While not as thoroughly awe-inspiring as "Ulysses Gaze," "Eternity and a Day" is one of the most masterful films I've seen. It is full of beautiful, haunting images that have stayed with me long since seeing it. Like the other Angelopoulos films I've seen, it is a somewhat dense, contemplative film, but it shouldn't be seen as intimidating or unaccessible. The storyline, despite the frequent flashbacks, is easy to follow, the the emotional impact never ceases. An impressive, inspiring film.
46 Reviews
Masterly Meditation on Life, Literature and Death
l_rawjalaurence22 April 2014
The basic plot of ETERNITY AND A DAY is straightforward enough - an aging writer Alexandre (Bruno Ganz) meets a young illegal Albainian immigrant (Achileas Skevis) and takes his home. As he does so, the writer reflects on his own life; his past; his relationship with his mother and his wife; and what he has achieved in his life. Yet Theodoros Angeloploulos' film is at heart a meditation on the act of writing: when we set down words on the page, do they actually record our experiences, or can they only provide an approximation of what we are feeling at any particular moment? Alexandre is perpetually tormented by this thought - although successful in his chosen career, he believes that he has been a failure, simply because of the notion that words can only allude to experience, not record it. The child, in his innocence, believes that words can be found, or bought; but however much one pays for that word (in terms of buying a book, for instance, or when a writer receives royalties for what they have done), those words are still inadequate. They are both allusive - in the sense that their relationships to actions and things are contingent upon circumstances - and elusive (in the sense that such relationships are only approximate). With such uncertainties in his mind, Alexandre comes to understand that there is no "final" distinction between "life" and "death" (after all, they are only words); he has to experience both as a continuum, without the support of anyone. Visually speaking, the film is full of stylistic ironies: Angelopoloulos' camera is perpetually tracking forwards; we see cars in the traffic-choked streets driving off to somewhere, or traveling on the freeway; while the characters are seen crossing the frame from left to right. All suggest some kind of forward movement, a desire to go from one place to another. However such movements are not "progressive" at all, but rather suggest a desire not reflect on life's futility (as Alexandre discovers through his words). In a sense such movements are an evasion rather than an engagement with existence. The same also goes for the "narrative" of the film: Angelopoloulos shows that it is not particularly significant: what matters more is for viewers to reflect on the mise-en-scene within individual frames; to listen to the words, focus on the actors' expressions and body movements, and understand Alexandre's state of mind. A long and complex film, ETERNITY AND A DAY befits repeated viewings.
A Welcome Surprise
Pigtail5 November 1998
"An Eternity and a Day", as the title translated in English means, is the answer Alexandros -the film's hero- receives as an epiphany, while pondering on the meaning of Tomorrow.
We surmise that he has only a few days left to live, and watch him face a dilemma: should he choose to give some meaning to the rest of his life, learn to love, care and express himself to the people he's in close contact with; or wither away, a stranger in his own life only to die a pointless death?
Contrary to popular opinion, the film's concept is really this simple.
Theo Angelopoulos has managed to win the appraisal of many, at the same time obtaining a hateful opposition. And while there are sequences in the film which will have you rolling your eyes and proclaiming "Get on with it!", it's unique pictorial beauty and lyricism will more than make up for the lack of movement.
Some of the downsides are the director's constant moulding of the world (and a strange one it is, where an 8 year old boy can debate like an adult and everyone spouts poetry instead of words) to fit his own megalomaniacal impulses - but maybe that's not a sin after all, maybe that's just what Creation is all about...
A deserved 7.
We surmise that he has only a few days left to live, and watch him face a dilemma: should he choose to give some meaning to the rest of his life, learn to love, care and express himself to the people he's in close contact with; or wither away, a stranger in his own life only to die a pointless death?
Contrary to popular opinion, the film's concept is really this simple.
Theo Angelopoulos has managed to win the appraisal of many, at the same time obtaining a hateful opposition. And while there are sequences in the film which will have you rolling your eyes and proclaiming "Get on with it!", it's unique pictorial beauty and lyricism will more than make up for the lack of movement.
Some of the downsides are the director's constant moulding of the world (and a strange one it is, where an 8 year old boy can debate like an adult and everyone spouts poetry instead of words) to fit his own megalomaniacal impulses - but maybe that's not a sin after all, maybe that's just what Creation is all about...
A deserved 7.
Masterpiece
zetes9 August 2002
A film straight from my dreams, drifting in and out of logical existence into the land of the dead. The story, as much as there is a story, involves an aging poet (played by European film staple Bruno Ganz) who has a terminal disease. He is apparently destined to die tomorrow, and we spend his final day following him, from his waking to midnight. Early in the morning he picks up a young homeless boy, an Albanian refugee, who tries to wash his window at a stoplight. Together they go on silent adventures. At regular intervals the film flashes back to Ganz's interactions with his beautiful wife, who never appears in the present, nor do we find out where she is. Most of the film's power is visual and aural. It is truly a sensual experience, along the lines of a Tarkovsky film. Because of its sensual prominence and lack of a coherent plot, it will surely fade from the surface of my memory. However, it is guaranteed to haunt me for the rest of my life. 10/10.
Theo Angelopoulos Philosopher / film-maker
pmaniatis22 August 2001
Review of the film eternity and a day mia aiwnioteta kai mia mera By Peter Maniatis
THEO ANGELOPOULOS THE PHILOSOPHER / FILM MAKER
The issues that this film addresses are "time" and "logos". The question "how long is tomorrow" involves the concept of time.
Since by the expression of "tomorrow" we understand both, the day after today and an eternity, we require the force of "logos" to resolve this chaotic situation. For Alexandros, the use of logos, the accumulation of word-wealth, brings order to his troubled world. It sheds light to his past, present and future.
Defining time as A-series and B-series We can look at the concept of time as Past, Present, and Future. Lets call this an A-series, Past Present Future. Alexandros' past is when he was young, his wife, his friends, his young family, his job, his present is that he is old, and alone, and his future, his tomorrow, is death.
Now let us look at P. P. & F. in relation to each other. The arrival of Captain Cook in Australia is a past event. The destruction of Earth or the Second Coming if you wish, is a Future event. But there was a time that the arrival of Captain Cook was a Future event, and there will be a time that the destruction of the Earth will be a Past event. So we can say that Past Present and Future can be viewed in relative terms, without defined boarders.
In the film, we see Alexandros in his present form, with his rain coat and seemingly old, intermingling with people in spaces of his past, in the form of the time that the events took place at a present time.
With this perspective, we view past, present, and future, relatively to our position in space that we find ourselves at the time (space time). Alexandros does just that.
DEFINING TIME BY WAY OF CHANGE:
Dimension of change in the sense of coming to be and passing away.
