Theo Angelopoulos

Theo Angelopoulos
Angelopoulos presenting his film The Dust of Time in 2009 in Athens, Greece
Born	Theodoros Angelopoulos 27 April 1935 Athens, Greece
Died	24 January 2012 (aged 76) Piraeus, Greece
Cause of death	Accident
Occupation	Film director and screenwriter
Years active	1965–2012
Spouse(s)	Phoebe Economopoulou (1980–2012; his death)
Children	Anna Angelopoulou, Katerina Angelopoulou and Eleni Angelopoulou
Website	Official website

Theodoros "Theo" Angelopoulos (Greek: Θεόδωρος Αγγελόπουλος) (27 April 1935 – 24 January 2012) was a Greek filmmaker, screenwriter and film producer.

An acclaimed and multi-awarded film director who dominated the Greek art film industry from 1975 on,^[1] Angelopoulos was one of the most influential and widely respected filmmakers in the world.^[2][3][4] He started making films in 1967. In the 1970s he made a series of political films about modern Greece.

Angelopoulos' work, described by Martin Scorsese as that of "a masterful filmmaker", is characterized by slightest movement, slightest change in distance, long takes, and complex yet carefully composed scenes; his cinematic method, as a result, is often described as "sweeping" and "hypnotic."^[2][5]

In 1998 his film Eternity and a Day went on to win the prestigious Palme d'Or at the 51st edition of the Cannes Film Festival, and his films have been shown at many of the world's most esteemed film festivals.^[6] In 2000 he was the President of the Jury at the 22nd Moscow International Film Festival.^[7] The life of Theo Angelopoulos, his work, and his passion were the subject of a documentary directed in 2008 by Elodie Lelu. ^[8]

Biography

Theodoros Angelopoulos was born in Athens on 27 April 1935. During the Greek Civil War, his father was taken hostage and returned when Angelopoulos was 9 years old; according to the director, the absence of his father and looking for him among the dead bodies had a great impact on his cinematography.^[9] He studied law at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, but after his military service went to Paris to attend the Sorbonne. He soon dropped out to study film at the Institut des hautes études cinématographiques (IDHEC) before returning to Greece. There, he worked as a journalist and film critic. Angelopoulos began making films after the 1967 coup that began the Greek military dictatorship known as the Regime of the Colonels. He made his first short film in 1968 and in the 1970s he began making a series of political feature films about modern Greece: Days of '36 (Meres Tou 36, 1972), The Travelling Players (O Thiassos, 1975) and The Hunters (I Kynighoi, 1977). In 1978, he was a member of the jury at the 28th Berlin International Film Festival.^[10]

Theo Angelopoulos is a masterful filmmaker. He really understands how to control the frame. There are sequences in his work—the wedding scene in The Suspended Step of the Stork; the rape scene in Landscape in the Mist; or any given scene in The Traveling Players—where the slightest movement, the slightest change in distance, sends reverberations through the film and through the viewer. The total effect is hypnotic, sweeping, and profoundly emotional. His sense of control is almost otherworldly.

—Martin Scorsese^[5]

He quickly established a characteristic style, marked by slow, episodic and ambiguous narrative structures as well as long takes (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.

The sad state of contemporary Greece is built against Angelopoulos’ poignant poetry of images. In The Travelling Players, Angelopoulos portrays a road narrative through the Grecian provinces, and reveals the fascism, the absence of democracy and national identity, at the face of the military junta.

In Landscape in the Mist the social-realist air merges into surrealism as the director takes his audience once again through misty towns and snowy wilderness. His lifelong tendency to amalgamate Greek myths and history into current political events was revealed once again in his oedipal drama Trilogy: The Weeping Meadow. He stood – along with the few representing the Greek cultural Renaissance in the second half of the 20th century – as a testimony to the elites of his nation who have constantly belittled their culture in lieu of insatiable consumerism which has redefined Greek modernity.^[11] His regular collaborators include the cinematographer Giorgos Arvanitis, the screenwriter Tonino Guerra and the composer Eleni Karaindrou. One of the recurring themes of his work is immigration, the flight from homeland and the return, as well as the history of 20th century Greece. Angelopoulos was considered by British film critics Derek Malcolm^[12] and David Thomson^[13] as one of the world's greatest directors.

