To meteoro vima tou pelargou (1991)

Director:

Theodoros Angelopoulos

Writers:

Theodoros Angelopoulos (idea)
Theodoros Angelopoulos (writer)

Release Date:

4 December 1991 (France)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

Alexandre, a TV reporter, is working for a few days in a border town, where a lot of refugees from Albania...

Plot Keywords:

Border | Politician | Refugee | River | Video Footage

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Marcello Mastroianni	...	Missing Politician
Jeanne Moreau	...	The Woman
Gregory Patrikareas	...	Alexandre the Reporter (as Gregory Karr)
Ilias Logothetis	...	Colonel
Dora Hrisikou	...	The Girl
Vassilis Bouyiouklakis	...	Production Manager
Dimitris Poulikakos	...	Chief Photographer
Gerasimos Skiadaressis	...	Waiter
Tasos Apostolou	...	Perchman
Akis Sakellariou	...	Sound Operator
Athinodoros Prousalis	...	Hotel-keeper
Mihalis Giannatos	...	Shopkeeper
Christoforos Nezer	...	Parliament's President
Yilmaz Hassan	...	Hanged Man
Benjamin Ritter	...	Sound Operator

Also Known As:

Le pas suspendu de la cigogne (France) (Switzerland: French title)
Μετέωρο βήμα του πελαργού, Το (Greece)
Il passo sospeso della cigogna (Italy)
The Suspended Step of the Stork

Runtime:

143 min | Greece:126 min

Country:

France | Greece | Italy | Switzerland

Language:

French | English | Greek

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:L | Singapore:PG | Sweden:11

Filming Locations:

Florina, Macedonia, Greece

Company:

Arena Films

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Yperoha plasmata: Sta gipeda i Ellada anastenazei (#1.7)" (2007)

Suspended Step of the Stork

Question: how does a bourgeois director treat a subject like immigration ? Answer: by turning it into an existential alienation parable.

Yes, we're back in the early 90s, just after the disintegration of the Eastern block and the subsequent flooding of immigrants in the European Union, and what better way to deal with the subject than making a film about an existentially alienated middle-class journalist, an existentially alienated upper-class politician, his existentially alienated rich wife, and so on.

In the background, immigrants are asking for political asylum in an unnamed Greek village near the borders. I guess that way Angelopoulos can show some social awareness, while dealing with the existentially troubled upper-classes. I mean honestly, the scene where some top-ranking army-officer curses his destiny cause he sent his daughter to study in London is enough to make you puke.

Anyway, it can't be that bad, Angelopoulos is a master of the cinematic art after all, right ? Wrong. It's at this point when his mannerisms start getting too artificial, sort of like a filtered image in Photoshop. His usual tricks show up: there are blurred windows, blurred lights, a weird wedding, a walk by the river-shore, and people with yellow water-coats. Also Mastroianni breaks new ground for most sleepwalking performance ever. Avoid really. Go for his early films.