Alexandros came to be, he was born, he grew old (changed from young to old) and then tomorrow he will pass away. It is the same with everything in nature. The young child is young at the present time, he too will get old and eventually pass away.
Changes in space, variations we experience in space. When we say that the road changes from being narrow to become wide we speak metaphorically. Philosophers connected with the theory of relativity do not see that there is a difference in the change of the road becoming wider and in the changes of the person becoming older. Events deemed past in one frame of reference are deemed future in other frames. The difference is only subjective, experiential, rather than reflecting an ontological fact.
Events of Alexandros past are viewed from a spatial position in the present, and according to Agelopoulos, those past events are at the same time present events. Alexandros wears the same raincoat and is the same age. Past events are present in his mind. One can say that looking at time, from space time perspective, time is static.
Static view of time: According to Parmenides and Zeno, appearance of temporal change is an illusion.
Dynamic view of time: Heracletus and Aristotle, held that future lacks the reality of present and Past. Reality continuously is added to as time passes.
The theory of relativity allows that some events are past or future no matter which frame of reference is selected. The relativity of simultaneity, looking at past present and future at the same time, only requires us to revise our conception of the present.
Alexandros, I think, does just that. He revises is conception of his present situation relatively, from space time perspective.
THE THREE BIKE RIDERS DRESSED IN YELLOW
The Fates, Klotho, Atropos and Lachesis, the daughters of Necessity, are the three forms of time out of which human life is woven. In the film, the three bike riders we see in the distance and dressed in yellow represent them.
In the ancient Greek myth, there is a cosmic spindle where all strands of human life exist separately. In the film, Alexandros', Ana's, his mother, his daughters', and the child's lives all exist separately.
Klotho spins them together at some present time, the wife with the husband, the father with the children in their young years, the old man and the child refugee.
Atropos, the future, will unravel them as to give the illusion of freedom. The future of the child seems to be free. He does not go back to his grand mother, he goes of to seemingly freedom, but all the time his life is determined by Lachesis the Aloter.
In this chaotic situation, it is only logos that brings order, that gives some sense to seemingly world of fate or chance.
LOGOS:
Logos in its multiple meanings, word, speech, dialogue, language, debate, account, etc. makes the above thoughts possible. It is the uniting force. In the chaotic world of change, logos comes to give some comfort by ordering things, by putting events and actions in their right place.
Alexandros, in order to make sense of his life, wants as many words as he can find, to make sense of the time he spend being alive. And in the spirit of Capitalism, he is prepared to buy the words. He is prepared to buy them and gain his freedom, freedom from the tyranny of time, from the tyranny of death. Like his predecessor, Dionysios Solomos who was buying words to write the Ode to Freedom that became the Greek National Anthem.
Alexandros, I think gained his freedom. At the end of the day he was making plans. "Tomorrow" after all, did not seem for Alexandros the end of time. It did not seem the end of his time.
A very good film.
THEO ANGELOPOULOS THE PHILOSOPHER / FILM MAKER
The issues that this film addresses are "time" and "logos". The question "how long is tomorrow" involves the concept of time.
Since by the expression of "tomorrow" we understand both, the day after today and an eternity, we require the force of "logos" to resolve this chaotic situation. For Alexandros, the use of logos, the accumulation of word-wealth, brings order to his troubled world. It sheds light to his past, present and future.
Defining time as A-series and B-series We can look at the concept of time as Past, Present, and Future. Lets call this an A-series, Past Present Future. Alexandros' past is when he was young, his wife, his friends, his young family, his job, his present is that he is old, and alone, and his future, his tomorrow, is death.
Now let us look at P. P. & F. in relation to each other. The arrival of Captain Cook in Australia is a past event. The destruction of Earth or the Second Coming if you wish, is a Future event. But there was a time that the arrival of Captain Cook was a Future event, and there will be a time that the destruction of the Earth will be a Past event. So we can say that Past Present and Future can be viewed in relative terms, without defined boarders.
In the film, we see Alexandros in his present form, with his rain coat and seemingly old, intermingling with people in spaces of his past, in the form of the time that the events took place at a present time.
With this perspective, we view past, present, and future, relatively to our position in space that we find ourselves at the time (space time). Alexandros does just that.
DEFINING TIME BY WAY OF CHANGE:
Dimension of change in the sense of coming to be and passing away.
Alexandros came to be, he was born, he grew old (changed from young to old) and then tomorrow he will pass away. It is the same with everything in nature. The young child is young at the present time, he too will get old and eventually pass away.
Changes in space, variations we experience in space. When we say that the road changes from being narrow to become wide we speak metaphorically. Philosophers connected with the theory of relativity do not see that there is a difference in the change of the road becoming wider and in the changes of the person becoming older. Events deemed past in one frame of reference are deemed future in other frames. The difference is only subjective, experiential, rather than reflecting an ontological fact.
Events of Alexandros past are viewed from a spatial position in the present, and according to Agelopoulos, those past events are at the same time present events. Alexandros wears the same raincoat and is the same age. Past events are present in his mind. One can say that looking at time, from space time perspective, time is static.
Static view of time: According to Parmenides and Zeno, appearance of temporal change is an illusion.
Dynamic view of time: Heracletus and Aristotle, held that future lacks the reality of present and Past. Reality continuously is added to as time passes.
The theory of relativity allows that some events are past or future no matter which frame of reference is selected. The relativity of simultaneity, looking at past present and future at the same time, only requires us to revise our conception of the present.
Alexandros, I think, does just that. He revises is conception of his present situation relatively, from space time perspective.
THE THREE BIKE RIDERS DRESSED IN YELLOW
The Fates, Klotho, Atropos and Lachesis, the daughters of Necessity, are the three forms of time out of which human life is woven. In the film, the three bike riders we see in the distance and dressed in yellow represent them.
In the ancient Greek myth, there is a cosmic spindle where all strands of human life exist separately. In the film, Alexandros', Ana's, his mother, his daughters', and the child's lives all exist separately.
Klotho spins them together at some present time, the wife with the husband, the father with the children in their young years, the old man and the child refugee.
Atropos, the future, will unravel them as to give the illusion of freedom. The future of the child seems to be free. He does not go back to his grand mother, he goes of to seemingly freedom, but all the time his life is determined by Lachesis the Aloter.
In this chaotic situation, it is only logos that brings order, that gives some sense to seemingly world of fate or chance.
LOGOS:
Logos in its multiple meanings, word, speech, dialogue, language, debate, account, etc. makes the above thoughts possible. It is the uniting force. In the chaotic world of change, logos comes to give some comfort by ordering things, by putting events and actions in their right place.
