Lens Analysis of 'Eternity and a Day'

(Several frames from a shot)

The shot chose is from1:46:40 to 1:48:00in Eternity and a Day. This part takes place near the end of the film.The main character Alexander is about to leave the little boy, so he decided totake the boy on a final bus ride. In this shot journey, they have met manypeople and witnessed many stories, such as students’ band performance and young lovers quarreled. Also, among these scenarios, the poet, which is Alexander’sspiritual support of his later years is here. Two time and space of the peoplehave an intersection in this shot.

The director of this film is Theo Angelopoulos, who is a master of ‘slow cinema’ and known as the use of long take. Bordwell (2005) called his long take as ‘long shot aesthetic’. How Angelopoulos achievedthat? As one of his master works,Eternity and a Day has a lot of longtakes. The shot from 1:46:40 to 1:48:00 is a long take as well. To make it morespecific, in the staging techniques used by Theo Angelopoulos, this shot mainlyuse centering, aperture framing and three quarter dorsality. They are mixed. At thebeginning, there are three characters in the frame: Alexander, the little botand the poet. They are in the same carriage and their images are highlighted bythe square bus windows, which is aperture framing. The poet sits in a row withAlexander and turn his back to the camera. Alexander and the little boy leanedover and look at the poet. It is a three quarter dorsality. The audience cannot judge the characters’ expressions clearly. As a result, the technique encourage audience get into the context of this film. To feel the atmosphere created by the characters. Then the poet looks at Alexander, start to hum averse. The camera zooms in on the poet, to make him in the center of the frame.That is centering technique. Finally, the poet takes off the bus, Alexander chases up. In this point of view, the focus of the picture turns back to themain character Alexander. For the aesthetic significance here, is the use oflong takes that allows the audience to quickly enter the situation. Feeling theemotion of each character closely. That is a poignant feeling.

Besides the long takes in the shot, the visualcomposition also has its interpretation. Firstly, the scene is on a bus and theoverall tone is cold. It gives audience a sense of heavy. Moreover, the visualfield is horizontally and the composition is organized around horizontal lines. In visual semiotics, horizontally views always make people feel equality.Audience will feel like they are here, sitting behind the characters andlistening to them. Afterwards, the bus circled back to where it starts. It implies the whole life of Alexander. And, his life is about to get back to thestart, which means death. On the bus, every scene they saw, is a metaphor forseveral important stages in Alexander’s whole life. The poet and his poem are hisspiritual support in his later years. Also, it is one of his regrets.Therefore, the appearance of poet is a symbol of his reconciliation with his past. Secondly, there are three characters in this shot, but they are from different space and time. Angelopoulos thought that his own long takes are like ‘a living cell which inhales.’ (Horton, 2010). In other words, long takes need integrate natural time into space to achieve the unify of time and space. In this shot, the director let the two times and spaces naturally interlaced, makethis moment last forever. The short journey became more meaningfulconsequently. The poet sits down and look at Alexander, then he began to humverse: “The last cool star of dawn was… foretelling the brightest sunshine; nocloud, no drift of mist was travelling across any part of the sky. Coming from there, the breeze blew so sweetly across the face, so gently, that it seemed to whisper to the depths of the heart: ‘life is sweet, life is sweet, and…’”. In this line of the poet, there are no background music, everything around is quiet. Alexander straight up and the little boy listen with his head crooked.Like two students listen to the teacher carefully. It can be viewed as the last class of Alexander’s whole life. ‘Life is sweet, life is sweet…’, itis like the poet's sigh of a beautiful but dying life. After reading the poem, the poet gets off. At the same time, Alexander catches up and ask ‘Tellme… tomorrow… how long will it last?’. This is a question that confused him awhole day. What he had do that day is to find out the answer. But the poet didnot answer him. In order to give him, also the audience a space to think about it.

What tomorrow will be? How long it will last? Different people usually have different answers. But whatever the answer is, people need to remember that ‘Tomorrow is eternity and a day’.

References

Bordwell, D. (2005). Figures Traced in Light: On Cinematic Staging.Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of CaliforniaPress.

Horton, A. (2010). The Master of Slow Cinema Space and Time—Actual, Historical, and Mythical—in the Films of Theo Angelopoulos. Angelopoulos. pp. 23-27.