Ulysses’ Gaze [To vlemma tou Odyssea] * (1995, Harvey Keitel, Erland Josephson, Maia Morgenstern) – Classic Movie Review 6149

There are those who think this is one of the all-time great movies, but most others will be driven screaming away from the cinema or TV set with a headache by its unbelievably slow pace and mind-numbing tedium.

This utterly exhausting and exasperating 176-minute 1995 art-house epic from Greek co-writer/ director Theo [ Theodoros] Angelopoulos is a strong candidate for the world’s most boring film, despite all his good intentions about making some kind of ultimate statement on the Bosnian conflict.

That man for all movies, Harvey Keitel, tries his darnedest to brighten things up as ‘A’, a Greek-American film-maker taking an Odyssey-style Balkan trip from Athens to Sarajevo as part of his documentary about film pioneer brothers.

After an hour and three-quarters, a giant bust of Lenin is seen being transported at a snail’s pace on a boat down the river to Belgrade. This is the film for all those who think this is a bravura sequence. For the rest of us this might be the time to go to the pub or just to bed.

Also in the cast are Maia Morgenstern as Ulysses’ Wife, Erland Josephson as ‘S’, the Film Museum Curator, Thanassis Vengos, Yorgos Michalakopoulos and Dfora Volanaki.

It is written by Theo Angelopoulos and Tonino Guerra, shot by Yorgos Arvanitis and Andreas Sinanos, produced by Phoebe Economopoulos, Eric Heumann and Giorgio Silvagni, scored by Eleni Karaindrou, and designed by Giorgos Patsas and Yorgos Patsas.

Theo Angelopoulos won the FIPRESCI Prize at the Cannes Film Festival 1995, tied with Ken Loach’s Land and Freedom (1995).

Theo Angelopoulos died in a road accident on 24 January 2012, aged 76.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 6149

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