Alexandros, in order to make sense of his life, wants as many words as he can find, to make sense of the time he spend being alive. And in the spirit of Capitalism, he is prepared to buy the words. He is prepared to buy them and gain his freedom, freedom from the tyranny of time, from the tyranny of death. Like his predecessor, Dionysios Solomos who was buying words to write the Ode to Freedom that became the Greek National Anthem.
Alexandros, I think gained his freedom. At the end of the day he was making plans. "Tomorrow" after all, did not seem for Alexandros the end of time. It did not seem the end of his time.
A very good film.
A true masterpiece of human emotion
Ricky-3710 June 1999
This film was such a pleasurable experience to watch. I was expecting a considerably depressing venture but the end left me filled with a variety of conflicting emotions, including a hint of rapture and a dash of melancholy. There are times where Angelopoulos left me contemplating about the life I have led. To many critics, the pace of this film was too slow, on the other hand I felt that it flowed beautifully, taking its time to arouse the audience's emotions. The music by Eleni Karaindrou touched my soul for it was able to guide the actors to make a truly magnificent tale from the heart.
Great film
Cosmoeticadotcom10 September 2008
Warning: Spoilers
The 1998 film by Greek director Theo Angelopoulos, Eternity And A Day (Mia Aioniotita Kai Mia Mera or Μια αιωνιότητα και μια μέρα), is not merely another film about a supposed poet wherein the art of poetry and the act of poesizing are never on display. Yes, it's true that, technically, neither are on screen, but it is a superior film about a supposed poet wherein the art of poetry and the act of poesizing are never on display, for the film does capture the dead cliché of 'a soul of a poet' as well as just about any I've ever seen. It does it with imagery, and Angelopoulos's patented long takes, but it does capture it, and exceedingly well. The film was not only directed by Angelopoulos, but he wrote the screenplay. That it won that year's Cannes Film Festival's coveted Palm D'Or shows that, sometimes, quality still counts.
The tale subtly weaves the past, present, and future tenses of a dying man, the bearded poet Alexander (Bruno Ganz, best known for starring in Wim Wenders' Wings Of Desire, and the later Adolf Hitler biopic Downfall, as Hitler), as he muses on life a day before he is to enter a hospital for an unspecified 'test.' In this manner, the film is in the fine tradition of films on dying men trying top come to grips with their lives, such as Akira Kurosawa's Ikiru, and Ingmar Bergman's Wild Strawberries. Yet, where the former film achieves its aims by balancing out the life of the dying man with that of a young woman, then turns the film on its head by dealing with the legacy of the man after his death, and the latter film evokes dread by displaying the subconscious memories of its lead character, Eternity And A Day splits the difference, as Alexander, after leaving his seaside apartment in Thessaloniki, after learning he has a terminal illness and must enter a hospital the next day, muses on a neighbor across the way who mirrors his taste in music, befriends a young unnamed immigrant Albanian boy (Achilleas Skevis) who is being exploited and slips in and out of his and others' pasts by simply walking into them. Angelopoulos does not cut to the past. His characters' pasts are extensions of their presents . Of course, the length of most of the takes, with the shortest being longer than most Hollywood shots, means most speed-addicted American viewers will be bored by the film. Yet, can there be a better recommendation for such a work? And, despite the long takes, the 126 minute long film feels far shorter, and this is because each scene leaves an immense intellectual and emotional impact. It was written by Angelopoulos, longtime Fellini screenwriter Tonino Guerra ,and Petros Markaris. The scoring by Eleni Karaindrou is pitch perfect, as it never overwhelms nor guides the viewer beyond what the scenes' immanent power holds.
The acting by Ganz is wonderful, and a textbook display of full body acting. In the modern scenes he moves slowly and with a slump in his bearing, while when he enters the past, he has alacrity and grace. It is stated, in online descriptions of the film, that Ganz's lines were dubbed into Greek, but this presents little problem as there is not much dialogue, Alexander's facial hair partially covers his lips, and many of the speaking scenes are from a distance or the back. Again, the conveyance of his emotional and psychological states is predominantly by bodily acting. The same is not true for the boy, and Achilleas Skevis gives yet another terrific acting performance for a European child actor. His face has hints of the American Culkin acting clan, yet he is far more subtle and expressive, and when he jokes to Alexander that 'buying words' on the docks may be expensive, there is an impishness to his glinting eyes that few American brat actors could capture .Eternity And A Day is another great film by a master of the art who has been sorely neglected in the United States. It asks of its two lead characters, Why am I always a stranger in exile?, and gives no clear answer, save to estrange the two of them from each other and themselves .Alexander's final estrangement is not as cheery, and comes as he enters his old home- the one his daughter has sold for demolition. He looks about, exits out the back door, and into the sunny past where Anna and other friends are singing. They stop, ask him to join them, then they all dance, and soon, there is only the poet and his wife in motion. Then, she slowly pulls away, and he claims his hearing is gone. He also cannot see her, it seems. He calls out and asks how long tomorrow will be, after he has told her he refuses to go into the hospital, as planned. She tells him tomorrow will last eternity and a day. The film ends with Alexander, back to us, mumbling in untranslated Greek (do we really need to know what he is saying at this point, anyway?) watching the waves on the ocean do what they do, for a long time. It is in moments like this that Angelopoulos reveals that, while he is the equal of the best filmmakers in the art's history, such as Fellini or Bergman, he has more seriousness than the former, and a more profound empathy than the latter. Where that ultimately places him on the scale of the cinematic pantheon is to be argued over, but not the fact that he belongs. He and this film are that great.
The tale subtly weaves the past, present, and future tenses of a dying man, the bearded poet Alexander (Bruno Ganz, best known for starring in Wim Wenders' Wings Of Desire, and the later Adolf Hitler biopic Downfall, as Hitler), as he muses on life a day before he is to enter a hospital for an unspecified 'test.' In this manner, the film is in the fine tradition of films on dying men trying top come to grips with their lives, such as Akira Kurosawa's Ikiru, and Ingmar Bergman's Wild Strawberries. Yet, where the former film achieves its aims by balancing out the life of the dying man with that of a young woman, then turns the film on its head by dealing with the legacy of the man after his death, and the latter film evokes dread by displaying the subconscious memories of its lead character, Eternity And A Day splits the difference, as Alexander, after leaving his seaside apartment in Thessaloniki, after learning he has a terminal illness and must enter a hospital the next day, muses on a neighbor across the way who mirrors his taste in music, befriends a young unnamed immigrant Albanian boy (Achilleas Skevis) who is being exploited and slips in and out of his and others' pasts by simply walking into them. Angelopoulos does not cut to the past. His characters' pasts are extensions of their presents . Of course, the length of most of the takes, with the shortest being longer than most Hollywood shots, means most speed-addicted American viewers will be bored by the film. Yet, can there be a better recommendation for such a work? And, despite the long takes, the 126 minute long film feels far shorter, and this is because each scene leaves an immense intellectual and emotional impact. It was written by Angelopoulos, longtime Fellini screenwriter Tonino Guerra ,and Petros Markaris. The scoring by Eleni Karaindrou is pitch perfect, as it never overwhelms nor guides the viewer beyond what the scenes' immanent power holds.
