Theodoros Angelopoulos (born 27 April 1935) is a Greek filmmaker,
screenwriterScreenwriters or scenarists or scriptwriters are people in a film crew who write/create the screenplays from which films and television programs are made....
and
film producerA film producer or movie producer is someone who creates the scenes and conditions for making movies. The producer initiates, co-ordinates, supervises and controls matters such as fund-raising, hiring key personnel and arranging for distributors...
.
Angelopoulos studied law at the
National and Kapodistrian University of AthensRanked 177th in the world, the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens , usually referred to simply as the University of Athens, is the oldest university in Southeast Europeand has been in continuous operation since its establishment in 1837...
, but after his military service went to
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
to attend the
SorbonneThe historic University of Paris was founded in the mid 12th century, likely between 1160 and 1170 , In 1970 it was reorganized as 13 autonomous universities...
. 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 criticFilm criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films, individually and collectively. In general, this can be divided into journalistic criticism that appears regularly in newspapers, and other popular, mass-media outlets and academic criticism by film scholars that is informed by film theory and...
.
Angelopoulos began making films after the 1967 coup that began the Greek
military dictatorshipA military dictatorship is a form of government wherein the political power resides with the military. It is similar but not identical to a stratocracy, a state ruled directly by the military....
known as the Regime of the Colonels.
Theodoros Angelopoulos (born 27 April 1935) is a Greek filmmaker,
screenwriterScreenwriters or scenarists or scriptwriters are people in a film crew who write/create the screenplays from which films and television programs are made....
and
film producerA film producer or movie producer is someone who creates the scenes and conditions for making movies. The producer initiates, co-ordinates, supervises and controls matters such as fund-raising, hiring key personnel and arranging for distributors...
.
Life
Angelopoulos studied law at the
National and Kapodistrian University of AthensRanked 177th in the world, the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens , usually referred to simply as the University of Athens, is the oldest university in Southeast Europeand has been in continuous operation since its establishment in 1837...
, but after his military service went to
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
to attend the
SorbonneThe historic University of Paris was founded in the mid 12th century, likely between 1160 and 1170 , In 1970 it was reorganized as 13 autonomous universities...
. 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 criticFilm criticism is the analysis and evaluation of films, individually and collectively. In general, this can be divided into journalistic criticism that appears regularly in newspapers, and other popular, mass-media outlets and academic criticism by film scholars that is informed by film theory and...
.
Film career
Angelopoulos began making films after the 1967 coup that began the Greek
military dictatorshipA military dictatorship is a form of government wherein the political power resides with the military. It is similar but not identical to a stratocracy, a state ruled directly by the military....
known as the Regime of the Colonels. He made his first short
filmFilm encompasses individual motion pictures, the field of film as an art form, and the motion picture industry. Films are produced by recording images from the world with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects....
in 1968 and in the 1970s he began making a series of political
feature filmIn the film industry, a feature film is a film made for initial distribution in theaters and being the "main attraction" of the screening...
s about modern Greece:
Days of '36 (
Meres Tou 36, 1972),
The Travelling PlayersThe Travelling Players is a 1975 Greek film directed by Theo Angelopoulos.The film uses less than one hundred shots to explore the history of mid-century Greece through the lives of a company of travelling actors. As the naming of the characters indicates the plot includes themes borrowed from the...
(
O Thiassos, 1975) and
The Hunters (
I Kynighoi, 1977). He quickly established a characteristic style, marked by slow, episodic and ambiguous
narrativeA narrative is a story that is created in a constructive format that describes a sequence of fictional or non-fictional events...
structures as well as
long takeA long take is an uninterrupted shot in a film which lasts much longer than the conventional editing pace either of the film itself or of films in general, usually lasting several minutes...
s (
The Travelling Players, for example, consists of only 80 shots in about four hours of film). These takes often include meticulously choreographed and complicated scenes involving many actors. His regular collaborators include the
cinematographerA cinematographer is one photographing with a motion picture camera . The title is generally equivalent to director of photography , used to designate a chief over the camera and lighting crews working on a film, responsible for achieving artistic and technical decisions related to the image...
Giorgos ArvanitisGiorgos Arvanitis is a Greek cinematographer.-Life:Arvanitis was born in the village of Dilofo, Greece...
