Theo Angelopoulos

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Image:Theo Angelopoulos.jpg Theodoros Angelopoulos (Θόδωρος Αγγελόπουλος in Greek) (born April 27, 1936) is a noted Greek film director.

He studied law in Athens but after military service he went to Paris to attend the Sorbonne. He soon dropped out to study film at the IDHEC (Institut des hautes études cinématographiques) before returning to Greece. Back home he worked as a journalist and film critic until the coup.

He made his first short film in 1968 and went on in the 1970s to make feature films concerned with modern Greece - Meres Tou 36, O Thiassos and I Kynighoi. He quickly established a characteristic style, marked by slow, episodic and ambiguous structure and long, "sequence shot" takes. He moved into less political works after the end of the dictatorship, gaining Italian funding.

His distinct visual style is characterised by very slow, long, meticulous takes. The Travelling Players for example, consists of around 80 shots in about four hours of film.

His collaborators include the cinematographer Giorgos Arvanitis, and the composer Eleni Karaindrou. Karaindrou's soundtracks are available from ECM records.

The film critic David Thomson counted Angelopoulos as one of the world's greatest living directors in his 1994 Biographical Dictionary of Film.

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Awards

O Megalexandros won the Golden Lion at the 1980 Venice Film Festival
Topio stin Omichli (Landscape In The Mist) shared the Silver Lion at Venice in 1988.
To Vlemma tou Odyssea (Ulysses's Gaze) won the Grand Jury Prize at Cannes in 1995. Disappointed at not winning the Palme d'Or that year, he told his audience, "If this is what you have to give me, I have nothing to say" before walking off of the stage.
Mia aioniotita kai mia mera (Eternity and a Day) won the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 1998.
Trilogia - To livadi pou dakryzei (Trilogy - The Weeping Meadow) won the European Film Academy Critics Award 2004 - Prix FIPRESCI in 2004.