While critics have speculated on how he developed his style, Angelopoulos made clear in one interview that "The only specific influences I acknowledge are Orson Welles for his use of plan-sequence and deep focus, and Mizoguchi, for his use of time and off-camera space."^[14]

Angelopoulos was awarded honorary doctorates by the Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium in 1995, by Paris West University Nanterre La Défense, France, by the University of Essex, UK in July 2001,^[15] by the University of Western Macedonia, Greece in December 2008,^[16] and by the University of the Aegean, Greece in December 2009.^[17]

Death

Angelopoulos died late on Tuesday, 24 January 2012, several hours after being involved in an accident while shooting his latest film, The Other Sea in Athens. The filmmaker had been with his crew in the area of Drapetsona, near Piraeus when he was hit by a motorcycle driven by an off-duty police officer, on Tuesday evening. The accident occurred when Angelopoulos, 76, attempted to cross a busy road. He was taken to the hospital, where he was treated in an intensive care unit but succumbed to his serious injuries several hours later. Before expiring, Angelopoulos suffered at least one heart attack.^[18][19]

Awards

Angelopoulos won numerous awards, including the Palme d'Or at the 51st edition of the Cannes Film Festival in 1998 for Eternity and a Day (Mia aioniotita kai mia mera). His films have been shown at the most important film festivals around the world.^[6]

