Trilogia II: I skoni tou hronou (2008) User Reviews

Not sure the pieces fit...

[runamokprods · 7/10 · 13 February 2012]

Like all of this great director's challenging work, I have a feeling this will improve with repeated viewings, as the sometimes disparate story stands make their connections more clear. On first look I found this full of thrilling moments and beautiful images (as one comes to take for granted with Angelopoulos), as well as a terrific, fun and heartbreaking performance by Bruno Ganz.

However, I also found myself more lost than usual, even being used to Angelopoulos' complex, time, place and style shifting style. At the end of the day I felt unsure how it all added up, or even that the pieces really did all fit. Not unlike an earlier poster I felt a bit like I was watching someone else trying to do a film in Angelopoulos' style, and not quite

pulling it off. That's perhaps a bit harsh. but there's some truth in it.

It felt less sure handed than I'm used to. Character motivations and story choices felt forced or distractingly hard to buy. Even when Angelopoulos' earlier films confused me the viewer, I always felt strongly that the film-maker was never confused, he knew just how and why the pieces fit together, intellectually, thematically and emotionally. This time I wasn't quite as sure.

Hard watch

[kosmasp · 6/10 · 9 June 2009]

I haven't seen the previous movie, which this one follows. But I don't think that it matters that much. This movie with a heavy burden is really hard to swallow. The German actor who plays along William Dafoe said so himself. At the Berlinale screening he came up after the movie and stated (more or less, this is not an exact quote): "It is my first time watching this movie, too. I have to admit it's pretty heavy and hard to watch!"

Which made me admire the actor even more (he also played "Hitler" in the movie "Downfall"). And considering the ending of this movie is really lyrical and aspirational, it's almost a shame, that I really had to fight myself during other parts of the movie. It's an odd movie, which definitely will strike a nerve with the viewer. The only question is, will it be an enjoyable enough experience or not? I can't answer that for you, but it's slow pace and a storyline that is anything but linear, will confuse and appall more people than it will attract

Good

[Cosmoeticadotcom · 7/10 · 21 June 2012]

Other than the acting, the rest of the technical aspects of the film were fine: the end scene, after Jacob and Eleni die, where Spyros and his granddaughter walk out into a snowy urban scene, is beautiful, but, again, bereft of real emotion (the voice-over, from Dafoe, even rips off the ending from James Joyce's The Dead), for these two characters have barely been on screen all film, and in the few scenes they are in, barely register concern or emotion. And none of the scenes in this film, as lovely as they are, achieve the power of similar scenes in earlier Angelopoulos films, partly due to the lack in other areas, but mostly due to the anomy this film inhabits and inflicts in its viewers. Cinematographer Andreas Sinanos does his usual good work, and the film is radiant, in its 1.85:1 aspect ration, but the best part of the film is the scoring by Eleni Karaindrou, which is unfortunately never put to the best possible use, due to the visuals that Angelopoulos and editors Yannis Tsitsopoulos and Giorgos Chelidonides pair it with. Also, this film has substantially more shorter takes than most of Angelopoulos's canon, and far fewer longer ones. The script, by Angelopoulos, with some help, apparently, from Tonino Guerra and Petros Markaris, is not up to the usual standards of these men. The DVD, by Artificial Eye, has no extra features, and is in a Region 2 format, so North American viewers will need a codeless DVD player. Languages used are English, Russian, German, and Greek, with subtitling, as necessary.

Overall, The Dust Of Time has glimpses of what made Theo Angelopoulos one of the all time greats of cinema, but not enough to make this merely solid, but frustrating, film, great. It is not a bad film, like the later films of other cinematic greats like Ingmar Bergman (Saraband) nor Federico Fellini (Intervista), but it definitely is an 'old master's film,' in the worst possible, and most self indulgent ways. Still, for its moments and its technical skills, it should be seen. More importantly, though, it should have been better. Much better.

Angelopoulos' Cinematic Legacy

[ilpohirvonen · 9/10 · 29 March 2013]

In 2012 the legendary Greek filmmaker Theodoros Angelopoulos was shooting a film called "The Other Sea" which was supposed to complete a trilogy which he started with "The Weeping Meadow" (2004) and "The Dust of Time" (2008). Unfortunately, on 24th January he passed away due to which the film got canceled and the trilogy was never completed. Thus "The Dust of Time" remains as Angelopoulos' final film -- his cinematic legacy to us -- which we can observe as a summary of his style, and a reflection of his oeuvre.

Angelopoulos was one of those few surviving masters who had the ability to form a fruitful synthesis of personal and collective experience. He was a poet of time, in an ontological sense, but also a vital interpreter of our time, giving a unique perception of reality which many of us share, but find hard to express. The milieus of his films always exhale misery, but still include breathtaking, ubiquitous beauty. The images of wind, snowfall and rainy roads do not give form to a mere landscape -- for the landscape has a soul of its own. The viewer looks at the landscape, and it gazes back to him. It is an elegiac moment of cohesion with the universe.

