Eternity and a day

Theodoros Angelopoulos

Greece, 1998

REVIEWS

On a rainy Sunday in Thessaloniki, Alexander, a writer prepares to leave his lifelong home by the sea. Tomorrow, Alexander is going into the hospital, from where he knows he will never leave. He finds letters from his long-dead wife Anna, and instantly becomes ensnared by memories. He realizes how much she loved him, and how he took her love for granted. Driven as he was by his passion for writing, he feels that lost moments of happiness haunt him from an irretrievable past. But he sudden meeting with an Albanian boy seems to offer the possibility of recapturing those moments. Alexander attempts to reunite the boy with his grandmother in Albania, and so begins a mysterious journey and a touching relationship between the writer and the child. Past and present intertwine as the veil of memory is lifted to reveal an ambiguous reality.

THE DIRECTOR

Theodoros Angelopoulos

FILMOGRAPHY

DETAILS

Director: Theodoros Angelopoulos

Writing Credits: Theodoros Angelopoulos (idea and scenario), Petros Markaris, Tonino Guerra

Cinematography: Giorgos Arvanitis,Andreas Sinanos

Editing: Yannis Tsitsopoulos

Music: Eleni Karaindrou

Sound: Bernard Leroux – Nikos Papadimitriou, James Seddon, Kostas Varympopiotis

Sets: Costas Dimitriadis, Giorgos Ziakas

Make up: Giannis Pamoukis

Costumes: Giorgos Patsas

Producers: Theodoros Angelopoulos, Phoebe Economopoulos, Richard Hawley, Eric Heumann, Amedeo Pagani, Giorgio Silvagni

Production: Paradis Films, International S.A., La Sept Cinema, CANAL +, Classic SRL, Istituto Luce, Greek Film Center, WDR&ARTE

Duration: 132′

Color: Color

Cast:
Bruno Ganz – Alexander
Isabelle Renauld – Anna
Fabrizio Bentivoglio – The Poet
Achileas Skevis – The Child
Alexandra Ladikou – Anna’s Mother
Despina Bebedelli – Alexandre’s Mother
Eleni Gerasimidou – Urania
Iris Chatziantoniou – Alexander’s Daughter
Nikos Kouros – Anna’s Uncle
Alekos Oudinotis – Anna’s Father
Nikolas Kolovos – The Doctor (as Nikos Kolovos)

Awards:
Golden Palm Cannes Film Festival, 1998

REFERENCES

Αngelopoulos, Τheo, Eternity and a day. Athens: Kastaniotis, 1998 (screenplays)

Eternity and a day: 39th Thessaloniki International Film Festival Catalogue

Horton, Andrew (ed), The Films of Theo Angelopoulos: A Cinema of Contemplation. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1997

Horton, Andrew, The Last Modernist: The Films of Theo Angelopoulos. Westport, Connecticut, 1997

Koutsourakis, Angelos & Steven, Mark (eds.). The Cinema of Theo Angelopoulos, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2015

Makrygiannakis, Evangelos Films of Theo Angelopoulos: a voyage in time, PhD Thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2009

Skopeteas Ioannis, ‘Statistics and Cultural Context in Theo Angelopoulos’s Camerawork: The Case of the Film Eternity and a Day’, Filmicon: Journal of Greek Film Studies, (3), 2015. www.filmiconjournal.com

Soldatos, Giannis. History of Greek Cinema : 1990-2000, 10th ed, vol. 3, Athens : Aegokeros, 2002

Stathi, Irini (ed.) Βλέμματα στον Κόσμου του Θόδωρου Αγγελόπουλου, (Gazes at Thodorou Angelopoulos’s world) Proceedings of International Symposium 11 – 12 November 2000 Thessaloniki, Athens: Thessaloniki International Film Festival, 2000

www.hcl.harvard.edu