Dust of Time – The most poetic and personal film directed by Angelopoulos
“The Dust of Time”
Dust of Time: the most poetic and personal film directed by Angelopoulos
Angelopoulos describes himself as an intermediary who turns pre-existing stories into reality.
Angelopoulos did not say much by way of introduction, but he responded well to the many questions put to him.
He talked about commercial cinema which targets a large audience and also about the kind of cinema that tries to find an audience and communicate with people of particular sensitivity.
He described his student years as “a time of absolute innocence and a visionary relationship with the future which no longer exists.”
When discussing critics and criticism, he was unable to hide a tone of bitterness and anger: “Filmmakers are not chosen by critics or the audience. They are chosen by time.”
He commented on his films, the chapters of a long story on human destiny, on the time that has already passed and that which is now transpiring as well as the current era.
“We are experiencing a time with a closed horizon. It is the most locked-up period I have experienced, it is a 100 percent foggy landscape. We are living in a world that has no idea where it is heading.”
Next project Angelopoulos said he was the intermediary for turning existing stories into reality.
For the first time, he revealed the provisional title of his next film, “Tomorrow,” but refused to say more about it. “An idea needs to sleep until it is born. If you shake it, it is destroyed.”
“The Dust of Time” is described as a story without borders, a review of the past century through a love that challenges time.
“I hope the film will be seen for what it is and not as something else,”
he said, ending the meeting, two days before the film’s Athens premiere and three days ahead of its screening at the Berlin Film Festival.
The scenario is about an American director of Greek ancestry who is making a film that tells his story and the story of his parents.
It is a tale that unfolds in Italy, Germany, Russia, Kazakhstan, Canada and the United States.
The main character is Eleni, who claims the absoluteness of love.
The film is also a long journey into the vast history and the events of the last fifty years that left their mark on the 20th century.
The characters in the film move as though in a dream with the dust of time confusing memories.
Source Text: ANA–MPA – E-Kathimerini
Source Image: Christophe Penchenat
Through references to the Thebaid cycle, the three films that make up Theo Angelopoulos’ “Trilogy” follow the destiny of Hellenism as recorded in the relationship of two people, who first meet as children in 1919 during the flight of the Greeks from Odessa, only to lose each other and find each other again in different time periods in different parts of the world, living through the great historic events of the 20th century and the turn of the 21st.
The second film of the trilogy is entitled “THE DUST OF TIME” and takes place in the former Soviet Union, the Austrian-Hungarian borders, Italy and New York between 1953 and 1974, from the eve of Stalin’s death to Nixon’s resignation in the United States and the fall of the Greek junta.
The shootings of the film took place in Greece, Kazakhstan, Russia, Italy and Germany and finished in February 2008. It is a Greek-German-Italian-Russian co-production. Many international actors participate in the film such as: Willem Dafoe, Irene Jacob, Bruno Ganz and Michel Piccoli.
Source Text: CL productions
Θόδωρος Αγγελόπουλος: «Δεν έχω άλλο σπίτι από το ταξίδι »
“Επί σαράντα χρόνια κάνω αυτό που ονειρεύομαι:
να ταξιδεύω κι όταν φτάνω σε ένα λιμάνι να ξεκινάω για το επόμενο.
Δεν έχω άλλο σπίτι από το ταξίδι”
-Θόδωρος Αγγελόπουλος-
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“Η σκόνη του χρόνου είναι μια ταινία που μεταχειρίζεται το παρελθόν ως παρόν”
“Στη δυτική φιλοσοφία δεχόμαστε ότι παρόν και παρελθόν είναι έννοιες ξεχωριστές. Για τους ασιάτες ο χρόνος είναι ενιαίος. Εγώ αισθάνομαι ότι χάνω την έννοια του τι είναι παρελθόν και τι είναι παρόν. Είμαστε ένα όλον, παρελθόν και παρόν. Η Ιστορία δεν είναι ιστορία που έγινε και την ξεχάσαμε, ξανάρχεται με άλλες μορφές. Όταν δεν τη διαβάζουμε σωστά δεν διαβάζουμε σωστά το παρόν. Μπορεί να μιλήσει κανείς γι’ αυτά που συμβαίνουν σήμερα, χωρίς αυτό να έχει σχέση με ό,τι έγινε χθες ή πολλά χρόνια πριν; Όλα μαζεύονται και γίνονται μια ανάγνωση του σήμερα, που μας βοηθά να πάμε στην επόμενη στιγμή, που είναι το μέλλον”.
Η Ιστορία
“Μέσα στην ταινία υπάρχει η Ιστορία με κεφαλαίο και η ιστορία με μικρό, η ιστορία ενός έρωτα που τελικά μπορεί να είναι πιο δυνατή από τη μεγάλη ιστορία. Την εποχή της πολιτικοποίησης, όταν κοιτάζαμε ψηλά αισθανόμασταν πολιορκητές του ουρανού. Τότε δεν βλέπαμε πόσο η ατομική ιστορία του καθένα μπορεί να επηρεάσει τον κόσμο. Τότε νομίζαμε ότι ήμασταν υποκείμενα της ιστορίας. Τώρα δεν ξέρω αν είμαστε υποκείμενα ή αντικείμενα”.
