dialogue, made the 247 mins watch a very tedious experience.

Starts off as a well portrayed look at an ensemble of varying ages in the drudgery of life as an actor -- some of the best moments from the film show the group continuously interrupted by political turmoil as they try to put on their show. Personally, I found this more interesting than when the film becomes less focused on those characters and laid on the politics more thickly, but this is still quite the artistic documentation on Greek's socio-political state throughout WWII.

# 174

(Viewed in 2012): Yes it's long, but O Thiasos' is truly one of the great epic works of modernist cinema that merged film and theatre in a uniquely unforgettable way. It doubles as a commentary on modern Greece and of the 20th century, addressing the hopes and disappointments of an entire age with subtle humour and pathos. Angelopoulos' long take style was solidified here, creating an astonishing series of sequence shots of near unparalleled artistry that mimic the cyclical rhythms of history.

This must be Bela Tarr's biggest motivation.

155

An unusual mix of complicated camerawork and theatrical artifice, this is undeniably a serious attempt to weave Greek history into an artistic tapestry involving several narrative layers and influences. The score given here is a little meaningless, given that a glitch in the disc meant that forty minutes had to be skipped (from approximately 110 to 150 minutes): it was difficult to follow proceedings after that point, something that may or may not have been caused by skipping the middle section.

Mostly for greek eyes, because of the context, but still engaging. Director's best.

It has some excellent scenes, but it is so inaccessible that I was mostly bored. Unless you're Greek and over 80 this film will make no sense to you. Would it have hurt the quality of the film to offer some exposition?

Another film I feel I don't have the requisite historical or cultural awareness to emotionally connect with on the level it deserves. That said, I admire the premise of exploring the war from the perspective of a vulnerable civilian class, and appreciate many of the broader themes, like the cultural deterioration under oppressive political extremes and social tumult and the futility of fighting against violent systems that take advantage of the nationalistic tendencies of a disconnected people.

Unforgettable epic.

171

İzlediğim anda olmasa bile sonrasında etkilemeye devam eden filmlerden yapmayı başarıyor Angelo Baba. her daim

This is very solid filmmaking, but it wasn't my favorite, partly for reasons that aren't the film's fault, partly that are. While I'm reasonably well versed on much of World War 2, I knew virtually nothing about the Greek experience during it going in. I found it very difficult to follow which faction was which, who was in power at any given time, and when in the timeline we were. The characters were also fairly slight. One of those films that I admire but don't necessarily like much.

It does have some really effective and powerful scenes but it rambles something shocking, and some scenes just don't work due to Angelopoulos' insistence on moving the camera at a snail's pace.

#177