, the screenwriter
Tonino GuerraTonino Guerra is an Italian poet, writer and screenwriter who has collaborated with some of the most prominent writers of the world.-Biography:Guerra was born in Santarcangelo di Romagna....
and the composer
Eleni KaraindrouEleni Karaindrou is a Greek composer, born in Teichio. She studied piano and theory at the Hellenikon Odion in Athens. She is best known for scoring the films of Theo Angelopoulos...
.
Criticism
Angelopoulos is considered by British film critics
Derek MalcolmDerek Malcolm is a British film critic and historian.Malcolm was educated at Eton College and Oxford University. He worked for several decades as a film critic for the The Guardian, having previously been an amateur jockey and the paper's first horse racing correspondent...
and
David ThomsonDavid Thomson is a film critic and historian based in the United States and the author of more than 20 books, including The New Biographical Dictionary of Film, lauded as one of the best reference works on the cinema.-Career:...
as one one of the world's greatest living directors.
Awards
- THE BROADCAST (1968)
- 1968. Greek Critics' Award, Thessaloniki Film Festival.
- RECONSTRUCTION (1970)
- 1970. Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Film, Best Actress Awards, Critics' Award, Thessaloniki Film Festival.
- 1971. Georges Sadoul Award as «Best Film of the Year Shown in France).
- 1971. Best Foreign Film Award, Hyeres Film Festival.
- DAYS OF '36 (1970)
- 1972. Best Director, Best Cinematography Awards, Thessaloniki Film Festival
- International Film Critics Association (FIPRESCI) Award for Best Film, Berlin Film Festival.
- The Travelling Players
The Travelling Players is a 1975 Greek film directed by Theo Angelopoulos.The film uses less than one hundred shots to explore the history of mid-century Greece through the lives of a company of travelling actors. As the naming of the characters indicates the plot includes themes borrowed from the...
(1974-75)
- 1975. International Film Critics Award (FIPRESCI), Cannes.
- 1975. Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Actress, Greek Critics Association Awards, International Thessaloniki Film Festival
- Interfilm Award, «Forum» 1975 Berlin Festival.
- 1976. Best film of the Year, British Film Institute,
- Italian Film Critics Association: Best Film in the World, 1970-80.
- FIPRESCI: One of the Top Films in the History of Cinema.
- Grand Prix of the Arts, Japan.
- Best Film of the Year, Japan.
- Golden Age Award, Brussels.
- THE HUNTERS (1977)
- 1978. Golden Hugo Award for Best Film, Chicago Film Festival.
- MEGALEXANDROS (1980)
- 1980. Golden Lion and International Film Critics Award (FIPRESCI), Venice Film Festival.
- Voyage to Cythera
Voyage to Cythera is a 1984 Greek film directed by Theodoros Angelopoulos. It was entered into the 1984 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the FIPRESCI Prize and the award for Best Screenplay.-Cast:* Manos Katrakis - Spyros...
(1983)
- Best Screenplay
The Best Screenplay Award is an award presented at the Cannes Film Festival. It is chosen by the jury from the 'official section' of movies at the festival...
and International Film Critics Award (FIPRESCI) Best Film Awards, 1984 Cannes Film Festival- Jury :*Dirk Bogarde *Franco Cristaldi *Michel Deville *Stanley Donen *Istvan Dosai *Arne Hestenes *Isabelle Huppert *Ennio Morricone...
- Critics' Award, Rio Film Festival.
- Landscape in the Mist
Landscape in the Mist is a 1988 film directed by Theo Angelopoulos.-Plot:...
(1988)
- 1988. Silver Lion
The Leone d’Argento refers to a number of awards presented at the Venice Film Festival. The Silver Lion is awarded irregularly and have gone through several changes of purpose. Until 1995, Silver Lions were infrequently awarded to a number of films as second prize for those nominated for the...
Award for Best Director, Venice Film FestivalThe Venice Film Festival is the oldest film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi di Misurata in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the Lido, Venice,...
.
- 1989. Felix (Best European Film of the Year) Award
- Golden Hugo Award for Best Director
- Silver Plaque for Best Cinematography, Chicago Film Festival.
- Ulysses' Gaze
Ulysses' Gaze is a film directed by Theo Angelopoulos. The actor Gian Maria Volonté died during the filming of this movie...