Το “χειροποίητο σινεμά”
“Στην εποχή του ψηφιακού σινεμά επιμένω στο “χειροποίητο” σινεμά γιατί είναι πείσμα είναι και ανάγκη”.
Η “καταγωγική εικόνα”
“Στα Ζαγοροχώρια, την πρώτη στιγμή που ανακάλυψα το χώρο της αναπαράστασης ήταν μια μέρα βροχερή, όταν η υγρασία είχε μουσκέψει την πέτρα στα σπίτια, υπήρχε μια ελαφριά ομίχλη, οι γυναίκες χάνονταν στα ερείπια και από κάπου ακουγόταν μια γέρικη φωνή να τραγουδά το “Μια κοντούλα λεμονιά”. Δεν απομακρύνθηκα ποτέ από αυτή την εικόνα.
“Δεν έχω άλλο σπίτι από το ταξίδι”
Επί σαράντα χρόνια κάνω αυτό που ονειρεύομαι; να ταξιδεύω κι όταν φτάνω σε ένα λιμάνι να ξεκινάω για το επόμενο. Δεν έχω άλλο σπίτι από το ταξίδι. Όλα γεννιούνται πάνω στο ταξίδι. Η ιδανική θέση είναι πλάι σε κάποιον που οδηγεί, με ανοιχτό το παράθυρο και το τοπίο να φεύγει. Αν δεν μπορούσα να ταξιδεύω θα αισθανόμουν φυλακισμένος. Ανεξάρτητα από αν έχει ή όχι επιτυχία η ταινία, ούτως ή άλλως το ταξίδι είναι κερδισμένο”.
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Πηγές:
Theo Angelopoulos: «I manganelli non servono nel paese c’è vero disagio»
Theo Angelopoulos: «I manganelli non servono nel paese c’è vero disagio»
di Malcom Pagani
ARTICLE ORIGINAL PUBLISHED in © 2008 L’Unità.it Nuova Iniziativa Editoriale Spa p.iva 13199630156
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Il tema nascosto di tutto il suo cinema, l’enfasi di un potere inadeguato a relazionarsi col circostante, deflagra in immagini disperanti. Oltre i fumi delle barricate, i 73 anni di Theo Angelopoulos appaiono una convenzione. La voce toccata, l’attenzione desta. «Sono molto preoccupato, triste, spaventato, deluso. Passano i decenni, non impariamo nulla». A Monaco di Baviera per lavoro, il maestro greco già palma d’oro a Cannes nel ‘98, segue senza sospensioni il passo degli eventi.«La responsabilità di ciò che sta accadendo è interamente del governo greco e del Premier Karamanlis. Impressiona l’universalità della risposta, sempre la stessa, dai tempi dei colonnelli. Davanti a un disagio reale, ecco entrare in scena manganelli e lacrimogeni. Una grande nazione, quando possiede anticorpi che derivano dalla sua stessa storia, utilizza altri sistemi».La protesta sta travalicando i confini.
«Non poteva essere altrimenti. A Berlino hanno occupato il consolato, osservo in tv fotogrammi spaventosi. La faccia di quel ragazzino a terra, Grigoropulos, i suoi quindici anni buttati via, i sogni sul selciato, la violenza che non sa ascoltare altra ragione che la propria. Elementi che getterebbero nella preoccupazione chiunque, non soltanto chi ha lottato per la democrazia».
Gli scontri sono ripresi anche a Salonicco, set di tanti suoi film.
«Mi hanno chiamato anche da lì, la rivolta non finirà in poche ore, questo è certo. Ma l’aggressività giovanile va letta in controluce. È la spia di una collera che trova radici nella situazione economica della Grecia, nella sua classe politica squalificata, nella cristallizzazione dell’esistente. Per recedere da quest’immobilità, invece degli idranti, bisognerebbe mettere in campo una proposta, una concreta volontà di cambiamento, un segnale di discontinuità».
Come spesso accade, i primi fuochi si sono accesi tra i banchi di scuola.
«L’università e l’educazione sono le radici su cui edificare il sentire comune. Pensare di derubricarli a questioni secondarie, denuncia la miopia e l’arroganza di chi è abituato a trattare ambiti così importanti con consumato disprezzo».
C’è, in queste ore difficili, un dato che la inquieta più di altri?
«L’incapacità di capire la gioventù. Dovrebbe essere la discussione prìncipe su cui pianificare il futuro, la problematica che soppianta la vacuità del quotidiano e l’inseguirsi scontato di notizie inutili. Invece nulla, solo parole vuote e imbarazzato silenzio. Una sconfitta totale, l’ennesima cui assisto nella mia vita»
La Ivolution 