ALEXANDER THE GREAT



Greece-Italy, 1980, 210 min, color

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 types. The main character is a bandit of the sort that typically plagued 19th century Greece. Wrapped in the spiritual cloak of yet another Megalexandros - a legendary Greek liberator whose tale originated in 1453 under Turkish domination - 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 run an agrarian commune, along with 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.

"Through his lens, Angelopoulos looks at things in silence. It is the weight of this silence and the intensity of the immobile stare of the camera which makes makes this film so powerful that the viewer cannot break away from the screen. As for myself, watching this film I deeply felt the pleasure of cinema, in the most absolute meaning of the term."