Eternity and a Day
Director: Theo Angelopoulos
Year Released: 1998
Rating: 2.0
Angelopoulous' style is not far removed from Antonioni: long takes, gorgeous cinematography, voice-over narration. I wasn't bored at all - in fact, I was anxious for something profound to happen to narrator Bruno Ganz, a writer (looking suspiciously like Hemingway) - but when nothing of distinction 'happens,' I quickly became tired with the movie's pretentious air and familiar conceit (older man meets younger boy). Venturing into Kierkegaard country isn't the best move (if that's what you're gunning for, you fail, as your thesis is trite - writer confronts life he never lived and chose to document), and when a poet shows up on a transit bus in a top hat and cloak and recite a poem about how "life is sweet," well, I just couldn't find that poetic or purposeful - it's simply stupid.
