In 1952 a travelling actor's troupe roams the countryside performing a popular Greek pastoral play, which soon becomes a thinly disguised version of the "Oresteia." At the same time, their performances and lives are constantly interrupted by a year in which there is tremendous political change and they are forced to reflect upon their lives since 1939, the last time their country had a major political upheaval--the eve of entering World War II.
Length is part of its problem. A much greater problem is that the political message that is only one of the threads in the first part thickens into hawser dimensions, strangling the film and the audience along with it.
Although there are any number of subtle moments in the film, even its admirers admit it is long and difficult, especially for audiences unfamiliar with its subject matter.
The stately pace of the film soon becomes compulsive; and the shabby provincial Greece of rusting railway tracks and flaking facades which the slow camera examines is visually beguiling.
I was aglow after The Travelling Players, which honestly strikes me, in all its alienation and opacity, as a thrilling and important and good motion picture.
A cinematic endurance test, this frosty epic holds some surprising rewards, as well as an atmosphere of graceful power. Unfortunately, it also pushes the audiences' patience way beyond the limit.
You can feel the pulse of the times through the music and realize by the liveliness of the music when the big events are happening to the people of Greece.
Part II of A Trilogy of History by Theo Angelopoulos:Pure mysticism but requires a lot of patience.What Angelopoulos divides here is time and present history.Flash-forwards to the General's Regime (or should the Civil War be denominated like that?),the uninvited theatrical troupe merging in the seemingly confusing
backdrop of Greece,a masterful touch of a timeline mixture,it's as if tragicomedy of chronology occurs where Golfo,the troupe's play is but the interlude in between the film's chapters.For the love of Artemis,there's even sexual parallelism ala Oresteia tension!!!
August 26, 2008
Dimitris Springer
Super Reviewer
This is a hugely ambitious piece of work that packs a cumulative wallop when it's all over.
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