O Thiasos - The Travelling Players

Movie

O Thiasos - The Travelling Players

Theo AngelopoulosGreece – 1975

THE TRAVELLING PLAYERS is a film of epic proportions. The action takes place during the years 1939-52 and is seen as a series of individual, often inexplicable events or tableaux, commentated by monologues, by slogans written on the walls, or by songs. It reveals the period's turbulent history while focusing on a travelling company of actors who spend those fourteen years wandering through provinces, cities and villages, performing, in increasingly threadbare circumstances, a 19th century pastoral melodrama, Persiadis' Golfo the Shepherdess. They never get to finish the play and the tranquil sheep painted on their back cloth gaze down upon generations of anguish and bloodshed. The passage of history reverberates in individual incidents or is summarized in symbols. These sad, shabby, often hungry folk, whose relationship is based on the family of the House of Atreus, are of varying political hues - from active collaborators with the Nazis (Aegisthus), to opportunists (Chrysothemis), to centrist Greek patriots (Agamemnon), to the apolitical (Clytemnestra), to left-wing idealists (Electra), to communist guerillas (Orestes). And they fill these roles as much as they do the mythic ones of wandering general, faithless wife, betrayer or vengeful son. As they travel amid the constant wartime convulsions, they begin, unconsciously, to enact parallels to Aeschylus' tragic cycle. 

Original Title O Thiasos - The Travelling Players
German Title Die Wanderschauspieler
French Title Le voyage des comédiens - The Travelling Players
Other Titles La recita - O Thiassos
Directed by Theo Angelopoulos
Country Greece
Available Formats 35mm, DVD, Blu-ray
Screenplay Theodoros Angelopoulos
Film Editing Takis Davlopoulos, Giorgos Triandafyllou
Soundtrack Loukianos Kilaidonis
Cinematography Giorgos Arvanitis
Sound Thanassis Arvanitis
Décors Mikes Karapiperis
Costumes Giorgos Patsas
Production Giorgos Papalios
Runtime 230 Min.
Language Griechisch/d/f
Actors
Eva Kotamanidou Elektra
Aliki Georgouli Mutter - mère
Vangelis Kazan Aighistus
Stratos Pahis Vater - père
Maria Vassiliou Chrysothemis
Petros Zarkadis Orestes
Kiriakos Katrivanos Pylades
Giannis Fyrios Accordéon
Nina Papazaphiropoulou Alte Frau - La vieille
Alekos Boubis Alter Mann - le vieux
Awards

Cannes Film Festival 1975:  Directors’ Fortnight, FIPRESCI Grand Prix

Berlin Forum des Jungen Films 1975:  Interfilm Award

Brussels 1976 Best Film of the year

British Film Institute 1976: Golden Age Award, Best Film of the Year

Thessaloniki Film Festival: Best Film

Japan Best Film of the Year Grand Prix of the Arts, Japan Best Film in the World 1970-1980

Best Film in the History of Cinema 40th: Italian Critics’ Association FIPRESCI

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