Year	Issuer	Award	Film	Result
1968	Thessaloniki	Hellenic Association of Film Critics – Best Short Fiction	The Broadcast	Won[20][lower-alpha 1]
1970	Thessaloniki	Best Greek Art Film	Reconstruction	Won[21][lower-alpha 2]
1970	Thessaloniki	Best Greek New Director	Reconstruction	Won[21][lower-alpha 2]
1970	Thessaloniki	Hellenic Association of Film Critics – Best Film	Reconstruction	Won[21][lower-alpha 2]
1971	Berlinale	FIPRESCI – Special Mention	Reconstruction	Won[22]
1971	Georges Sadoul	Best Film of the Year Shown in France	Reconstruction	Won
1971	Hyères	Best Foreign Film	Reconstruction	Won
1972	Thessaloniki	Best Greek Director	Days of '36	Won[23][lower-alpha 3]
1973	Berlinale	FIPRESCI – Forum of New Cinema	Days of '36	Won[24]
1975	Cannes	FIPRESCI (Parallel Sections)	The Travelling Players[lower-alpha 4]	Won[25][26]
1975	Berlinale	Interfilm Award – Forum of New Cinema	The Travelling Players[lower-alpha 4]	Won[25][27]
1975	Thessaloniki	Best Greek Film	The Travelling Players[lower-alpha 4]	Won[25][28][lower-alpha 5]
1975	Thessaloniki	Best Greek Director	The Travelling Players[lower-alpha 4]	Won[25][lower-alpha 5]
1975	Thessaloniki	Best Greek Screenplay	The Travelling Players[lower-alpha 4]	Won[25][lower-alpha 5]
1975	BFI	Sutherland Trophy	The Travelling Players[lower-alpha 4]	Won[25][29]
1977	Cannes	Palme d'Or	The Hunters	Nominated[30][31]
1978	Chicago	Golden Hugo for Best Film	The Hunters	Won
1980	Kinema Junpo	Best Foreign Language Film Director	The Travelling Players[lower-alpha 4]	Won[25][32]
1980	Japanese Academy	Best Foreign Language Film	The Travelling Players[lower-alpha 4]	Nominated[25][33]
1980	Venice	FIPRESCI	Alexander the Great	Won[34]
1980	Thessaloniki	Best Greek Film	Alexander the Great	Won[35]
1980	Thessaloniki	Hellenic Association of Film Critics – Best Film	Alexander the Great	Won[35]
1984	Cannes	Palme d'Or	Voyage to Cythera	Nominated[36][37][lower-alpha 6]
1984	Cannes	Best Screenplay	Voyage to Cythera	Won[36][37][lower-alpha 6]
1984	FIPRESCI	International Critic's Prize	Voyage to Cythera	Won[36][lower-alpha 6]
1984	Rio	Critics' Award	Voyage to Cythera	Won
1986	Venice	Golden Lion	The Beekeeper	Nominated[38]
1988	Venice	Silver Lion	Landscape in the Mist	Won[39][lower-alpha 7]
1989	Berlinale	Interfilm Award – Forum of New Cinema	Landscape in the Mist	Won[41]
1989	EFA	European Film Award for Best Film	Landscape in the Mist	Won[40][42]
1991	Cannes	Palme d'Or	The Suspended Step of the Stork	Nominated[43]
1991	Chicago	Golden Hugo for Best Director	Landscape in the Mist	Won[lower-alpha 8]
1995	Cannes	Palme d'Or	Ulysses' Gaze	Nominated[44][45]
1995	Cannes	Grand Jury Prize	Ulysses' Gaze	Won[43][44]
1995	Cannes	International Critics' Prize	Ulysses' Gaze	Won[43][44]
1995	EFA	FIPRESCI – FELIX of the Critics	Ulysses' Gaze	Won[46][47]
1996	FSCC	Prix Léon Moussinac – Best Foreign Film	Ulysses' Gaze	Won[48]
1996	INSFJ	Best Foreign Film Director	Ulysses' Gaze	Won[49]
1997	Goya	Best European Film	Ulysses' Gaze	Nominated[50]
1997	Mainichi	Best Foreign Language Film	Ulysses' Gaze	Won[51]
1997	Sant Jordi	Best Foreign Film	Ulysses' Gaze	Won[52]
1997	Turia	Best Foreign Film	Ulysses' Gaze	Won[53]
1998	Cannes	Palme d'Or	Eternity and a Day	Won[54][55]
1998	Cannes	Prize of the Ecumenical Jury	Eternity and a Day	Won[54][55]
1998	São Paulo	Audience Award – Best Feature	Ulysses' Gaze	3[56]
1998	Thessaloniki	Best Greek Film	The Beekeeper	Won[57]
1998	Thessaloniki	Best Greek Director	The Beekeeper	Won[57]
1998	Thessaloniki	Best Greek Screenplay	The Beekeeper	Won[57]
1999	ACCA	Silver Condor for Best Foreign Film	Ulysses' Gaze	Won[58]
2001	ACCA	Silver Condor for Best Foreign Film	Eternity and a Day	Won[58]
2004	Berlinale	Golden Bear	Trilogy: The Weeping Meadow	Nominated[41]
2004	EFA	European Film Award for Best Film	Trilogy: The Weeping Meadow	Nominated[59][60][lower-alpha 9]
2004	EFA	Audience Award	Trilogy: The Weeping Meadow	Nominated[59][60][lower-alpha 9]
2004	EFA	FIPRESCI – European Film Academy Critics	Trilogy: The Weeping Meadow	Won[59][60][61][lower-alpha 9]
2005	Fajr	Special Jury Prize – Spiritual Competition	Trilogy: The Weeping Meadow	Won[62]

Lifetime achievement awards

Theodoros Angelopoulos was also the recipient of many awards for his long standing career.^[6]

Year	Provider	Award
1995	Université libre de Bruxelles	Honorary Doctorate
1996	Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists	European Silver Ribbon[49]
2001	University of Essex	Honorary Graduate[15]
2003	Copenhagen International Film Festival	Honorary Award[63][lower-alpha 10]
2003	Flaiano Film Festival	Honorary Award[64]
2004	Montreal World Film Festival	Grand Prix Special des Amériques[65]
2004	Busan International Film Festival	Hand Printing[66]
2008	University of Western Macedonia	Honorary Graduate[16]
2010	Yerevan International Film Festival	Lifetime Achievement Award[67]
2009	University of the Aegean	Honorary Graduate[17]
—	Paris West University Nanterre La Défense	Honorary Doctorate

