Rating: 
Summary: The Search for Meaning
Review: This film never made it completely through my DVD player - I suffered through about 3/4 of it, and I'd had enough.Two things struck me - actually, they crept up on me slowly, since this film has absolutely no forward momentum. First, is everyone in the filmmaker's world so miserable? Why is a "meaning for life search" film have to be about how horrible and meaningless our world is? There's so much beauty and love, art and perfection to be enjoyed. Yet, if you believe this masterbatory offering, everything is dingy greys and blues, and no one experiences joy. How sad. Second, it's very common for a craftsman (I can't call the filmmaker an artist, because this isn't art) who doesn't understand his material to hide behind a threadbare curtain of the enigmatic. It never works. Never. And it doesn't here. Having the lead actor walk around for hours and stare at things, sitting in little chairs looking at the ground, this isn't storytelling. It's nihilistic self-aggrandizement. And that went out with Andy Warhol.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Surrealistic Balkan Journey
Review: This film was especially interesting for me as I have visited all the countries seen in the film. Its format is of high art caliber as it cronicles a journey through the Balkans and it's recent history. The running theme is that the Balkans is a single fascinating entity and culminates in the horrors of Bosnia. One side note: NATO bombing of Serbia was a terrible mistake and tragedy. If we had ground soldiers who went in to risk their lives to protect civilians that would have been admirable...but such heroic efforts could not be risked for political reasons. Anyway, the films depiction of the Bosnia war showed with what impunity the war crimes were committed while the West sat back in apathy. Aside from the war issues, the film is a great depiction of Balkan culture, and has dialogue in each language of each country shown. Essentially a film for artists and Balkanphiles like me...not as accessible as Welcome to Sarajevo or Savior...good films also. Best book I read on Bosnia war: Peter Maas' Love Thy Neighbor.
Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful but ultimately confusing and disappointing
Review: This movie is about a personal journey by one man looking partly for lost reels of film, and partly for his own past. The music and much of the cinematography in this film is quite beautiful; some of the images, such as the statue of Lenin floating down the river are absolutely unforgettable. The problem is that the director's artistic vision seems to be getting in the way of storytelling, and the result is a film with a lot of atmosphere and little substance. Anyone who claims to really understand this film is probably afflicted by the "Emperor's New Clothes" syndrome: too embarrassed to admit that this artful film just doesn't make any sense. Harvey Keitel and Maia Morgenstern seem to float in and out of various characters without any explanation. Had the editing been a lot better, perhaps the filmmaker's message would've come through. As is, it's mostly just confusing and ultimately disappointing.
Rating:
Summary: A haunting search for purpose and for meaning in life
Review: Truly I am struck deeply each time I watch this film. Though I do not purport to understand fully the lines of the plot (the rapid shifting between languages and character transitions make it exquisitely challenging to follow), the cinematography is hauntingly gorgeous. The image of the massive statue of Lenin being lifted by crane onto a barge, and floated down the Sava River stays with me even months afterwards.
Harvey Keitel is cast as a Greek-American film director/producer, returned to his Balkan home (north Greece), seeking lost reels of film shot by the Manakis brothers. He believes these to be the very first cinema images of life in the Balkans...in searching for these films, he is metaphorically searching for his own identity...a sense of deeper connection with a past with which his ties have been broken. Hungarian actress Maia Morgenstern is cast as a myriad of women whom Keitel (his character is known only as K...almost Kafkaesque in its enigmatic nature, I find this particular element...) meets throughout his journey through the Balkans...Greece, (FYR)Macedonia, Bosnia.
Though it may be that I am struck by the "Emperor's New Clothes Syndrome" in purporting to understand a kernel of Angelopoulos' intent in this film, I find it particularly effecting because I, like K, am on a journey...both to find out where I am from, and to see where I am going...and perhaps these twain shall meet somewhere beyond my present horizon. In this regard, we can each only hope...more than a film, Angelopoulos has succeeded in creating a successful reflection of what it is to live...it is to journey, ofttimes in search of ourselves...but more than the search, it is the journey that is important...we all come to our Ithaca in the end; only our paths differ.
Rating:
Summary: What does Roger Ebertt know?
Review: Without a routine excercise plan and a diet of all those gummie bears and popcorn, and probably some sleep apnea, and the doldrums of not being around over 20 year old filmmakers, or supposed filmmakers, Ebert wouldn't know the value of Theo's films because he would have to learn another foreign language besides "Two Thumbs up" and "Wow, ain't she fine." Come on, Roger, I'd be glad to take you on on TV or in print to have a battle of the numbings and thumbings. I'm from Chicago, too, and the neighborhood has held up well from what I can see. Plenty of films for both of us. Ulysses Gaze is Renoir, Matisse, Picasso. It's the inner heart and the entire soul. Hey, I like gummie bears, too, but not that faux, artery clogging, numbing butter. Thanks.
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