The acting by Ganz is wonderful, and a textbook display of full body acting. In the modern scenes he moves slowly and with a slump in his bearing, while when he enters the past, he has alacrity and grace. It is stated, in online descriptions of the film, that Ganz's lines were dubbed into Greek, but this presents little problem as there is not much dialogue, Alexander's facial hair partially covers his lips, and many of the speaking scenes are from a distance or the back. Again, the conveyance of his emotional and psychological states is predominantly by bodily acting. The same is not true for the boy, and Achilleas Skevis gives yet another terrific acting performance for a European child actor. His face has hints of the American Culkin acting clan, yet he is far more subtle and expressive, and when he jokes to Alexander that 'buying words' on the docks may be expensive, there is an impishness to his glinting eyes that few American brat actors could capture .Eternity And A Day is another great film by a master of the art who has been sorely neglected in the United States. It asks of its two lead characters, Why am I always a stranger in exile?, and gives no clear answer, save to estrange the two of them from each other and themselves .Alexander's final estrangement is not as cheery, and comes as he enters his old home- the one his daughter has sold for demolition. He looks about, exits out the back door, and into the sunny past where Anna and other friends are singing. They stop, ask him to join them, then they all dance, and soon, there is only the poet and his wife in motion. Then, she slowly pulls away, and he claims his hearing is gone. He also cannot see her, it seems. He calls out and asks how long tomorrow will be, after he has told her he refuses to go into the hospital, as planned. She tells him tomorrow will last eternity and a day. The film ends with Alexander, back to us, mumbling in untranslated Greek (do we really need to know what he is saying at this point, anyway?) watching the waves on the ocean do what they do, for a long time. It is in moments like this that Angelopoulos reveals that, while he is the equal of the best filmmakers in the art's history, such as Fellini or Bergman, he has more seriousness than the former, and a more profound empathy than the latter. Where that ultimately places him on the scale of the cinematic pantheon is to be argued over, but not the fact that he belongs. He and this film are that great.
Flawed, but moving and beautiful
runamokprods20 December 2010
The most Bergmanesque of Angolopoulos's films. Simpler and less epic than most of his work, with fewer of his trademark breathtaking images and grand themes. Yet this story of a dying writer spending his last day before entering the hospital -- never to leave -- has a deeply elegiac melancholy, and his attempts to find meaning by saving an Albanian street urchin are often moving, if occasionally sappy. The same is true of Bruno Ganz' (unfortunately dubbed) relationship with his wife and family, told mainly in flashback, Much is moving, some is hokey and forced. But Ageloupolus' use of images to make film a poetic medium is always worth watching, even when flawed.
The unlimited finitude of love and poetry...
ElMaruecan8227 November 2022
I should have known. A title that contained the word "eternity" sounded almost like an ominous warning. Indeed, Theo Angelopoulos' film is the kind of Palme d'Or winner I dread: the poetic film full of symbolism that I will force myself to appreciate. I could already see myself carefully picking my words in the vocabulary I reserve for 'serious films': abstract notions like "meditative", and "introspective", "fable", "parable" etcaetera etcaetera...
Because this is serious filmmaking, one that takes its subject seriously enough to consider that a melancholic voice-over can transcend the sight of a man wandering in a deserted seaside town during winter. As a matter of fact, it can, the sight of a man walking, climbing, wandering needs some textual content to sustain it. "Eternity and a Day" which is basically a journey into the memories of a Greek poet contemplating the finitude of his love and the incompleteness of his oeuvre is overloaded with such moments of quietness and self-questioning. It's a sort of crossover with "Wings of Desire" (also starring Ganz) and Federico Fellini's "8 ½"
In all fairness, I never got truly disappointed by a Palme D'Or winner but I don't recall a similar reaction since "Uncle Boomee" , there's just so much that my mind can endure before I get desperately seeking some plot. And when the film's melody started for the 345th time, I decided that the next thing I'd watch would be "The Fifth Element". Indeed, "Eternity and a Day" asks the eternal question: what is a great movie, after all? I read nothing but praises for it and even the word "perfect" was used to describe it. Is "Eternity and a Day" so perfect that a few movies lover have watched it and that it is the Great Prize winner of the same year "Life is Beautiful" that is celebrated?
Maybe Roberto Benigni had the merit of telling a universal story that embodied the best (and also the worst) of humanity, he might have been conventional in his approach, but Angelopoulos might have trusted our patience a tad too much. There's some material in the story, you have a dying poet named Alexandros (Bruno Ganz) who abandoned the project of writing an epic poem to complete the work of 19th-century Greek poet, Dionysios Solomos (Fabrizio Bentivoglio) and tries to live the last days of his life meditating on the time he lost, trying to find someone to take care of his dog and then picking a young Albanian kid and trying to send him back to his country.
That sounds like a story and there are some touching scenes but they're diluted in so many interludes and flashbacks that you never know exactly what Angelopoulos is willing to tell us. Of course there's poetry in a man revisiting his old childhood house, the very one sold by his daughter and her husband, or having a talk with his wife (Isabelle Renaud) resurrecting in her younger self, dressed all in white and sharing some moments of joy and tenderness. Of course the imagery is beautiful and there's a nice contrast between the grayish tones of the present and the lively and sunny past.
Still, while I was admiring the azure beauty of Greece and my heart was trying to connect with Alexandros, while I was rooting for the failed poet channeling Proust in his search for a lost time and reminisce about his own madeleine: an ugly thought was already traveling in my head: is it slow or am I just bored?
I let the viewer be sole judge, I am 5 reviews away from my 2000th, I've seen slow movies and introspective ones, with the exception of the man-and-boy friendship, I couldn't grasp the greatness of "Eternity and a Day" although I reckon it contain many elements of greatness but didn't find anything in the film to patch things together. It's a big reverie of a film, one so daringly slow and contemplative so capable to digress in the middle of action to let us wander in the youth of a man, and offer so beautiful long takes, isn't a work that you'd trash away like that. But why should that film be ever superior to a lesser one that has the ambition of entertaining you?
