elshikh4
Ulysses' Haze : There isn't one way to make movies. All the artists are wholly free to choose (and responsible to) the style of making what they want. But the viewers also are free to choose. Whatever the movie was, wherever it came from, whoever made it, there is certain feeling, idea, power that CAN affect you, or not ! Although nothing and no one is the same, but ironically, it is great fact that your own feelings for one movie or artist are the same of somebody out there. So, on the basis of that, let me see what's so hateful about this movie so its style.Ulysses' Maze : By all means, it's different. But even if, in its kind of difference.. It's so awful. What kind of movie, any movie, that alienates its viewers ? Ulysses' Gaze is so dead. It is one unforgettable invitation to watch death and live it ! Maybe that's exactly what was the tremendous genius Theo Angelopoulos thinking of ?!First off, it's beyond boring. The heavy thick pace will definitely distract you so powerfully. Oh yes, it's slow to give you the chance to contemplate, but certainly it managed to sleep you, since either there isn't much to think and contemplate about. Even your poor try to stand it, would lose. I lost the last strength of patience while the long very damn long sequence of Lenin's statue. OH MY GOD, that was too hard to follow. It compelled me to disbelieve anything this apoplexy says. Once the interaction is gone, the whole deal is finished. I found myself literally out of it, well.. It pushes you to that ! Not to mention the theatrical style (UGH !) how can I bear someone who's working at "film" to turn it into "theater" ?!, or to make the whole screen as white smoke, (I love radio but not like that !). It's not renewal inasmuch as incapacity...Or Harvey Keitel as the lead ?? Did you see him talking to the girl when she was running next to the moving train?, did you see him laughing when he found the movie?, did you see him at the end scene? : Great comedy !. His face was stony, and his charisma didn't impassion. De Niro was smart enough to reject the role. Basically how to say anything through that dumb excuse for a script? Detached-fantasy-journeys into one's life could tell about nation's history but not in this transcendent, indigent and cold way.Surely the attempt to narrate differently was promising but the absurd plot could've been more dexterous, enjoyable, and less dull. Many sequences were full of braggart stupidity masquerading as sublime art (the black umbrellas' scene for one instance!). If you think of it as poetry, then it's the most adolescent, silly, and alleged cinematic poetry I've ever seen.It takes a super fairness to admit that I liked the music, the cinematography. Though all the rest (the acting, the editing,..etc) was barrenly tasteless in a way that didn't give you chance not to endure it for a second watching, but to endure it for a first one ! What bothered me the most, other than being in front of it for foul full 176 min, that the one and only (Theo Angelopoulos) was so angry (and confused !) when this film lost Cannes Film Festival's main award !! That got on my nerve crazily ! Ulysses' Laze : Well, any artiest must look at his work to know where he was wrong. But Mr. Angelopoulos will never do such a thing. He's a god, an idol for himself. So he can never be wrong ! And all of his blind lovers can't (or don't dare to) find anything may be slightly wrong with his work. He's the great yet the greatest. I challenge any enamored of Mr. Angelopoulos to tell me what possibly could be not good about this movie. Actually the ultimate replay would be : nothing ! There is nothing like it so naturally it's wonderful ! Whilst there is nothing like the plague, though it's not wonderful ! Ulysses' Daze : So, Mr. A (could refer to "ailing" more than "Anglo" !) was searching for the first movie ever shot in the Balkans as the originality /the creative essence that has been destroying to lose everything because the foolishness of the modern human which led to war/ the final absolute madness that ended everything and everyone. And all the intellectual's efforts will lastly make nothing. WAW, the only problem is that it had been made by originality that was effectively destructive for its movie (as well as us !) to lose everything it says or shows ! They're so simple words yet in the smallest letters ever, that is strenuous and unfruitful in the same bad time. Like a strong nightmare it worked not for the sake of it, but for making me refuse to watch it (read: stand it) ever again ! Great achievement for a movie that is !Ulysses Razes : (Angelo-mad-about-himself-poulos) as the maker of it is the only one who sees its joy, the only one who feels its trueness, the only one who finds it the greatest film ever made, and doesn't believe that anybody may feel anything but that. It exemplifies what kind of distending ego that we have here ? Mr. Theo, I'm sorry to say it but...The pleasure was all yours.Ulysses' Ease : Is it a spectacular classic for someone out there? Clearly not for me. I hated it, hate it, and I'll hate it as a typical example for a work that was murdered by its maker's hopeless megalomania.It's not a tableau about the human's havoc; it's one about a film's havoc.
trashcan1973
This is one of the most boring movies I have ever seen, probably THE worst. A friend had rented it even though we'd never heard of it because of a lot of praise on the cover but my only explanation is that in fear of being accused of not understanding the artsy-fartsy deepness of it, they praise it. After about an hour we were both ready to give up in order to kill time some better way like playing monopoly or watching girls in infomercials for exercise equipment, but we decided to stick with it. After all, it COULD pick up and it had been praised, but most of all we didn't want anybody to tell us we couldn't criticize it because we hadn't seen all of it and we REALLY didn't have anything better to do. I was horrible. There's one scene 15 minutes long (really, we checked) with almost nothing but mute shots of a gigantic Lenin statue being transported on a barge down some river. "Almost" because for 30 seconds there's a short dialog between the PA system on the boat and the border patrol's PA system. The images don't move for this duration.I must say there are many movies that are pretty good even though they are slow, but Your lives will be better if you don't see this movie.
jm
i can't think of any movie maker as pretentious and arrogant asthis greek cinema amateur. Theo Angelopoulus should be jailedfor doing this and for what he has been doing for years.I wasted £2.5 to rent the video and even though is a small amountof money I should have asked for a refund or, even better, to getpaid for watching this film. It is so boring, without any interest at all and it last for so long. It isa real nightmare. Harvey Keytel is out of place, the still shots lastforever without any reason, there are too many pretentious scenes,the movie lacks quality, etc... You'd better have the control with fast forward handy !!The worst thing is that Theo thinks he is a poet of cinema, that noone is above him, that he has the last word in cinema. It isunbelievable that someone could even think about producing hismovies. Theo is nothing but an arrogant lunatic, someone whohas lost the plot and who lives isolated in his own world.
