The sense of epiphany in Theo Angelopoulos’ Ulysses' Gaze

摘要

In Ulysses’ Gaze, a film made in response to the Balkan crises following the break-up of Yugoslavia, the Greek director Theo Angelopoulos several times makes use of the trope of the sudden appearance of a divine presence. The most visually striking epiphany is when a statue of Lenin is shown being taken through Romania on a barge and the local inhabitants rush to the canal bank to pay their respects. This scene is based on similar scenes in Angelopoulos’ work, that are in turn influenced by earlier European films. There are also poetic precedents, particularly in modern Greek poetry to which the director alludes, that syncretize classical and modern Greek religious values. Whereas one might be tempted to see this system of allusions as reflecting modern Europe’s cultural links with ancient Greece, closer examination shows that Angelopoulos is instead claiming continuity between the ancient and modern Greek worlds and, in a film about an Odyssean journey, expressing a nostalgia for a shared Balkan world that may perhaps be recreated once more.