Afilm that Greek war drama, Theo Angelepoulous’ Ulysses’Gaze (ToVlemma tou Odyssea ),(1995)is about both material and spiritual destruction after the World WarII.
Angelospouslos isone of the most popular succesful director of the Greek cinema. Thefilm has important stars such as ErlandJosephson asIvo Levy Maia Morgenstern as woman in A’s home town (Penelope), Kali(Calypso), widow (Circe), Naomi (Nausicaa), and HarveyKeitelasA.It is perfectly complementedby a somber, brooding musical score byEleni Karaindrou.
As Ivo Levy (ErlandJosephson)says” The first thing God created was the journey ” it is based on astory of a journey of the star Harvey Keitel who is a Greek moviedirector named “A,” that returns to his roots 35 years afterleaving for America, across the Balkan, Skopje,Albania, Koritsa, Plovdiv, Constanza, Belgrade and Sarajevo,for the sake offind three undeveloped reels shot by the Manakis brothers, two early20th century Greek filmmakers who captured crucial, historicalchanges within the Balkans through cinema. The title of the filmrefers to Greek epic Odysses, seeing A as a modern Homer and audincewill ‘gaze’ to this long and difficult journey. Thence; Ulysses’Gaze is great visual and poetic dimension, colligating myth withhistory and perfect reflection of the Balkans in the 20th century. Itbrings the audience to a voyage that back and forth through thetime.Thanks to Angelopoulos’ affective use of a long take style,historical events and their consequences, emotional depression arereflected in a slowly and an excellent way.
Though,at the first glance, it is sensed it is just a journeyof A throught the Balkans, it is intangible journey of the Balkans,reflectingthe conditions of thatcountriesafter the Word War II, its consequences and how people fall intodesperate, sad and alone situtations,political and social destruction of the Balkansinterms ofAngelopouslos’use of longtake, colours and low-key lighting and intensescorce by Eleni Karaindrou.