Filmography

Feature films

Year	Title Original title	Contribution	Notes
1970	Reconstitution (Anaparastasi)	Director
1972	Days of '36 (Meres tou '36)	Director	Part 1 of the "Trilogy of History"
1975	The Travelling Players (O Thiassos)	Director/writer	Part 2 of the "Trilogy of History"
1977	The Hunters (I Kinighi)	Director/co-writer	Part 3 of the "Trilogy of History"
1980	Alexander the Great (O Megalexandros)	Director
1984	Voyage to Cythera (Taxidi sta Kythira)	Director/co-writer	Part 1 of the "Trilogy of Silence"
1986	The Beekeeper (O Melissokomos)	Director/co-writer	Part 2 of the "Trilogy of Silence"
1988	Landscape in the Mist (Topio stin Omichli)	Director/co-writer	European Film Award for Best Film 1989 Part 3 of the "Trilogy of Silence"
1991	The Suspended Step of the Stork (To Meteoro Vima tou Pelargou)	Director/writer	Part 1 of the "Trilogy of Borders"
1995	Ulysses' Gaze (To Vlemma tou Odyssea)	Director/co-writer	Part 2 of the "Trilogy of Borders"
1998	Eternity and a Day (Mia aioniotita kai mia mera)	Director/co-writer	Palme d'Or 1998 Part 3 of the "Trilogy of Borders"
2004	Trilogy: The Weeping Meadow (Trilogia I: To Livadi pou dakryzi)	Director	Part 1 of the trilogy on modern Greece
2009	The Dust of Time (I skoni tou chronou)	Director	Part 2 of the trilogy on modern Greece
—[68]	The Other Sea (I alli thalassa)	Director/writer	Part 3 of the trilogy on modern Greece

Other films

Year	Title Original title	Contribution	Notes
1968	Broadcast (I Ekpombi)	Director/writer	Short film
1983	Athens (Athina, epistrofi stin Akropoli)	Director/writer	Television film
1995	Lumière and Company (Lumière et compagnie)	Co-director/co-writer	Up to 52 seconds segment of portmanteau film, with contributions from 41 international film directors in which each made a short film using the original Cinématographe camera invented by the Lumière brothers.
2007	To Each His Own Cinema (Chacun son cinéma)	Co-director/co-writer	Trois minutes (Three Minutes) segment of portmanteau film commissioned for the 60th anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival, with contributions from 36 directors.
2011	Invisible World (Mundo Invisivel)	Co-director/co-writer	Short film Sky below The underworld of the center and of the underground of São Paulo and its almost imperceptible inhabitants. The colorful of street art of graffiti in the melancholy of the outside world without redemption, and the weight of divine consciousness.

