Landscape in the Mist

"You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them." Maybe we all spend time with our families every day. But we are far away from our parents. We are not aware of this. Angelopoulos has been very successful in the concept of family and other criticisms. We see religious items in the bottom text. You will be watching the journey of two brothers in search of God, and I want to tell you that this film is not a road movie.

A hard film to watch but an unforgettable experience. I was deeply moved by the damage done to these children in the raw, emptiness of the world of this film. Running away through Greece to seek out their theoretical father in an imagined Germany, they experience confusion, violation and epic indifference to their real and imagined needs. Momentary relief and hope is found in the form of a young man traveling with a theater company, but it is fleeting. The sheer simplicity of their need remain together and to go to Germany is, by the end, all that they have.

Angelopoulos, like other artists/poets/philosophers in film, has a very specific vision of the world which he is relating. There are moments in Landscape In The Mist where our trained needs for (Hollywood) film conventions, story structure and even simple answers cries out. Yet this is far from his intent; as with poetry, the film strives to state itself with images and ideas which leave the viewer not simply awed by beauty but also perplexed and emotionally disorganized as to how or what to to feel. To judge Angelopoulos on the same standards as a showbiz product is to miss the point. He believes film is art and not necessarily entertainment. One may dislike that vision but one will invariably be enriched by the journey if one can spend the time watching it with an open mind. Angelopoulos finds funding for his films and makes them for those who care to extend themselves into someone else's vision, not to reward investors by meeting a market need. He is a powerful artist. There are reasons why his films are not well known in the US, but those reasons are also what makes them fascinating, brilliant and rare experiences.

I saw this movie when it was playing in Berkeley in 1990. This is one of the most beautiful and haunting films I have ever seen. Filled with scenes of mythic beauty and magical realism. It is, on the surface, about two siblings search for their father, but it is also about the search for something both less obvious and more universal. It haunted my dreams for months and some of the images in this film have stayed with me to this day. If you are of a philosophical bent and are open to the experience, I believe you will enjoy this film very much.

To me, this is one of the greatest movies of all time. Art and a very touching and interesting story combine each other and create this masterpiece with some unforgettable scenes, images and a mesmerizing cinematography. At the beginning, we do not see the mother of the little sisters, only hear her voice. While watching this scene, I thought that it is to make us feel that the sisters are lonely, nobody cares about them, nobody worries about them. In another scene, the sisters visit a man who is probably one of their relatives. However, he looks disturbed when he sees them. The Petrifying truck scene is a story itself. This scene is horrible in terms of content, but enchanting in terms of cinema. And sharp realism. If there is a flaw in the movie, it is the final. It was obscure and not stunning as the rest of the movie. I mean the scene takes place at night. It could have been a bit different, less obscure. Instead of commenting the end of the movie, some say that it is one of the finals that everyone draws their own conclusion, but for such a content or story, it does not seem a good idea. By the way, always, especially critics say this is a story of getting conscious or growing in wisdom, if a movie is about a little girl or boy. Well, this is not actually, the movie is much more than that and much more different. And as you guess, no cliché. The older sister is conscious anyway. She is aware of everything like an adult, even if she sometimes falls. The both sisters are very courageous and at the same time naive. I wanted to help them in the times they need. However, the weather is cold, desolate ways. Unsafe and risky. The vehicles pass them carelessly and don't stop. Probably the best Angelopoulos movie.

A quest for an unknown father becomes an odyssey into adulthood for two illegitimate Greek children, traveling alone the length of their country in a hopeless attempt to trace the whereabouts of a man they know only from the bedside fairy tales told by their mother. The journey is often grim and brutal, but is also filled by occasional magic, transforming their search into a sometimes sweet, sometimes bitter reflection of childhood mysteries and adolescent pain.

The reticent screenplay and slow, deliberate rhythms will likely be tedious to anyone with a TV-damaged attention span, but the same understated detachment can sometimes have a devastating impact, for example during a rape scene made all the more chilling for taking place just out of view, and in total silence. Discriminating viewers able to avoid nodding off into their popcorn will find it a film of rare beauty, with an emotional resonance to match the often haunting imagery.