The Railway Train + Angelopoulos breakthrough
The annoying thing here was - it was always the SAME railway train - fine, if symolic of the Train which brings you here and takes you away - BUT why did the train have to be so short? Three carriages and a truck? It looked like they couldn't get a longer train and it grated every time it appeared, passing the sheets, taking Eleni to the battlefield, etc.
Does anyone have any thoughts on the train, or think that actually it was short for a reason?
ALSO,
Did anyone else think this was a breakthrough for Angelopoulos? That here, he dispenses with the overt time-collapsing structures and Brecht-ian revealing-the-art (with film makers called A in the film etc) and simply goes for a truly classical tragedy, yet one which seems wholly at home in the 20th c? I thought it was extraordinary - and a great film-maker who has already made so many brilliant films and won the palm d'or for Eternity, suddenly going one better.