Where Forgotten Films Dwell

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Saturday, January 22, 2011

Μια αιωνιότητα και μια μέρα (Eternity and a Day)

Directed by Theo Angelopoulos
1998
Greece



On the few blessed days when I have no obligations or plans, my bedroom becomes my palace and my bed my throne. Even after I wake up in the morning, I silently stare at the empty ceiling, filling it with images plucked from my memory. Slowly, the white expanse is traded with a black one as my eyes fold closed, intensifying the visions. Memories dance in my head until they become sloshed together, combined into a succinct mishmash of remembrances and reminiscences. At this point, I usually fall back asleep for another hour or so, letting my memories become the playground of my subconscious. As memories turn to dreams, the fine line between reality and fantasy becomes blurred. In these precious moments, I feel truly content.

Countless directors have tried to duplicate the hypnotic waltz of memory. Films like Mulholland Drive (2001) take pleasure in exploring the twisted and bizarre mindscapes of troubled minds. Others films like Rashomon (1950) seek out the nature of memory itself. But while they contain different agendas, each of these films attempts to reconstruct instances of memory within a larger narrative framework. Their plots usually take place in the present and are accompanied with flashbacks. Some films, like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004), present events out of chronological order. But still, the film differentiates between past and present with surgical precision. As with other films, there has to be a frame of reference for the audience to familiarize themselves with.

So imagine my surprise when I viewed Theo Angelopoulos’ Eternity and a Day. Here was a film that defied traditional cinematic language and logic for memories and created something resembling a mindscape where the characters escape to. Here, there is no difference between past and present, memories and reality.

We follow Alexander, an old man experiencing the twilight of his life in a seaside apartment in Thessaloniki. When we first meet him, we learn that he has a terminal illness and is ordered to return to the hospital the next day for a special test. The film carefully charts the next 24 hours of his life. Realizing that time is short, he goes about trying to resolve his affairs. He tries to find a new owner for his dog. He visits his thirty-something daughter in order to give her some letters written by his dead wife. Before he can share the news of his condition, he learns that she has sold his seaside apartment to be demolished the very next day without telling him. In a sense, he has already died. After all, we learn that he has lost the joy in his life. Once a famous poet, he has languished in a self-imposed exile that has cut him off from the world. Early in the film, we learn that Alexander’s only real friend is a next door neighbor that he has never seen or met. Their only form of correspondence is to play music to each other through their open windows.



As he wonders the streets of Thessaloniki, he relives old memories of better times. There are scenes with his dead wife, daughter, and mother. These scenes are played out of chronological order, as if to suggest that we are seeing them as Alexander thinks of them. The film literally becomes a projection of Alexander’s inner thoughts and memories. But remember how I said that it wasn’t like other films that dwelt on memory? Well, let me explain.

Angelopoulos, infamous for long, slow films, constructs Eternity and a Day with long takes. The average shot comes in at least one minute long and can last for up to several. During the duration of the shot, the camera either slowly zooms in and out or pans left or right. The camera is always a tiny bit higher than the characters, making it feel like the viewers are floating through Alexander’s life. There are no transitions to shots from another time period. Instead, Angelopoulos will pan his camera to reveal a character from another era (occasionally in period dress) standing right next to Alexander. They begin to reenact Alexander’s memories with his old self filling in for his younger self. When the scene is finished, one of three things happens. One, the character walks out of frame, immediately returning Alexander to the present. Two, the camera pans or zooms in a way that pushes them off the screen. Three, Angelopoulos cuts to another scene. In this way Angelopoulos constructs a world that is simultaneously based in reality and completely fabricated from Alexander’s memories.

In his last day, Alexander does not wonder through his thoughts alone. Near the start of the film he rescues a young homeless boy making a living on the streets washing car windows. It is revealed that the young boy, who largely remains a silent enigma, is part of a larger group of street orphans who are preyed upon by the police and kidnappers who sell them into lives of sexual slavery. The boy, an Albanian by birth, is trying to leave Greece. In the film’s most iconic scene, Alexander and the boy approach the border only to find it surrounded by a massive barbed wire fence. Mounted on the other side of the fence are the bodies of Albanians trying to escape into Greece. Angelopoulos exercises wise restraint by keeping the fence in the background of the scene with Alexander and the boy occupying the foreground. As a result, the bodies take on the form of dead silhouettes mounted like trophies. As a gate opens and a guard approaches them, the boy screams that he was lying about his life in Albania and wants to leave.