Maybe Angeloupoulos deliberately tried to explore the mind of a man who didn't achieve his goal because he craved for a perfection, a completeness that didn't or couldn't exist anyway. What does exist at the end? Our roots, our family, our earliest memories, perhaps that's the closest place to heaven on Earth, not the one where dreams come true, but the altar on which we honor our holiest values. Maybe the loss of his wife, the failure of his relationship with his daughter pushed him further toward the past ... maybe it's about idealization. Or being back to terms with his mother, the one who brought him to life and coming full circle. Maybe that's what it's all about: the old resurgence of energy before the acta est fabula.
It was Celine who said that "posterity is like speech for the maggots", maybe by feeling he's going to serve them quite soon, posterity or in fact the fear of not having one becomes the least of his concern. The parallel with the poet is interesting, here's a man who didn't achieve enough to be known by the whole world but there's still Alexandros honoring his memory, maybe with the little child, he's at least passing a tiny bit of his soul, not significant, but enough to be honored or at the very least remembered.
I'm doing my best but this is a film that's got a lot for it and I wouldn't dare question the treatment but honestly, I found it i low, excruciating slow and almost unnerving. This is a film I wanted to like but it depressed the hell out of me and felt like an eternity... and another eternity... and a day...
Because this is serious filmmaking, one that takes its subject seriously enough to consider that a melancholic voice-over can transcend the sight of a man wandering in a deserted seaside town during winter. As a matter of fact, it can, the sight of a man walking, climbing, wandering needs some textual content to sustain it. "Eternity and a Day" which is basically a journey into the memories of a Greek poet contemplating the finitude of his love and the incompleteness of his oeuvre is overloaded with such moments of quietness and self-questioning. It's a sort of crossover with "Wings of Desire" (also starring Ganz) and Federico Fellini's "8 ½"
In all fairness, I never got truly disappointed by a Palme D'Or winner but I don't recall a similar reaction since "Uncle Boomee" , there's just so much that my mind can endure before I get desperately seeking some plot. And when the film's melody started for the 345th time, I decided that the next thing I'd watch would be "The Fifth Element". Indeed, "Eternity and a Day" asks the eternal question: what is a great movie, after all? I read nothing but praises for it and even the word "perfect" was used to describe it. Is "Eternity and a Day" so perfect that a few movies lover have watched it and that it is the Great Prize winner of the same year "Life is Beautiful" that is celebrated?
Maybe Roberto Benigni had the merit of telling a universal story that embodied the best (and also the worst) of humanity, he might have been conventional in his approach, but Angelopoulos might have trusted our patience a tad too much. There's some material in the story, you have a dying poet named Alexandros (Bruno Ganz) who abandoned the project of writing an epic poem to complete the work of 19th-century Greek poet, Dionysios Solomos (Fabrizio Bentivoglio) and tries to live the last days of his life meditating on the time he lost, trying to find someone to take care of his dog and then picking a young Albanian kid and trying to send him back to his country.
That sounds like a story and there are some touching scenes but they're diluted in so many interludes and flashbacks that you never know exactly what Angelopoulos is willing to tell us. Of course there's poetry in a man revisiting his old childhood house, the very one sold by his daughter and her husband, or having a talk with his wife (Isabelle Renaud) resurrecting in her younger self, dressed all in white and sharing some moments of joy and tenderness. Of course the imagery is beautiful and there's a nice contrast between the grayish tones of the present and the lively and sunny past.
Still, while I was admiring the azure beauty of Greece and my heart was trying to connect with Alexandros, while I was rooting for the failed poet channeling Proust in his search for a lost time and reminisce about his own madeleine: an ugly thought was already traveling in my head: is it slow or am I just bored?
I let the viewer be sole judge, I am 5 reviews away from my 2000th, I've seen slow movies and introspective ones, with the exception of the man-and-boy friendship, I couldn't grasp the greatness of "Eternity and a Day" although I reckon it contain many elements of greatness but didn't find anything in the film to patch things together. It's a big reverie of a film, one so daringly slow and contemplative so capable to digress in the middle of action to let us wander in the youth of a man, and offer so beautiful long takes, isn't a work that you'd trash away like that. But why should that film be ever superior to a lesser one that has the ambition of entertaining you?
Maybe Angeloupoulos deliberately tried to explore the mind of a man who didn't achieve his goal because he craved for a perfection, a completeness that didn't or couldn't exist anyway. What does exist at the end? Our roots, our family, our earliest memories, perhaps that's the closest place to heaven on Earth, not the one where dreams come true, but the altar on which we honor our holiest values. Maybe the loss of his wife, the failure of his relationship with his daughter pushed him further toward the past ... maybe it's about idealization. Or being back to terms with his mother, the one who brought him to life and coming full circle. Maybe that's what it's all about: the old resurgence of energy before the acta est fabula.
It was Celine who said that "posterity is like speech for the maggots", maybe by feeling he's going to serve them quite soon, posterity or in fact the fear of not having one becomes the least of his concern. The parallel with the poet is interesting, here's a man who didn't achieve enough to be known by the whole world but there's still Alexandros honoring his memory, maybe with the little child, he's at least passing a tiny bit of his soul, not significant, but enough to be honored or at the very least remembered.
I'm doing my best but this is a film that's got a lot for it and I wouldn't dare question the treatment but honestly, I found it i low, excruciating slow and almost unnerving. This is a film I wanted to like but it depressed the hell out of me and felt like an eternity... and another eternity... and a day...
Eternity and A Day - the title, not meant to refer to the film's length.
Mike-5561 February 1999
Many of us who viewed Eternity and a Day at January's 1999 Palm Springs International Film Fest, had our fun afterwards, cracking jokes at the length this film (132 minutes) in relationship to its title. There were scenes that seemed quite never ending, the wedding dance scene, to name just one. Nevertheless, take some of it away, and the symmetry of the film might well be broken. Then again, there is an awful lot of symbolism to digest all at one sitting. So go to see it on empty, and come away fully nourished and satisfied.
Greek director Angelopoulos has created a spellbinding tour de force. Eternity and a Day is a brilliant film in it's haunting poetic imagery.
I highly recommend this prized Greek film, an American Oscar submission.
Greek director Angelopoulos has created a spellbinding tour de force. Eternity and a Day is a brilliant film in it's haunting poetic imagery.
I highly recommend this prized Greek film, an American Oscar submission.
Full of subtle nuances -- poetic storytelling of the journey of a man, a child (and a woman)
ruby_fff26 September 1999
I can take Bruno Ganz any day! This one, it's more of a subdued role -- it reminds me of "Everybody's Fine", I can picture Marcello Mastroianni in the lead role of this story. Ganz appeared with a beard and delivered a restrained performance.
