Truly a masterpiece, perhaps the best film of the 90s. Angelopoulos made an incredibly beautiful, poetic and deep film. When you consider its title, many people pay too much attention to the word "Ulysses", when "Gaze" is probably more important. This film is about the loss of innocence. The main character, "A", searches for the Mannakis films. Pioneer filmmakers in the region, "A" wants to recover their innocent sight, that first sight of the early days in cinema. That search takes him on a journey around the Balkans, during the war. Angelopoulos wants to show us that, just as we have lost our innocent gaze towards films, there's no possible innocent gaze in a war, no objective approach. There's too much history behind, too much baggage, too much hate. There are no good or bad sides; everybody kills each other. That's why the final showing of the Mannakis tapes is so touching. Finally, a clean sight, an innocent gaze.
Review of Ulysses' Gaze
