The Travelling Players

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The Travelling Players
Theodoros Angelopoulos
Written byTheodoros Angelopoulos
Produced byGiorgis Samiotis
Starring
CinematographyGiorgos Arvanitis
Edited byTakis Davlopoulos
Giorgos Triandafyllou
Music byLoukianos Kilaidonis
Distributed byPapalios Productions
Release dates
  • 12 May 1975 (1975-05-12) (Cannes)
  • 13 October 1975 (1975-10-13)
Running time
230 minutes
CountryGreece
LanguagesGreek
German
English

The Travelling Players (

Theodoros Angelopoulos
that traces the history of mid-20th-century Greece from 1939 to 1952.

Many critics have described The Travelling Players as Angelopoulos' masterpiece; 16 critics and five directors voted it one of their favorite films in the

Sight & Sound poll.[1]

Plot

A group of travelling players tour through Greece putting on a play called Golfo the Shepherdess. The first level of the film shows them setting up, rehearsing, promoting and performing in

Aegisthos. Aegisthos, Clytemnestra's lover, is an informer and collaborator working with the German occupiers. Orestes, son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, fights on the side of the leftists, avenges his father's death by killing his mother and Aegisthos. He is arrested in 1949 for his guerrilla activities and is executed in prison in 1951. Electra, his sister, helps the leftists and aids her brother in avenging the treachery of their mother and Aegisthos. After the death of Orestes she continues the work of the troupe and her relationship with Pylades. Chrysotheme
, Electra's younger sister, collaborates with the Germans, prostitutes herself during the occupation, sides with the British during liberation, and later marries an American. Pylades, close friend of Orestes, is a Communist who is exiled by the Metaxas regime, joins the guerrillas and is arrested and exiled again. Finally he is forced to sign a written denunciation of the left after torture by the right wing and he is released from prison in 1950.

Production

The Travelling Players was released to the general public after the

socialist
newspaper, wanted to analyze two things: the first being the history of Greece from a left-wing perspective, and second why it had been so difficult to establish democracy in Greece. The film was released in 1975.

Style

Like many of Theo Angelopoulos' films, The Travelling Players uses long, static takes combined with complex tracking shots, and beautiful landscape photography to create a surrealistic atmosphere. Shots in the film often drift back and forth in time without warning and after a major scene there will be some down time for the viewer to contemplate what has just transpired.

Responses

The Travelling Players was a great commercial success in Greece and also garnered international acclaim. It is regarded by many critics as the supreme achievement of the

Sight & Sound critics' poll of the greatest motion pictures ever made,[4] and has won numerous awards. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes
, the film holds an 86% freshness rating, based on 14 reviews.

The Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa cited The Travelling Players as one of his favorite films.[5][6]

Although Angelopoulos had intended to enter The Travelling Players in the 1975 Cannes festival, the conservative Greek government prevented this. Despite the acclaim it has received, the film has yet to receive a proper Region 1 DVD release; there is, however, a region-free release.

Awards

The film was selected as the Greek entry for the

Best Foreign Language Film at the 48th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.[7]

  • 1975. International Film Critics Award (
    FIPRESCI
    ), Cannes.
  • 1975. Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Actress, Greek Critics Association Awards,
    International Thessaloniki Film Festival
  • Interfilm Award, «Forum» 1975 Berlin Festival.
  • 1976. Best film of the Year, British Film Institute,
  • Italian Film Critics Association: Best Film in the World, 1970-80.
  • FIPRESCI: One of the Top Films in the History of Cinema.
  • Grand Prix of the Arts, Japan.
  • Best Film of the Year, Japan.
  • Golden Age Award, Brussels.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Travelling Players, The (1975)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 20 August 2012. Retrieved 20 June 2015.
  2. ISBN 9780748697960
    .
  3. ISBN 9781400884421
    .
  4. ^ "Travelling Players, The (1975)". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 20 August 2012. Retrieved 20 June 2015.
  5. ^ Lee Thomas-Mason (12 January 2021). "From Stanley Kubrick to Martin Scorsese: Akira Kurosawa once named his top 100 favourite films of all time". Far Out. Far Out Magazine. Retrieved 10 June 2021.
  6. ^ "Akira Kurosawa's Top 100 Movies!". Archived from the original on 27 March 2010.
  7. ^ Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

External links

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