As the day wanes into night, an unlikely friendship develops between Alexander and the boy. Even though he barely speaks, Alexander develops a strong attachment to the boy. In one scene where the boy tries to leave, Alexander wails for the boy not to leave him. In a sense, the boy becomes the devoted son that Alexander never had. Slowly, the boy brings Alexander out of his stupor and he grows a fresh taste for life.



But Alexander knows that he is in no condition to take care of the boy. In a devastating scene, Alexander sends the boy off on a boat headed for an unknown investigation. It is more than just the departure of a friend for Alexander; it is the departure of what has grown into part of his soul. The film ends on a sunny day on the beach with his dead wife. I won’t reveal the ending. It is too much of a strange enigma, the kind that everyone will have a different opinion on. Suffice to say, it brings up the question of whether or not the scene is real. In fact…it could be argued that it casts a doubt about whether or not the film actually took place. Could it be that the film has been nothing more than a hallucination experienced by an ailing man? You decide.

A film of stark, restrained power, Eternity and a Day is not so much about memories as it is a memory in of itself. As Alexander wonders the streets of his Greek home, he wonders the boulevards of his own inner turmoil and remembrances. The young boy is a beacon of hope for the poor man, but like all things, he too must pass. But for what little time he has left, his memory will live on in Alexander’s mind…just like the film will live on in my own.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eternity_and_a_Day
http://blogcritics.org/video/article/dvd-review-eternity-and-a-day/
http://www.reelviews.net/movies/e/eternity.html
http://www.culturevulture.net/Movies/EternityandaDay.htm

15 comments:

  1. Excellent review,
    This film interest me, but I don't think i'll have time to see it anytime soon, I've got a very long queue of films to see, sometimes I don't know where to start... But I hope I do get around to this someday...

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  2. An eloquent essay, an introduction to a director and a film you have made me curious about and may end up seeing. Excellent indeed. It would be my first Greek movie.

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  3. You know...it's funny...This was my first Greek film as well.

    Everything turned out better than expected.

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  4. Nate, I'll admit that ETERNITY AND A DAY isn't the kind of film I would typically seek out, but you wrote about it beautifully. I could understand why it captured your imagination. Great review!

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  5. I didn't really think that it was my kind of film, either.

    But I was really surprised. It does start to drag near the end...but that was probably due to the fact that I have a very American attention span.

    I would highly recommend checking it out. It is a transcendent film.

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  6. I'm sure you have done it better justice than me.

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  7. Oh please....I'm sure you would do a great job.

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  8. Great review. Easily my least favorite Angelopoulos film that I have seen thus far, but he's one of my favorite directors which means I think it's a good film. Just 'good' almost seems like an insult, though. Nothing to be done about it, though. I don't know about this 'infamous' bit you're talking about - he's beloved for his long, slow films! There are certain things you just can't achieve until you factor time into the dimensions of a shot, and he does it as well as anyone. His other films may not exactly map the dream experience of this film, which seemed to appeal to you, but I think you'll be able to give him the benefit of the doubt. If you ever get around to seeing his other films, perhaps especially Landscape in the Mist, it'd be great to see you write about it.

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  9. To be honest....this is the first Greek film that I have EVER seen...

    But if this is any indication of quality, then I am happily looking forward to more.

    Thank you for the recommendation and the comment!

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  10. I have one question!
    What's the name of the song that they sang at the beach?
    plz help me.

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    1. https://youtu.be/R-b5Vwl50No
      It is An old song back to 1948 named Pame San Allote or let's go always.

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  11. Does anyone know the name of the song that a woman sings in the boat scene? Much time I've spent on searching for this song without finding it. Also it is not listed in the film soundtrack. Can anyone help? Here is the song, I wish to know its name https://youtu.be/1_ZgdDaHONE

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  12. the song in the boat is "asma asmaton" (ti oraia pou ine i agapi mou), means "the song of the songs" or how pretty is my love
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEXqQnOmNs0

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