In brief, "The Dust of Time" is a story about a film director and his life. There are two different time levels: the director is making a film, in the present, about his parents' life in Europe after Stalin's death in 1953. Knowing Angelopoulos' style, it is not surprising that these two levels are overlapping. However, understanding the details of the story line isn't important. What is essential, is to see and experience. It is as if each image was a cloth, hiding the absolute image that will never be seen. Each image works as a continuity of its own.

The fact that the protagonist of "The Dust of Time" is a filmmaker associates the film with Angelopoulos' two earlier works "Voyage to Cythera" (1984) and "Ulysses' Gaze" (1995), both of which deal with the possibilities of the cinema to depict reality. However, in "The Dust of Time" Angelopoulos concentrates more on man's loneliness with his memories. Another characteristic theme for Angelopoulos is the relation between past and present. In "The Dust of Time", this theme is treated through dialog between the two time levels. In numerous scenes time and space change abruptly, without a word of explanation, as characters from different periods may come in physical contact with each other. It is never clear whether it's dream or real, but such clarity is unessential and would harm the film to a large extent.

In a word, "The Dust of Time" studies the emotion of existential loss. In his poetics of space, Angelopoulos studies thematic contrasts of appearance and disappearance, absence and presence, distance and intimacy. People are constantly separated by objects that are sometimes concrete, sometimes abstract. This is veritably philosophical, but this film isn't "intellectual" by any means. To my mind, "The Dust of Time" can be easily understood on an emotional level. All it requires is an open mind and a soul capable of receiving beauty. The whole film is more like an on-going poetic impression rather than a strict story. During the film, the spectator goes through emotions of despair, remorse and yearning for touch with the characters.

Although these themes are very universal, some viewers find "The Dust of Time" hard to watch. Arguably it is a film that most likely isn't for everybody, but I would still recommend it for anybody since it asks so little, and gives so much in return. All in all, it's a film, made by an aging man, studying the loneliness of being in the universe as the dust of time sweeps across space -- sometimes so quickly that we hardly pay any attention to it; sometimes so slowly that we seem to wither away with it; and sometimes the dust seems to remain stagnant as though not moving at all.

Three generations through one broken love story

[mehmet_kurtkaya · 9/10 · 22 December 2009]

Master of broken love stories, Theo Angelopoulos, presents us the story of the last 60 years, the struggle between the absoluteness of love and the sadness of life.

Three generations move from one place to another like leaves in the winds of immense political changes while we witness the parallels between their personal lives and those social changes in lyrical imagery.

The two different paths taken by lovers who have fled Greece after the defeat of the Greek leftists by the American and British led Royalist army forms the basis of the film. Spyros goes to the US and Eleni to the Soviet Union. Spryos' attempt to take Eleni out of the Soviet Union ends dramatically. Eleni is sent to Siberia and Sypros to jail. They are then separated for decades but finally get together in the US. Their love child has become a movie director whose sole purpose in life is his career in the West while their granddaughter has to live the teenage life of divorced parents, lost in a life with no purpose.

These social changes accompany political changes, somehow West starts resembling East. Siberian gulag security has now become Western airport security while the Russian secret police did turn into Berlin police. On this gloomy background Angelopoulos is not too pessimistic, there is a glimmer of hope, the only generation that can save the Gen Xers from their selfish Baby boomer parents are their grandparents.

Overall, a wonderful movie by one the greatest directors of our time, not only packed with strong historic and political content but also beautiful poetry with many dramatic scenes, one especially standing out. And while Piccoli is good, Bruno Ganz offers a great performance.

Dreamlike or pretentious

[hypno27 · 3/10 · 30 May 2011]

The non-linear structure is less off putting than the over acting, and the plain nonsensical plotting that means you have little idea of motivations, and no-one goes through this in a way that anyone would in those situations.

From the scene where the lovers are arrested in Kazakhstan - they only missed the train because they chose to make love in an open tram in the middle of a -28 degree winter scene. You have to suspend belief more with this film than with a Michael Bay blockbuster as the motivations of the people involved don't even have a logic in the world they inhabit

Utter tosh

Truly theatrical and poetic

[ikari1 · 10/10 · 1 March 2013]

I was not ever really attracted to Theo Agelopoulos work, until I saw this film. I actually decided to watch it because of the appearance of great international actors in it. Oh well, this movie is like watching an elaborate theatrical stage production. It really feels like you are in the theater, it does not feel like a movie. It has that stage drama vibe. Mesmerizing. You will definitely also love the cinematography on this one. I am not joking when I say that you can actually freeze frame and print screen every frame on this movie! The colors and the perspective, the light and shadows, the objects, everything is like a moving painting. I got no idea what kind of genius is required to do so, but Agelopoulos has done it! The story is easy to follow, but as you expect from a European production is very delicate and presented with flashbacks and allegories.