Bruno Ganz exudes a certain strength and energy in the characters he played (Wim Wenders' "Wings of Desire" 1988, Gillian Armstrong's "The Last Days of Chez Nous" 1992), with an outward strong physique. This role is sort of different: he is portraying a man beset with an illness and is unsettled about his upcoming hospitalization. He's also "tormented" by his own conscience of past episodes he had with his beloved wife -- her presence recurs in "haunting" flashbacks at this fragile juncture of his impending life's end.
It's his journey and adventure with a little boy whom he by chance (or fate) met. The child became a link to the revived life force and energy in Alexander (Ganz' character). No more brushing off things, no more "doesn't have time" excuses; he is to re-prioritize the events and things in his life and to make a difference -- to do something meaningful for someone other than himself -- to this little boy (in turn to himself). The child's situation prompted him to take risks -- it's about time for him to do so. He's finally experiencing living!
The little boy brought him back to life, living, and caring -- woke him up, freed his self-blaming mind and pulled him out of his doldrums. The realization that action speaks louder than words (literally so when he's a writer all his life) gave him fresh insights.
The whole film is poetically put together. Director Angelopoulos has intermixed political, intellectual issues with aspects of life events and levels of emotions. Good performances from Ganz, the little boy, and Anna, the wife. The story has its episodic twists and turns, reality and flashbacks, chase scenes (yes, there is action) and "mindwalks", yet there is a certain steady pace and quietness to the film. Some might find it slow and will need patience to follow the film -- don't go if you're tired, you might miss the nuances of Angelopoulos' poetic storytelling and subtle image hints. It's a beautiful, philosophical, and mind-probing piece -- prompts us to reflect on how we lead our lives. Definitely not Hollywood fare. NFE.
I find an affinity of story structure to the current box office hit, "The Sixth Sense", which also revolves around a man, a child, (and a woman): a man finding redemption through the time he spent with a little boy, and trying to resolve his neglectful past relationship with his wife. In this case, "The Sixth Sense" is more "real" while "Eternity and A Day" is more like a dream state. Also brings to mind is Francesco Rosi's "Christ Stopped at Eboli" 1979 (in Italian with Gian Maria Volonte, Irene Papas), another quiet philosophical journey of a man discovering life, living and himself among simple village folks.
Bruno Ganz exudes a certain strength and energy in the characters he played (Wim Wenders' "Wings of Desire" 1988, Gillian Armstrong's "The Last Days of Chez Nous" 1992), with an outward strong physique. This role is sort of different: he is portraying a man beset with an illness and is unsettled about his upcoming hospitalization. He's also "tormented" by his own conscience of past episodes he had with his beloved wife -- her presence recurs in "haunting" flashbacks at this fragile juncture of his impending life's end.
It's his journey and adventure with a little boy whom he by chance (or fate) met. The child became a link to the revived life force and energy in Alexander (Ganz' character). No more brushing off things, no more "doesn't have time" excuses; he is to re-prioritize the events and things in his life and to make a difference -- to do something meaningful for someone other than himself -- to this little boy (in turn to himself). The child's situation prompted him to take risks -- it's about time for him to do so. He's finally experiencing living!
The little boy brought him back to life, living, and caring -- woke him up, freed his self-blaming mind and pulled him out of his doldrums. The realization that action speaks louder than words (literally so when he's a writer all his life) gave him fresh insights.
The whole film is poetically put together. Director Angelopoulos has intermixed political, intellectual issues with aspects of life events and levels of emotions. Good performances from Ganz, the little boy, and Anna, the wife. The story has its episodic twists and turns, reality and flashbacks, chase scenes (yes, there is action) and "mindwalks", yet there is a certain steady pace and quietness to the film. Some might find it slow and will need patience to follow the film -- don't go if you're tired, you might miss the nuances of Angelopoulos' poetic storytelling and subtle image hints. It's a beautiful, philosophical, and mind-probing piece -- prompts us to reflect on how we lead our lives. Definitely not Hollywood fare. NFE.
I find an affinity of story structure to the current box office hit, "The Sixth Sense", which also revolves around a man, a child, (and a woman): a man finding redemption through the time he spent with a little boy, and trying to resolve his neglectful past relationship with his wife. In this case, "The Sixth Sense" is more "real" while "Eternity and A Day" is more like a dream state. Also brings to mind is Francesco Rosi's "Christ Stopped at Eboli" 1979 (in Italian with Gian Maria Volonte, Irene Papas), another quiet philosophical journey of a man discovering life, living and himself among simple village folks.
"Eternity and a day" is a magnificent legacy of this director who passed away too early but who left us several masterpieces and awards
losindiscretoscine4 November 2016
Final episode of a trilogy that got started at the beginning of the 90s, Angelopoulos asks himself the same questions that the writer Samuel Beckett once did: how to end? And he adds a new precision that will make an impact in the final answer: how to end one's life when there is only one day left to live? It is when our time is limited that we paradoxically make the most of it and we understand this by witnessing Alexandre's trip between the past, the present and the future in the last day of his life. Even though he metaphorically travels through his memories, his present will to take the boy to the border gives him the chance to make a last good action before his death. The photography, that goes from cold colours for scenes from the present to warm colors for the flashbacks, is dazzlingly full of sobriety. The words from the letters that give this poetical Odyssey its tempo are so wise that they fill us with wonder. And when we finally get the answer to the question "Tomorrow, how long does it last?", we realize that Alexandre is ready and he is no longer afraid to die. "Eternity and a day" is a magnificent legacy of this director who passed away too early but who left us several masterpieces and awards. Full review on our blog Los Indiscretos : https://losindiscretos.org/english/eternity-and-a-day-1998- theodoros-angelopoulos/
You're smiling, but I know you are sad.
lastliberal7 September 2009
Theodoros Angelopoulos took a Golden Palm at Cannes for this film by unanimous vote. Of course, it was also a big winner at the Thessaloniki Film Festival, winning several wards, including one for Helene Gerasimidou, who played Urania.
The cinematography was extremely beautiful, but it was Eleni Karaindrou's and Mikis Theodorakis' music that ready made this a pleasurable experience. Of course, Angelopoulos is criticized by some for leaving his political film-making now that the dictatorship is over and creating a body of pretty-looking, but increasingly empty and self-indulgent work. Sometimes, self-indulgence is good.
As Alexandre (Bruno Ganz) faces his last day, we are taken to the past and see his now dead wife Anna (Isabelle Renauld) as she lived. He visits relatives, but he is increasingly disappointed that life hasn't really worked out the way he wanted.
H rescues a little boy from kidnappers who are selling children to rich Greeks. He tries to help the boy, but he is again frustrated. Finally, he takes the boy and joins him on a trip to his native Albania.
It is only through our connection to others that we truly experience life and all it's magic.