(1995)
- Grand Jury Prize
The Grand Prix is an award of the Cannes Film Festival bestowed by the jury of the festival on one of the competing feature films. It is the second-most prestigious prize of the festival after the Palme d'Or...
and International Critics' Prize, 1995 Cannes Film Festival-Jury:*Jeanne Moreau *Gianni Amelio *Jean-Claude Brialy *Nadine Gordimer *Gaston Kabore *Michele-Ray Gavras *Emilio Garcia Riera *Philippe Rousselot *John Waters...
.
- Felix of the Critics (Film of the Year 1995).
- Eternity and a Day
Eternity and a Day is a 1998 Greek film starring Bruno Ganz, and directed by Theo Angelopoulos.-Plot:The film tells the story of a writer with a terminal illness spending his last day getting his affairs in order before checking himself into a hospital. He lives in his old seaside family home near...
(1998)
- Palme d'Or
The Palme d'Or is the highest prize awarded to competing films at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the organising committee. From 1939 to 1954, the highest prize was the Grand Prix du Festival International du Film...
, 1998 Cannes Film Festival- Jury :*Martin Scorsese *Alain Corneau *Chiara Mastroianni *Chen Kaige *Lena Olin *MC Solaar *Michael Winterbottom *Sigourney Weaver *Winona Ryder *Zoe Valdes...
- Prize of the Ecumenical Jury
The Prize of the Ecumenical Jury is an independent film award for feature films at the Cannes Film Festival since 1974. The Ecumenical Jury is one of three juries at the Cannes Film Festival, along with the official jury and the FIPRESCI jury. The award was created by Christian film makers, film...
Filmography
- Broadcast (I Ekpombi) (1968)
- Reconstruction (Anaparastasis) (1970)
- Days of 36 (Meres tou 36) (1972)
- The Travelling Players
The Travelling Players is a 1975 Greek film directed by Theo Angelopoulos.The film uses less than one hundred shots to explore the history of mid-century Greece through the lives of a company of travelling actors. As the naming of the characters indicates the plot includes themes borrowed from the...
(O Thiassos) (1975)
- The Hunters
The Hunters is a 1977 Greek drama film directed by Theodoros Angelopoulos. It was entered into the 1977 Cannes Film Festival.-Cast:* Mairi Hronopoulou* Eva Kotamanidou* Aliki Georgouli* Vangelis Kazan - Hotelier* Betty Valassi...
(I Kinighi) (1977)
- Alexander the Great (O Megalexandros) (1980)
- Athens (Athina, epistrofi stin Akropoli) (1983)
- Voyage to Cythera
Voyage to Cythera is a 1984 Greek film directed by Theodoros Angelopoulos. It was entered into the 1984 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the FIPRESCI Prize and the award for Best Screenplay.-Cast:* Manos Katrakis - Spyros...
(Taxidi stin Kythera) (1984)
- The Beekeeper
The Beekeeper is a 1986 Greek drama film directed by Theodoros Angelopoulos.-Cast:* Marcello Mastroianni - Spyros* Nadia Mourouzi - The Girl* Serge Reggiani - Sick Man* Jenny Roussea - Spyros' Wife* Dinos Iliopoulos - Spyros' Friend...
(O Melissokomos) (1986)
- Landscape in the Mist
Landscape in the Mist is a 1988 film directed by Theo Angelopoulos.-Plot:...
(Topio stin Omichli) (1988)
- The Suspended Step of the Stork
The Suspended Step of the Stork is a 1991 Greek film directed by Theodoros Angelopoulos. It was entered into the 1991 Cannes Film Festival.-Cast:* Marcello Mastroianni - Missing Politician* Jeanne Moreau - The Woman...
(To Meteoro Vima tou Pelargou) (1991)
- Ulysses' Gaze
Ulysses' Gaze is a film directed by Theo Angelopoulos. The actor Gian Maria Volonté died during the filming of this movie...
(To Vlemma tou Odyssea) (1995)
- Eternity and a Day
Eternity and a Day is a 1998 Greek film starring Bruno Ganz, and directed by Theo Angelopoulos.-Plot:The film tells the story of a writer with a terminal illness spending his last day getting his affairs in order before checking himself into a hospital. He lives in his old seaside family home near...
(Mia aiwniothta kai mia mera) (1998)
- The Weeping Meadow (Trilogia I: To Livadi pou dakryzei) (2004)
- Chacun son cinéma (2007) (Segment of portmanteau film, with contributions from 33 directors)
- The Dust of Time
The Dust of Time is a film by Theodoros Angelopoulos. The film premiered in February 12, 2009 in the 59th Berlin International Film Festival....
(2009)
External links