Notes

1. At the Thessaloniki International Film Festival of 1968, The Broadcast was also the recipient of a Honorable Mention by the Hellenic Association of Film Critics Award.^[20]
2. At the Thessaloniki International Film Festival of 1970, Reconstruction was also awarded:
   • The Best Greek Cinematography: Giorgos Arvanitis
   • The Best Greek Supporting Actress: Toula Stathopoulou.^[21]
3. At the Thessaloniki International Film Festival of 1972, Giorgos Arvanitis was awarded the Best Greek Cinematography prize for Days of '36.^[23]
4. The Travelling Players was also awarded:
   • The Best Film in the World for 1970–1980 by Italian Film Critics Association.
   • One of the Top Films in the History of Cinema by FIPRESCI.
   • The Grand Prix of the Arts, Japan.
   • The Golden Age Award, Brussels.
5. At the Thessaloniki International Film Festival of 1975, The Travelling Players was also awarded:^[28]
   • The Best Greek Actor: Vangelis Kazan
   • The Best Greek Actress: Eva Kotamanidou
   • The Best Greek Cinematography: Giorgos Arvanitis
   • The Greek Critics Association Award
6. At the 37th Cannes Film Festival, the Best Screenplay was awarded to Theodoros Angelopoulos, Tonino Guerra, and Thanassis Valtinos, and, the FIPRESCI International Film Critics Award was awarded ex-aequo with Paris, Texas by Wim Wenders.^[36]
7. At the 46th Venice International Film Festival, Landscape in the Mist and Theodoros Angelopoulos were also awarded:^[39]
   • The Prize of the Students of the University "La Sapienza"
   • The Pasinetti Award for the Best Film
   • The OCIC Award tied with The Legend of the Holy Drinker (La leggenda del santo bevitore) by Ermanno Olmi
   • The C.I.C.A.E. Award
   • The Sergio Trasatti Award
   Theodoros Angelopoulos, and the film cast and crew were also nominated for:^[40]
   • Best European Cinematographer: Giorgos Arvanitis
   • Best European Director: Theo Angelopoulos
   • Best European Screenwriter: Theo Angelopoulos, Tonino Guerra, and Thanassis Valtinos
   • Best European Supporting Performance
8. At the 27th Chicago International Film Festival, Landscape in the Mist was also awarded the Silver Plaque for Best Cinematography
9. At the 17th European Film Awards (2004), Theodoros Angelopoulos was also nominated for Best Director.^[60]
10. Theodoros Angelopoulos was the head of the jury of the first edition of the Copenhagen International Film Festival, held between 13–20 August 2003.^[63]

References

1. Merry 2004, p. 145.
2. Horton 1999, preface.
3. Malcolm 2000.
4. Thomson 2000, pp. 21–22.
5. Horton 1999, back cover.
6. "Theodoros Angelopoulos – Awards". IMDb.
7. "22nd Moscow International Film Festival (2000)". MIFF. Retrieved 26 March 2013.
8. Presentation of the documentary about Theo Angelopoulos on Eurochannel
9. "Theodoros Angelopoulos", editions Kastanioti, p. 189.
10. "Berlinale 1978: Juries". berlinale.de. Retrieved 4 August 2010.
11. "Theo Angelopoulos And Greece". Silhouette Magazine & Learning and Creativity. 2012-04-01. Retrieved 2014-06-22. External link in |publisher= (help)
12. Malcolm 2000.
13. Thomson 2002, pp. 21–22.
14. The Last Modernist, ed. Andrew Horton, 1997
15. "Honorary Graduates :: Theodoros Angelopoulos". University of Essex. 9 December 2009.
16. "Honorary Graduates :: Theodoros Angelopoulos" (PDF). University of Western Macedonia. 15 December 2008.
17. "Honorary Graduates :: Theodoros Angelopoulos". University of the Aegean. 12 July 2001.
18. "Director Angelopoulos dies after accident while filming". Kathimerini. 25 January 2012.
19. Associated Press (24 January 2012). "Culture – Film – Filmmaker Theo Angelopoulos dies in accident". guardian.co.uk.
20. "Thessaloniki Film Festival (1968)". IMDb.
21. "Thessaloniki Film Festival (1970)". IMDb.
22. "Berlin International Film Festival (1971)". IMDb.
23. "Thessaloniki Film Festival (1972)". IMDb.
24. "Berlin International Film Festival (1973)". IMDb.
25. "The Travelling Players (1975) – Awards". IMDb.
26. "Cannes Film Festival (1975)". IMDb.
27. "Berlin International Film Festival (1975)". IMDb.
28. "Thessaloniki Film Festival (1975)". IMDb.
29. "British Film Institute Awards (1975)". IMDb.
30. "I KINIGUI" [The Hunters]. Cannes Film Festival.
31. "Cannes Film Festival (1977)". IMDb.
32. "Kinema Junpo Awards (1980)". IMDb.
33. "Awards of the Japanese Academy (1980)". IMDb.
34. "Venice Film Festival (1980)". IMDb.
35. "Thessaloniki Film Festival (1980)". IMDb.
36. "Awards 1984". Cannes Film Festival.
37. "Cannes Film Festival (1984)". IMDb.
38. "Venice Film Festival (1986)". IMDb.
39. "Venice Film Festival (1988)". IMDb.
40. "European Film Awards – 1989: The Winners". European Film Academy. 4 September 2008.
41. "Berlin International Film Festival (1989)". IMDb.
42. "European Film Awards (1989)". IMDb.
43. "Cannes Film Festival (1991)". IMDb.
44. "Festival de Cannes: Ulysses' Gaze". Cannes Film Festival. Retrieved 5 September 2009.
45. "Cannes Film Festival (1995)". IMDb.
46. "European Film Awards – 1995: The Winners". European Film Academy. 4 September 2008.
47. "European Film Awards (1995)". IMDb.
48. "French Syndicate of Cinema Critics (1996)". IMDb.
49. "Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists (1996)". IMDb.
50. "Goya Awards (1997)". IMDb.
51. "Mainichi Film Concours (1997)". IMDb.
52. "Sant Jordi Awards (1997)". IMDb.
53. "Turia Awards (1997)". IMDb.
54. "Festival de Cannes: Eternity and a Day". Cannes Film Festival. Retrieved 1 October 2009.
55. "Cannes Film Festival (1998)". IMDb.
56. "São Paulo International Film Festival (1998)". IMDb.
57. "Thessaloniki Film Festival (1998)". IMDb.
58. "Argentinean Film Critics Association Awards (1999)". IMDb.
59. "European Film Awards – 2004: The Winners". European Film Academy. 4 September 2008.
60. "European Film Awards (2004)". IMDb.
61. "special awards 2004". fIPRESCI.
62. "Fajr Film Festival (2005)". IMDb.
63. "Copenhagen International Film Festival (2003)". IMDb.
64. "Flaiano International Prizes (2003)". IMDb.
65. "Montréal World Film Festival (2004)". IMDb.
66. "Pusan International Film Festival (2004)". IMDb.
67. "Yerevan International Film Festival (2010)". IMDb.
68. Left uncompleted by Angelopoulos' unexpected death in January 2012.

