Greece-France-Italy-Switzerland

LES PAS SOSPENDU DE LA CICOGNE

CREDITS 

35mm - Colore - 126’

Direction: Theodoros Angelopoulos
Screenplay: Theodoros Angelopoulos, Tonino Guerra, Petros Markaris, Thanassis Valtinos
Photography: Giorgos Arvanitis, Andreas Sinanos
Music: Eleni Karaindrou
Editing: Yannis Tsitsopoulos
Costume Design: Giorgos Patsas
Architectural designer: Achilleas Staikos
Sound: Marinos Athanassopoulos
Cast: Marcello Mastroianni, Jeanne Moreau, Gregory Karr, Dora Chrysikou, Ilias Logothetis, Vassilis Bougiouclakis, Dimitris Poulikakos.
Producer: Bruno Pesery, Theo Angelopoulos
Production: Greek Film Centre, Theo Angelopoulos Productions, Arena Films (France), Vega Films (Switzerland), Erre Produzioni (Italy)

SYNOPSIS

While working on a story in the border area, a young journalist discovers a divided town bisected by a river which is also the national frontier. He observes a surreal wedding in which the bride and her family stand on one shore and the groom and his relatives on the other, lost under a cold sky: figure in a landscape who only delude themselves that they are masters of the earth and their destiny The town, a remote ghost town, almost forgotten at the end of the world, has been named "waiting room" by the locals because most of its inhabitants are refugees from different countries many of whom have crossed the border illegally at some time or other and are now waiting for their turn to leave and start life anew "somewhere else". In the course of his investigation he also comes upon an aging, reclusive refugee, who lives there cultivating a field. But the young journalist believes he is a famous Greek politician who disappeared years before, leaving behind him many unanswered questions. The man's identity is never resolved but the hapless refugees and divided village allow the reporter to understand his despair over the human condition.

CRITICAL NOTES

Written with Tonino Guerra e Petros Markaris and set on the border in an icy December (1999?) it is a story meant as an archetypal of the limits preventing real communication among men. It is another film of high stylistical class and liturgical slowness upon which hangs a constant shadow of aesthetic coldness. It is a suspended film, in all senses.(M.Morandini)

SELECTED FESTIVAL AND AWARDS

1991 Cannes Film Festival In competition