Simply A Masterpiece

Better Late Then Never

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Not unlike Ulysses on his way to Ithaca or director A. witnessing decay and death in the native Balkans, the viewer of this film, too, must face many a pitfall. It's mostly mannerisms of a director to whom unpretentious realism seems to reek of vulgarity. Landscapes in the mist. Bleak city streets. Derelict interiors. Exiles. A lot of Weltschmerz. An aging intellectual, played by an international star, sporting a lot of Weltschmerz. A fiery young beauty. Bombastic dialogues/monologues from an existentialist stage play. Zombie-like extras assembling into strange patterns. A lot of symbols. Fake Ithaca. A huge lot of Weltschmerz.I liked the music of Eleni Karaindrou, the Bucharest flashback and images of stone Lenin. In my opinion, the movie itself resembles this monumental statue, self-important idol once "alive" but now - being sold to an Euro snob - cut to pieces and heading towards oblivion.Famous Polish actor Wojciech Pszoniak got an uncredited role, and famous Czech photographer Josef Koudelka simultaneously took b+w photos of the film's locations which I hereby strongly recommend. Believe me, they are light years ahead.

On the surface, this is deeply flawed; there's some awkward dialogue, Harvey Kietel is OK, not amazing, the female characters are thin. But it's so damn full of breathtaking images, brave cinematic choices, multi-minute long shots, and a heart rending climax, that the flaws don't seem important some how. The story: A Greek film director caught in his own mid-life artistic and personal crisis goes on an odyssey to find lost footage by Greece's first filmmakers, traveling through the Balkans and revisiting his own life in the process. I can certainly understand the mixed reviews. This isn't an easy film, and if watched in the wrong mood, or without knowing what you're getting into (a slow, thoughtful 3 hour rumination on life, the past and art) could be very off-putting. But accepted on its own terms, warts and all it's an amazing odyssey; visual, emotional and thematic.

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.

I found this film very surreal. I don't know the history behind the story but I was not bored. When it was over I felt slowly transported to another time and place. The scene in the fog hit me in a very unusual way.This is not the film for someone who wants a smash boom, shoot 'em up thriller. I has a steady development and not the pace of an action film. If you enjoy films that are more cognitive you might like this one.Harvey Keitel does a lot of good films. He appears to choose projects that have interesting themes.I really liked it.