Voyage à Cythère

Theo Angelopoulos' Voyage to Cythera is by every metric a hauntingly beautiful work of art; both visually and thematically. It's a movie that screams despair, yet has a very unique sense of serenity throughout.

Voyage to Cythera tells the story of a director who is making a movie about his father's return to Greece after decades of separation in exile, and the movie itself in which the director finds himself playing the lead. There's a lot of complexity in how this movie is handled, but is put together so expertly that you never feel burdened with having to keep track of what's going on. And yes, towards the final act, it moves (or maybe deviates?) into a more chaotic and crowded style of narration; one that I'm not yet sure if I resonated with as much as the former... but the themes and motifs that have been so consistent throughout, hold this movie quite tightly together leaving us with an experience so personal and so nostalgic.

It's simple. It's beautiful.

A lot of things have been said for this great movie, and most of these focus on the political aspects, the voyage back or away from home, etc. What I notice though, is that this movie is a great love story as well. And it doesn't even try to be one!

One of Angelopoulos's most moving and accessible films (which is not to say it doesn't have a great deal of challenge and complexity).

A film director is searching for the right old man to cast in his movie (to play his father?). Suddenly an old man who is the director's father (or is he?) a political revolutionary and ex- patriot returns home to reclaim his place. But he is unwilling to sell his land to make way for a giant new construction project, making him hated amongst his neighbors who are anxious to get cash for their rocky soil.

Before long, the man is found to no longer have standing as a Greek citizen, and his placed on a raft off shore while the authorities figure out to do with him.

Beautiful, poetic, ironically, darkly funny, absurd, and very touching film about old wounds, aging, and obsolescence, both on a human and national scale.

Almost 40 years later, this movie is like a brilliant and complex wine that becomes better as it matures.

This is the story of love, longing, memories, delusions, heartaches and the human soul. The story of separation, parallel lives, crossings of timelines and two stories happening simultaneously within each other ... quantum life at its best.

The cast is superb, the setting classic Angelopoulos ... dark, run down, cold, heartbreaking and magical. The script is deep and painful. The music of Karaindrou is a masterpiece that makes your soul cry.

This is Angelopoulos and Greek/global cinema at their best. A masterpiece that must be taught in film studies.

The plot is basic and ostensible. A director is making a film. This plot-line warps around another plot-line (played by the same actors), which is the most important one: a political refuge from the USSR returns to Greece after 32 years in exile. Upon returning, he doesn't adapt to the "new order" of things around him, and is eventually deported from Greece.

Some background info to understand what is going on here: after the Greek civil war of the mid-40's between the communists and the right-wings, and the subsequent win of the right-wings, the communist party was declared illegal, until it was legalized in the mid-70's, when the new era of Greek democracy started.

OK. However, this film isn't political. It is existential and it deals with dejected people that have been pushed aside as history moved forwards.

Now, at this point of his career, Angelopoulos still has a sharp directorial vision to offer, which he hasn't compromised by routine, mannerism, and lack of clarity as he progressively got more famous and made more money.

This film owes a lot to Antonioni's "The Red Desert", and Angelopoulos is already recycling a lot of his familiar motifs, something which is made even more obvious due to the basic plot. However, like I said, he still has a vision to offer, in powerful, "poetic" sequences of alienation and solitude. More than anything, this is a mood-piece rather than a proper film (especially when considering that this comes directly after his tour-de-force "Alexander The Great"), albeit a strong one.