Bibliography and sources

Books

• Horton, Andrew (1999) [1997]. The Films of Theo Angelopoulos: A Cinema of Contemplation. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-01005-6. OCLC 154632603.
• Kolovos, Nikos (1990). Θόδωρος Αγγελόπουλος [Theodoros Angelopoulos] (in Greek). Athens: Aegokeros. OCLC 28342373.
• Kolovos, Nikos (1999). Κινηματογράφος Η τέχνη της βιομηχανίας [Cinema: The Art of Industry] (in Greek). Athens: Kastaniotis. ISBN 960-03-2704-1. OCLC 54107678.
• Merry, Bruce (2004). Encyclopedia of Modern Greek Literature. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood. p. 145. ISBN 0-313-30813-6. OCLC 53938047. Retrieved 21 March 2012.
• Syska, Rafał (2008). Poezja Obrazu: Filmy Theo Angelopoulosa [Poetry of Pictures: Theo Angelopoulos Films] (in Polish). Kraków: Rabid. ISBN 83-60236-34-8. OCLC 297540425.
• Thomson, David (2002). The New Biographical Dictionary of Film. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. pp. 21–22. ISBN 0-375-41128-3. OCLC 49247183.

Journals, magazines, and web

• Constantinidis, Stratos E. (May 2000). "Greek Film and the National Interest: A Brief Preface". Journal of Modern Greek Studies (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University; Project MUSE) 18 (1): 1–12. ISSN 0738-1727. OCLC 360217850.
• Malcolm, Derek (15 June 2000). "Theo Angelopoulos: The Travelling Players". London: Guardian Unlimited. Retrieved 15 June 2000. Check date values in: |access-date= (help)

External links

• Official website
• Acquarello. "Great Directors: Theo Angelopoulos". Senses of Cinema (Issue 27).
• Theo Angelopoulos at the Internet Movie Database
• Theo Angelopoulos in musicolog