The more I see of Theo Angelopolous' work the more convinced I am that
he was possibly the greatest director in the history of the movies and
yet at almost 3 1/2 hours long "Alexander the Great" is not an easy film
to sit through. You know while watching it that he could have made a
much shorter film if he had wanted to without sacrificing any of the
plot but Angelopolous is a man who likes to hold shots even when nothing
much is happening in them; in other words he gives you time, (and lots
of it), to take in the action or lack of it.
This, like so much of
his work, is a film told almost entirely in images rather than words and
every shot is composed for the maximum dramatic effect. Working again
with cinematographer Ghiorgos Arvanitis there are images here as fine as
any in cinema. Even if the film does seem overlong it is always
visually stunning. The Alexander of this film isn't the great Greek
warrior but a bandit who has kidnapped a party of English aristocrats
and holds them to ransom while at the same time taking over the village
commune in the mountains where his presence is virtually that of a
warlord.
As with other Angelopolous political films this, perhaps
unfortunately, tends towards the polemical rather than the dramatic. The
aristocrats, for example, are used purely as props and even Alexander
himself is more of a figurehead rather than a character in his own
right. Angelopolous' habit of shooting mostly in long-shot means we
never get close enough to any of the characters to really get to know
them. Here we have a film in which there are only groups rather than
individuals and narratively this is a difficult film to follow. Time and
again I lost track of who was doing what to whom. Perhaps this is why,
however great the film looks, it is never the historical epic that say,
Visconti's "The Leopard" was. Yet this remains a considerable
achievement. Films, particularly epics, this rigorous don't come along
very often. This is a film that demands a great deal from its audience
but stick with it and you will be amply rewarded. Like all of this great
director's work it is a film you will take with you and brood over for a
very long time. It may not be his greatest film but even Angelopolous
working just below his best is still stands head and shoulders above
his contemporaries.
The films reviewed here represent those I have liked or loved over the years. It is not a list of my favourite films but all the films reviewed here are worth seeing and worth seeking out. I know many of you won't agree with me on a lot of these but hopefully you will grant me, and the films that appear here, our place in the sun. Thanks for reading.
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