If you are a person who likes Hollywood movies, then I suggest you skip this. If you are in to European cinema, then this movie is for you. And if you are interested in Art, painting, mesmerizing visual images and theater, then you should really should watch this movie!

unfortunately a miss by one of cinema's greatest auteurs ...

[jimdandylove · 5/10 · 5 March 2009]

when you love & admire a very unique way of intellectual storytelling combined with an inimitable visionary style plus transmitting metaphorically encoded historical &/or political messages or agendas, that will crucially influence the persons involved, then you have to be in great anticipation as soon as a new film by angelopoulos is announced. he certainly is in a league of his own when it comes to auteurist masterworks: the travelling players, Alexander the great, the hunters, voyage to kythera, landscape in the mist, are undoubtedly movies of unparalleled beauty & expressiveness. of course, you may criticize the one-sidedness of his recurring theme (greek history in the 20th century intervening & intertwining with the individual fates of angelopoulos' protagonists) or the lack of depth or even shallowness of his characters (they seem hollow because they usually represent archetypes & not persons per se), and an irritating tendency to allow his actors bursts into melodramatic gestures & exclamations: minor flaws you quickly forget, because you are drawn into a cinematic maelstrom you don't want to miss. angelopoulos' last achievement though, the dust of time, second film of the so called "trilogia" following the weeping meadow, is a major disappointment i am still recovering from (if you don't mind the hypochondriac touch of my saying so). i saw the movie at the film museum munich, shortly after it premiered in Germany at the berlinale 2009. since angelopoulos obviously denied permission for screening (the film museum hosted an angelopoulos-retrospective, having the dust of time making the final contribution) a projection of the DVD-version was shown instead, with the expected harrowing results. a double-no-go, the organizers at film museum are to blame for: you just don't show an angelopoulos-movie made in 35mm as a DVD beamed on the screen, it's like a diluted premier cru from château Margaux. but the lousy quality of the screening was matched by two hours of what I would mildly call a failed attempt by angelopoulos to make an angelopoulos-movie: it is pretentious & cliché-ridden, it tries to operate on multiple levels none of which has enough substance to either carry the storyline or to make us sympathize with its protagonists. while watching the movie one is constantly reminded that it just wants too much & achieves almost nothing. at least, you may admire the tremendous effort involved in orchestrating the mass-scenes, but you can't get rid of the feeling that this & some remarkably symbolic shots are not enough to rank this higher than average. besides, i haven't seen a movie in a long time that throws its actors' massive talents that easily overboard. of course, you may give it a try, it's an angelopoulos' film, but i do bid you welcome to the club of "the disappointed cineast".

Synopsis

[preisner · 10/10 · 7 November 2007]

Through references to the Thebaid cycle the three films that make up TRILOGY follow the destiny of Hellenism as recorded in the relationship of two people who first meet as children in 1919 during the flight of the Greeks from Odessa only to lose each other and find each other again in different time periods in different parts of the world, living through the great historic events of the 20th century and the turn of the 21st.

The second film is entitled "THE DUST OF TIME" (THE THIRD WING) and unfolds in the former Soviet Union, the Austrian-Hungarian borders, Italy and New York between 1953 and 1974, from the eve of Stalin's death to Nixon's resignation in the United States and the fall of the Greek junta.

The third film is entitled RETURN and is set in present-day New York.

This is a pretentious, badly-acted film

[smarchives-393-25232 · 10 June 2012]

Really desperately disappointing film. Viewed it because Willem Davoe was involved. He appears in this as a rather diminutive man attempting to gain height and volume by displaying a vast growth of hair and always wearing a wide-shouldered, heavy-weather anorak. But I could tolerate this. The film has a plot which attempts a murky exploration of Totalitarianism and the predicament of those caught on the wrong side. It is of child-book, comic-book depth. But again I could put up with that. It is the quality of the direction and the acting which makes this film such an embarrassment. It was abysmal - so poor that I cannot understand why any Producer would have undertaken such a project. But there is one positive feature. Students of film can learn from this how ideological determination and money, combined, can be used to virtually convince the world that a 'work of art' has been produced.

was there a script development meeting for this film?

[imdbsezfyou · 1/10 · 6 September 2009]

We sat through this movie thinking why is this or that scene in the movie, what does this have to do with the plot? We hoped that by the end everything would be slightly more clear. It was not to be.

I think the director in a fit of pique threw the script up in the air and then some minor (and vengeful) underling reassembled it randomly with no regard to the scene being filmed (possibly with scissors and glue-stick).

The film's motifs include: Communism bad? Nihilism bad? Poor parenting bad? Threesomes bad? TV bad? Coherent scripting bad? Deconstructionism good? It's really not clear.

Finally, no German water taxi would EVER have an unchained staircase that would let passengers fall in to the water. The abundant quantity of "achtung" signs everywhere is testament to this fact.