Humanities

Alexander the Great (O Megalexandros) Greece, 1980 Theo Angelopoulos insisted that Alexander the Great was his “most simple film” to date for its linear structure, beginning on New Year’s Eve 1900 and proceeding from there. The film’s straightforward chronology, however, belies the complex interplay of Greek Orthodox and Byzantine liturgy, music, and ritual that Angelopoulos...

The Hunters (I Kynighi) Greece, 1977 When a hunting party finds the body of a communist partisan perfectly preserved in the snow, they carry it back to their lakeside lodge to open a formal inquest. Representatives of the  conservative elite—politicians, military officers, businessmen, media figures—who have gathered to celebrate New Year’s Eve 1977, they are...

The Weeping Meadow (To Livadi pou Dakryzei) Greece, 2004 A family history told in wide shot, The Weeping Meadow spans the turbulent decades between 1919 and the end of the Greek Civil War in 1949 as they buffet the lives of Eleni (Alexandra Aidini) and her adoptive brother and lover Alexis (Nikos Poursanidis). Taken in...