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Theodoros Angelopoulos (Θόδωρος Αγγελόπουλος in Greek) (born April 27, 1936) is a noted Greek film director.

Angelopoulos studied law in Athens, but after his military service went to Paris to attend the Sorbonne. He soon dropped out to study film at the IDHEC (Institute of Advanced Cinematographic Studies) before returning to Greece. There, he worked as a journalist and film critic.

Angelopoulos began making films after the 1967 coup that began the Greek military dictatorship known as the Regime of the Colonels. He made his first short film in 1968 and in the 1970s began making a series of political feature films about modern Greece: Days of '36 (Meres Tou 36, 1972), The Travelling Players(O Thiassos, 1975) and The Hunters (I Kynighoi, 1977). He quickly established a characteristic style, marked by slow, episodic and ambiguous narrative structures and long takes (The Travelling Players, for example, consists of only 80 shots in about four hours of film).

After the end of the dictatorship, Angelopoulos moved into less political works, gaining Italian funding.

His regular collaborators include the cinematographer Giorgos Arvanitis, and the composer Eleni Karaindrou.

The film critic David Thomson counted Angelopoulos as one of the world's greatest living directors in his book The New Biographical Dictionary of Film.

Awards

• O Megalexandros won the Golden Lion at the 1980 Venice Film Festival
• Landscape In The Mist (Topio stin Omichli) shared the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival in 1988.
• Ulysses' Gaze (To Vlemma tou Odyssea) won the Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 1995. Disappointed at not winning the Palme d'Or that year, Angelopoulos told his audience, "If this is what you have to give me, I have nothing to say" before walking off of the stage.
• Eternity and a Day (Mia aioniotita kai mia mera) won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1998.
• Trilogy - The Weeping Meadow (Trilogia - To livadi pou dakryzei) won the European Film Academy Critics Award and Prix FIPRESCI in 2004.

Filmography

• Broadcast (I Ekpombi) (1968)
• Reconstruction (Anaparastasis) (1970)
• Days of 36 (Meres tou 36) (1972)
• The Travelling Players (O Thiassos) (1975)
• The Huntsmen (I Kinighi) (1977)
• Alexander the Great (O Megalexandros) (1980)
• Athens (Athina, epistrofi stin Akropoli) (1983)
• Voyage to Cythera (Taxidi stin Kythera) (1984)
• The Beekeeper (O Melissokomos) (1986)
• Landscape in the Mist (Topio stin Omichli) (1988)
• The Suspended Step of the Stork (To Meteoro Vima tou Pelargou) (1991)
• Ulysses' Gaze (To Vlemma tou Odyssea) (1995)
• Eternity and a Day (Mia aiwniothta kai mia mera) (1998)
• Trilogy: The Weeping Meadow (Trilogia I: To Livadi pou dakryzei) (2004)
• Trilogy: The Third Wing (Projected English title)
• Trilogy: The Eternal Return (Projected English title)

References

External links

• Senses of Cinema: Great Directors Critical Database
• Theo Angelopoulos Internet Library.
• Musicolog entry.
• Official Site

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