The cinematography was extremely beautiful, but it was Eleni Karaindrou's and Mikis Theodorakis' music that ready made this a pleasurable experience. Of course, Angelopoulos is criticized by some for leaving his political film-making now that the dictatorship is over and creating a body of pretty-looking, but increasingly empty and self-indulgent work. Sometimes, self-indulgence is good.
As Alexandre (Bruno Ganz) faces his last day, we are taken to the past and see his now dead wife Anna (Isabelle Renauld) as she lived. He visits relatives, but he is increasingly disappointed that life hasn't really worked out the way he wanted.
H rescues a little boy from kidnappers who are selling children to rich Greeks. He tries to help the boy, but he is again frustrated. Finally, he takes the boy and joins him on a trip to his native Albania.
It is only through our connection to others that we truly experience life and all it's magic.
Eternity and a Day
alexx6682 November 2005
A pretty strong sense of deja-vu gripped me as I was watching "Eternity and a Day", and it wouldn't let go. The blurred windows and lights, the people with the yellow water-coats, the obligatory walk by the sea, the foggy settings, the usual mix of suburban and rural Greek landscapes, the choreographed wedding etc. It's hopeless, any post "Alexander the Great" Angelopoulos film feels the same. "Eternity and a Day" is his version of Fellini's "Amarcord", with a few bits of "Death in Venice" thrown in for good measure (the ending for example).
What's worse is having to endure the pseudo-philosophical babble of famous rich directors, who are trying to convince us that they are existentially troubled. Cringe as the protagonist (ie the director's alter ego) wonders why he was unable to love in his life, or how long tomorrow lasts. Blush at the pure melodrama of his ex wife's letters. Elitists will of course say that this is "deep" art, but I must protest, Angelopoulos made quite a few bucks with this one. You would be well advised to watch "Travelling Players" or "Alexander the Great" instead.
What's worse is having to endure the pseudo-philosophical babble of famous rich directors, who are trying to convince us that they are existentially troubled. Cringe as the protagonist (ie the director's alter ego) wonders why he was unable to love in his life, or how long tomorrow lasts. Blush at the pure melodrama of his ex wife's letters. Elitists will of course say that this is "deep" art, but I must protest, Angelopoulos made quite a few bucks with this one. You would be well advised to watch "Travelling Players" or "Alexander the Great" instead.
wonderful film
ghamburg25 July 2004
What a beautiful film. Dreamlike, poetic, wise; also sober, down-to-earth.
Delivers home-truths too: connecting with another human being gives one hope. Connections are possible across age, country, culture gaps. The images are gorgeous, the slowness fits. You have to sit on your impatience now and then. But thats entirely worth it.
Also, I loved listening to the Greek language. But that is because I love Greece.
It is a film that reminds me of Antonioni's L'Avventura and La Notte; they bring you into a trance where you can tell the beauty of this universe.
Delivers home-truths too: connecting with another human being gives one hope. Connections are possible across age, country, culture gaps. The images are gorgeous, the slowness fits. You have to sit on your impatience now and then. But thats entirely worth it.
Also, I loved listening to the Greek language. But that is because I love Greece.
It is a film that reminds me of Antonioni's L'Avventura and La Notte; they bring you into a trance where you can tell the beauty of this universe.
Synchronic Depiction
doiyu213 January 2005
Alexandre tries to find the meaning through a whole of his life on his last day simultaneously in the meditative way, how to have had influenced one another, might be his lated beautiful wife, with her recurrent letter. Finally he could cut across the unbroken wholeness in the last scene that Theo Angelopoulos as director could not end to make this film. He or we should know "eternity" composed with all its parts and "a day" is just the instant but cyclically over recurring and longer. This film could be the teaching material of literature, what the synchronic linguistics is. We have to watch the sequential scenes in the notes depicting by Theo entirely after then, to consider as he maintained anytime.
The tale of Solomos presented obviously Theo's literary stranger thoughts what he has been holding still today and three words that a boy picked out for Alexandre let take Greek climate being set off by it to heart.
The tale of Solomos presented obviously Theo's literary stranger thoughts what he has been holding still today and three words that a boy picked out for Alexandre let take Greek climate being set off by it to heart.
A scene for eternity
moviefan-1723 November 1998
This was really a great movie. Against all those who say that Angelopoulos is boring, what I have to say is that the wedding scene in this film was so remarkable that it can be acclaimed as a piece of film history...The problem is that almost nobody in Greece likes Angelopoulos. Unfortunately, although the film received a Palme d' Or at the Cannes Film Festival, this wasn't enough to change the views of the Greek public.
True masterpiece
irina-33 February 2003
Beautiful, poetical narration about the last day of a deadly sick man. Seldom one gets to see such unhurried film today. Eternal questions as life, death , love, are addressed. The film makes one's heart cry, and at the same time exulted with joy, from getting to know another big artist.
Poets with their amplified love and pain
moviesknight11 September 2021
As someone correctly said grief is love unexpressed. It should be illegal for movies to be this poetic, they want you to die of the heartache. The poets not only amplify love with ther words but also pain. Rarely we see someone to excel both in personal life and in proffesional life. Even though he loved every part of it but when he finally settled down he had all this unexpressed love from these years that tore him and was finding vents to get it out of him. His wife correctly said this day will last 'eternity and a day' and it did. The emotions expressed by the little boy were great. I would kill for the letter her wife had written for him. What really matters at the end. We sacrifice everything for our passion and lose the people which meant the most to us and at the end it comes back to the memories and living with them.
Subtlety and a Day
Jeremy_Urquhart18 August 2023
I had to sit with Eternity and a Day before trying to write anything about it, because I really wasn't sure what there was to say. The downside is that now time's passed, and I still don't know what I can add. The film kind of washed over me, and I think I liked it, but I didn't quite connect the way some other people have (and at the time of writing, it's currently the highest-rated feature film on Letterboxd for the year 1998, so it clearly has its fans).
I guess it revolves around a man approaching the end of his life, and showing how he chooses to live it when he knows he has little time left. It makes the whole thing quite sad, but not in a way that feels depressing; probably the best thing to compare it to might be Ikiru... though it is a little more surreal, with memories playing out sort of like fantasy or dream sequences.
At least that was my understanding. It's all very subdued, and I might've not been on the film's level. But there was still a good amount of stuff here to appreciate, and it's pretty well-made, so I kind of get the hype, even if I didn't come away loving it wholeheartedly.
I guess it revolves around a man approaching the end of his life, and showing how he chooses to live it when he knows he has little time left. It makes the whole thing quite sad, but not in a way that feels depressing; probably the best thing to compare it to might be Ikiru... though it is a little more surreal, with memories playing out sort of like fantasy or dream sequences.
At least that was my understanding. It's all very subdued, and I might've not been on the film's level. But there was still a good amount of stuff here to appreciate, and it's pretty well-made, so I kind of get the hype, even if I didn't come away loving it wholeheartedly.
