Long shot is considered as a representative symbol in Theo Angelopoulos’ films. The open vision and the lingering on a long distance all became hallmarks of his typical style. In Angelopoulos’ films, the scene is often silent and lack of dialogue, but this does not affect the content it expresses to the audience in the process of transmission. In addition, the construction of aperture and perspective has also become a feature of Angelopoulos' films. To a certain extent, this shooting technique weakens the sense of alienation and oppression caused by the open scene, and brings a kind of meditation on nature, life and death. This paper attempts to analyze the shot and vision from Angelopoulos' eternity and a day (1998) and find the classic elements in his film style.
Eternity and a day (1998)depict a story:Alexander, a poet with terminal cancer. The day before Alexander went to the hospital to wait for his death, he recalled a lot of past events. These real or dreamy forms met with him to help him get rid of the dilemma of "how long will tomorrow last" Confused. The shooting segment analyzed in this paper is located in a long shot of the film from 19:08 to 21:09, It depicts the memories of the old poet reading the notebook left by his wife who died many years ago. The contents of the memories are the scenes of all the family members visiting their home when their first daughter was born. The whole process is full of the warmth of the family and the joy of the arrival of a new life.
This shot is an interjection episode in the narrative structure of the film and it value is to create a comparison to the lovely family atmosphere and lonely and dying person. Theo Angelopoulos tries to show the audience his film philosophy by contrast, not by recalling the beautiful past and disdaining the lonely life of the present, but by comparing the noise and emptiness, yesterday and today, life and death (Horton, 1999). At this time, the audience will be surprised to find that some of the ideas he tried to express in his early films, such as the disillusionment of left-wing ideas and the unique pain of extremism in modern civilization, have not been well expressed here. As one of the Angelopoulos' later films,eternity and a day try to express the thinking about life and death, rather than limiting the perspective to political thoughts or aspirations.
From the perspective of the visual composition of the film, the long shot is one of the most Angelopoulonism of this segment. As the noisy family members enter the house, they chat until go to the balcony to visit the newborn baby, a stable shot always follow them. Because people's line of sight is continuous, when watching long shot, the audience will have a more real feeling. Angelopoulos tries to integrate the audience into the scene and feel the atmosphere as a member of the family. When the angle of the shot begins to deflect, it's like a person's eyes have shifted. This kind of shot angle which maintains objectivity and substitution has always been Angelopoulos' style. He is not a lecturer,but a guide.
Aperture framing has also been used in this long shot many times. Its value lies in highlighting people and objects, such as doorways, windows, mirrors and various openings, through elaborate frames of geometric shapes (mostly rectangular)(Bordwell, 2005). At 20:15, when the wife answers the phone, the rectangle formed by the bookcase at the back and the aperture projected by the translucent window reflect the application of aperture framing. In this effect,the image of the characters will be prominent and become the focus of attention. Although long shot ensures its authenticity and substitution, but it also has by-product, which is it perhaps bring fatigue to the audience because of its’ length and wide angle. The author thinks that Angelopoulos added aperture framing to the long shot to make the audience pay attention to the important objects and not lost themselves. This technique was also used in later scenes (20:50), The rectangle created by the wooden door and the light projected by the transparent window make the audience have to focus on the characters.
The purpose of using centering is that it can guarantees visual salience due to visual composition built around the center, locating important narrative elements (figures, objects, actions) in the center of the shot (Bordwell,2005). In 20:50, Angelopoulos puts all the protagonists in the center of the scene and highlights the characters under the joint action of aperture framing.Compared with the former shooting technique, centering is a more obvious way of expression. Even the audiences can feel the director instruct the protagonists gather in the center of the camera, noisy and chatting purposefully to display an atmosphere with full of joy to let them remember this feeling.
The application of three-quarter morality in this long shot is reflected in 20:01.The Alkos' father-in-law was telling him that the army might intervene in the upcoming election, when his expression could not be seen by the audience. When characters turned away from the camera, their facial expressions not seen by people. At this time, it is encouraged to guess their feelings through the events or words of the protagonists. This kind of blank art can reflect the characteristics of realistic film, that is, everyone is an observer, and even the audience is not omniscient here. Influenced by Antonioni and Kenji Mizoguchi in his youth, Angelopoulos preferred to use the technique of long shots to describe the story. It is valuable to analyze them for understanding the shot and principle of the film.
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Reference:
Bordwell, D. (2005).In light on cinematic staging.Berkeley and Los Angeles. University of California Press. pp159-166.
Horton, A. (1999).The Films of Theo Angelopoulos:A Cinema of Contemplation.Princeton. New Jersey: Princeton UniversityPress. p102.