| ATHENS,
RETURN TO THE ACROPOLIS
(Greece.
1983. 43 minutes. Colour)
Written
and directed by : Theo Angelopoulos
Texts by : Costas Tahtsis
Cinematography by : Giorgos Arvanitis
Music by : Manos Hadjidakis, Dionyssis
Savopoulos, Lukianos Kilaidonis
Edited by : Giorgos Triantafyllou
Sound by : thanassis Georgiadis
Produced designed by : Mikes Karapiperis
Production : Trans World Films, ERT
TV, Theo Angelopoulos Productions
Angelopoulos was born and grew up in Athens. The Athens
that starts from the Acropolis and extends to the small
Byzantine churches of the old quarter, the remains of
the neo-classical homes, the quiet squares, the apartment
buildings, the narrow streets, the vehicles, the pedestrians.
It is not a city but the stage on which a drama is being
played out, as, of course, is the rest of Greece in
the films of Angelopoulos. More specifically, a tragedy
made up of treasured memories, stories and personal
experience.
The poetry of George Seferis,
a favourite of the director, supplies the words while
the paintings of Tsarouchis provide the images. The
music of Manos Hadjidakis breathes life into a piano
abandoned in the middle of a square surrounded by shacks.
The
film was written a sort of personal film diary and shot
as a personal documentary. The camera copies paintings
and photographs from the past. «What is Athens?» «The
conscience of Europe was born here...» But Athens is
also the memory of constant destruction. In a way it
can be said that ATHENS is the confession of a destruction.
What remains of Pericles' magnificent city? A few monuments
that managed to survive the raids. Some others that
were dug up at a slower pace. What was salvaged from
the Athens of the post-liberation period? A few neo-classical
buildings basking in the sun.
The director searches for the
houses in which he lived. He remembers that his first
home was built on an ancient Greek dwelling. And his
room was situated right on top of the room of another
child. His last home was in an apartment building constructed
on a site where a yard with flowers and sunshine used
to be. Once again a small chronicle of destruction.
In
Angelopoulos' film there is only room for the places,
the words, the memories. Everything he experienced.
Everything that can be contained in poetry. A yearning
that includes not only Athens and the director himself
in the city but also his work itself. The sources of
his inspiration (Seferis, Tsarouchis, History, the human
condition) and its visible results. Chiefly excerpts
from the sounds, the music of the films THE TRAVELLING
PLAYERS, THE HUNTERS, MEGALEXANDROS as well as his style
- the long takes and the slow travelling shots.
The
film formed part of a television series on the European
cultural capitals. Athens as «cultural capital» according
to Angelopoulos. A different Athens. The Athens of history
and personal myth. The Athens of the director's past
and traumatized present. An unpublished poem full of
references and memories like those the director wrote
when he was a youth. Coloured by the sadness of «lost
moments».
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