VHS : Ulysses' Gaze [1996]

Rating: - Pretty, Emotional, but too controlled and ultimately false.
Angelopoulos can be a bit trying for folks who have a hard time with "Art Movies," and sadly this is exactly what this movie is. It shouldn't be, given the epic scope that takes us from Greece, across the Balkans into Sarajevo at the time of the bosnian war, the subject deserves better. There is a little too much self importance in the way in which "Cinema" is revered by the film maker (It's a little too autobiographical, in the narcicistic sense of the word). The photography is fantastic, the performances (In Greek anyway) are good. But the audience is sadly not invited into the world of the movie. Instead we simply watch from a far as Theo shows us his stuff. And the English language dialogue is attrocious, killing the film stone dead. The one shining light is Erland Josephson, but he comes along far too late in the day. If you like "Beautiful" movies, check it out, and it has emotion too, but not on a character identification level, on a detatched level, looking in, just like Theo.

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Rating: - ...it is so nice travel into your mind!
Back in 1905, two brothers, Yannakis and Miltos Manakis, lived in what is now Albania. Then it was one of the European parts of the Ottoman Empire, which also included Greece, Romania, Bulgaria, and whatever has now replaced Yugoslavia. These brothers were the first makers of motion pictures in that area.

A contemporary filmmaker, called simply A, returns to his native Greece for a screening of one of his films that is controversial there. He talks to someone who in his youth had been an assistant to Yannakis Manakis, who was then himself an old man exiled in Greece. This person tells A that, just before his death, Yannakis had rambled on about how he wanted to recover three reels of film that he and his brother had left undeveloped long ago. A himself becomes obsessed with finding these reels, and Ulysses' Gaze is the episodic story of A's journey through the civil-war torn Balkans in search of the film. Then voyage begins...

Despite a haunting soundtrack, stunning scenery and the indomitable Keitel, Ulysses' Gaze is not for everyone. It has a remoteness, with the viewer always the observer, not the participant."

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Rating: - 'In my end is my beginning.'At one point in Ulysses' Gaze, A
And the story begins...On the occasion of his return home for a screening, a first-generation Graeco-American filmmaker known only as "A" begins the quest of a film historian's lifetime, searching for vintage reels of film shot by two brothers recording ethnic conflicts in the Balkans.

Along the way, he has several passionate encounters with various women who have been, or may have been, part of his life. Filled with stunning imagery, the film travels through war-torn Balkans giving a compelling eyewitness account (full of mystery!).

Angelopoulos invites us not only to follow A into his
journey, also to take his place in cases. His journey is a diving to the abyss of the human sensitivities away from the shiny lights of a world based on quantitative values.

Plus, Excellent music and nostalgia for a better world!!! A Greek film that talks to your deeper feelings(...) and makes the difference in the international film arena!