Eternity and A Day

"Eternity and A Day" 

Today, I watched a movie, named "Eternity and A Day." I knew Theo Angelopulos originally. I watched some movies directed by him, including "The Traveling Players." The characteristic of his works is a long single shot, which continues for almost 10 minutes. It is a technique quite different from Hollywood's. When I was a university student, I watched his movies, but I fell asleep a few times during a movie.

The "Eternity and A Day" is different so that I can watch the movie without sleeping. After I came here, I could better understand the people from the other countries. Before that, I didn't have chances to empathize with them so much. In the movie, an aged poet who is terminally ill and a boy, an illegal refugee from Albania to Greek, meet and travel in Greece together. I don't know much about countries surrounding the Black Sea, but through movies by Parajanof and Tarkovski, I guess that there is a complicated history and a mixture of cultures. A poet who was read in the movie, Cavafis, is famous in Japan. A famous psychiatrist, Hisao Nakai, translated all his poems into Japanese. In the movie, poems, history, and realities in Greece were presented simultaneously.

I also like Federico Fellini who was also good at mixing the past, present, and the future. Economically, Greece and Italy confront difficult situations, but in terms of art, they have plenty of rich and thoughtful art works.