Filling the void.....
larma71 March 2012
If I saw this and "Landscape in the Mist" a year ago or so, I'm not sure if I would like them or even be able to finish them. Brought to my attention by the tragic passing of this great director, I feel like these films are hitting me at the right time. Because while I can perhaps understand that some may find something like "Eternity and a Day" to be boring, self- indulgent, or the most notorious pretentious -- on the other hand, it is for me something enchantingly beautiful and unlike few if any movies I have seen before.
The angle I'm going to use to approach this one might be far-reaching and/or random, but bear with me and realize I usually tend to mentally tie-in what I have just watched into what I have watched previous. But in this case, it is what I have just read. I couldn't help but think of the character of this film as the Stephen Dedalus character from Joyce's "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man", but now 40 years or so into the future, on his death-bed and in despair. The protagonist here, likewise a poet, has lived a detached isolated existence from his wife and family. It is what Stephen would have wanted, so as to express himself freely as possible, but now in the waning years of his life the detachment has left him with an emptiness, a void he is trying to somehow fill (again, harking back to the oppressive emptiness felt in "Landscape in the Mist"). Angelopoulos incorporates letters from the characters' wife, narrated by her in poignant fashion, and often seamlessly transitions into flash-backs.
This is again something intimate, yet suddenly sprawling. While initially one is enveloped in a natural setting, Angelopoulos then soon drifts into the fantastical and dream-like. Like with "Landscape in the Mist", it all shouldn't be taken so literal. I believe to derive the greatest pleasure from this one should just sit back and let Angelopoulos take you where he wishes, for even if some stretches may not fully register, the high-points so totally make up for it. And once again, the visual compositions are just astounding and at the very least continuously interesting, with here the often long takes aren't even as noticeable straight away and once I realized them, I was then amazed in some scenes. There is this purity in the visuals which few directors works have been able to match and none surpass. Purity is probably the best and only way I can describe it.
The angle I'm going to use to approach this one might be far-reaching and/or random, but bear with me and realize I usually tend to mentally tie-in what I have just watched into what I have watched previous. But in this case, it is what I have just read. I couldn't help but think of the character of this film as the Stephen Dedalus character from Joyce's "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man", but now 40 years or so into the future, on his death-bed and in despair. The protagonist here, likewise a poet, has lived a detached isolated existence from his wife and family. It is what Stephen would have wanted, so as to express himself freely as possible, but now in the waning years of his life the detachment has left him with an emptiness, a void he is trying to somehow fill (again, harking back to the oppressive emptiness felt in "Landscape in the Mist"). Angelopoulos incorporates letters from the characters' wife, narrated by her in poignant fashion, and often seamlessly transitions into flash-backs.
This is again something intimate, yet suddenly sprawling. While initially one is enveloped in a natural setting, Angelopoulos then soon drifts into the fantastical and dream-like. Like with "Landscape in the Mist", it all shouldn't be taken so literal. I believe to derive the greatest pleasure from this one should just sit back and let Angelopoulos take you where he wishes, for even if some stretches may not fully register, the high-points so totally make up for it. And once again, the visual compositions are just astounding and at the very least continuously interesting, with here the often long takes aren't even as noticeable straight away and once I realized them, I was then amazed in some scenes. There is this purity in the visuals which few directors works have been able to match and none surpass. Purity is probably the best and only way I can describe it.
Poetic artistry rewards with patience
AdrenalinDragon8 March 2021
Eternity and a Day is basically a slower paced Wild Strawberries. I think I was in just the right mood to appreciate this, but if not then I wouldn't blame anyone disliking it. The poetic stuff fitted well with the themes and there was a nice artistic touch to the whole thing with good music and cinematography. Bruno Ganz and that kid had some nice scenes together, and the slowness didn't bother me as much here as many artsy films do. Perhaps it meandered a bit here and there and some scenes could have been taken out or shortened. Despite that, it still worked for me by the end of it.
6.5/10
6.5/10
Much more than a masterpiece
ragas28 April 2000
Theo Angelopoulus is much more than a genius. His latest film: " An Eternity And One Day " is much more than a masterpiece. Angelopoulus is like a magician, everything can become poetry with his mystical touch. Although the film is full of great performances, especially the little kid, and the story is relatively simple though extremely moving, the merit of this movie is its compelling script, and the most elegant and clever camera motion I have ever seen. Everything seems to be in harmony, even the slightest details which are sometimes the most compelling. Memorable speaches, memorable music, memorable performances, memorable silences....Sometimes Angelopoulus doesn't even have to say a word...silence can say everything. I consider Angelopoulus as the real master of todays cinema, the cinema of poetry. The best film of the decade.
I would like to point out that the real measure of quality in todays cinema is the Palme D'Or....." Sex, lies and videotape, Pulp Fiction, An Eternity and One Day, Taste of Cherry ". Much more than masterpieces.
I would like to point out that the real measure of quality in todays cinema is the Palme D'Or....." Sex, lies and videotape, Pulp Fiction, An Eternity and One Day, Taste of Cherry ". Much more than masterpieces.
An Eternally Long Movie
robertsturner524 January 2016
I couldn't wait for this movie to finally end. Its ponderously long pans across empty abandoned interiors, its insipid repetitive musical theme that showed no variation through the course of the film, its pretentious philosophizing, and its unsympathetic main character, shown as the same old man even in the flashbacks to his younger married life -- all left me uninspired and tired. I enjoyed the boy's story more than the poet's, but the youngster's acting ability was unfortunately limited in its range. Major set pieces were mannered and overly formal. This film was a major drag. And then I find out that it won the Golden Palm. What were they thinking?
No words
zweimann21 September 2004
Since I traveled to Prague in 2003 and bought Eleni Karaidrou's album "Eternity and a Day" I was wondering when and where could I get this movie.
I got it and it was incredible for me. Poetry, photography (I think it is the best photography I've ever seen in a movie) and music in an amazing movie THAT I DID NOT UNDERSTAND because it's in Greek (no English subtitles in the release I've got).
You don't need to understand their words to feel it, to cry and to laugh when the moment comes. Angelopoulos has made, in my honest opinion, a master piece of theater-movie.
Buy it, keep it, show it to your children, to your parents...
I got it and it was incredible for me. Poetry, photography (I think it is the best photography I've ever seen in a movie) and music in an amazing movie THAT I DID NOT UNDERSTAND because it's in Greek (no English subtitles in the release I've got).
You don't need to understand their words to feel it, to cry and to laugh when the moment comes. Angelopoulos has made, in my honest opinion, a master piece of theater-movie.
Buy it, keep it, show it to your children, to your parents...
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