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Theo Angelopoulos

Alexander the Great (O Megalexandros)

Director Theo Angelopoulos Composer Hristodoulos Halaris Cast Omero Antonutti, Eva Kotamanidou, Mihalis Giannatos
Edition 2021
210' - 1980 - Historical, Drama - Dialogue: Italian, English, Greek
The film is a study of the 20th century cult of personality - the myth, the lure and the corruption of the political hero who is a fusion of two characters. Drawing from the so-called Dilessi incident of 1870 (updated in the film to the dawn of the twentieth century), this Megalexandros is a bandit of the sort that typically plagued nineteenth century Greece. Wrapped in the spiritual cloak of yet another Megalexandros - a legendary Greek liberator and King Arthur-like figure whose tale originated in 1453 under Turkish domination and has come down through oral tradition over the centuries - he becomes a leader of mysterious charisma. He kidnaps a group of English aristocrats and takes them to a mountain village where he is attempting to establish an agrarian commune among a company of Italian anarchists. The socialist hero becomes a Stalin-like tyrant whose trademark silence only reinforces his power. The film is a true work of demythification - from the roots of myth to the false promises of the new century. (theoangelopoulos.gr)
“Angelopoulos moves back to the first New Year’s Eve of the 20th century, indicating again his concern with historical turning points, when repressive dictatorships are confronted with the hopeful dawning of a new socialist sensibility.” - Sight & Sound

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Credits

Directors

Theo Angelopoulos

Composers

Hristodoulos Halaris

Cast

Omero Antonutti, Eva Kotamanidou, Mihalis Giannatos

Scenario

Theo Angelopoulos, Petros Markaris

Director of Photography

Yorgos Arvanitis

Editors

Giorgos Triandafyllou

Producers

Theo Angelopoulos

More info

Dialogue

Italian, English, Greek

Countries of production

Italy, Greece, West Germany

Year

1980

Filmography

Theo Angelopoulos
Forminx Story (1965), Broadcast (short, 1968), Anaparastasi (1970), Days of '36 (1972), The Travelling Players (1975), The Hunters (1977), Alexander the Great (1980), Athens, Return to the Acropolis (1983), Voyage to Cythera (1984), The Beekeeper (1986), Landscape in the Mist (1988), The Suspended Step of the Stork (1991), Ulysses' Gaze (1995), Eternity and a Day (1998), Trilogy I: The Weeping Meadow (2004), Trilogy II: The Dust of Time (2008), Mundo Invisível (segment, 2012)