Landscape In The Mist
Picture: C
Sound: C+ Extras: D Film:
B
The idea of children traveling on their own in the adult
world is a fixture of many children’s stories, but also of many a European art
film. Francois Truffaut and Federico
Fellini are most famous for such films with everyone else seeming like an
imitator. Greek filmmaker Theo
Angelopoulos fares better than most in the shadow of those greats with his 1988
film Landscape In The Mist (aka Topio stin omichli). A mother tells her son and daughter their
father is in Germany and lies to them to give them a false sense of hope. Then they decide to go and find him on their
own.
Instead of the usual child abduction, murder and who knows
what in between, the children manage to luck out all the time, though they have
to still dodge dangers and uncaring adults.
Is Angelopoulos trying to reclaim this scenario back from the French and
Italian masters noted because he feels only some profound sense of Greek
Mythology could protect them and/or it is an inherently Greek story to begin
with? The DVD case vaguely suggests
that in some sense, but they may be on to something.
So some of the symbolism is as comfortable here as it
would be in a Fellini film, or genre works like Clash Of The Titans or Jason
& The Argonauts. The fact of
the matter is that he succeeds in this and in many other ways. At first, the film seems like it might be
pretentious or run of the mill and suspending one’s disbelief that these
children could travel so freely in an increasingly technologized world that
does not consider their welfare is harder to believe now than back in 1988, but
the film’s ability to see real innocence over the plastic “always ready to buy
something and believe in a lie” brats from “feel good” films (or worse yet,
Spielberg trying to split the difference in A.I.) makes this work more
precious and relevant than ever.
The 1.33 X 1 image is from a good print, but the transfer
is softer and a bit flatter than it should be, yet still shot so well by cinematographer
Giorgos Arvantinis. It can be viewed at
1.78 X 1 with subtitles for the most part, but barely on some playback sources
capable of such zoom in. The Dolby
Digital 2.0 sound is a good, clear monophonic track that is nicely designed and
includes Eleni Karaindrou’s beautiful score.
Extras only include trailers for four other New Yorker titles, but the
film is a must see and it is great to have it on DVD. A true gem from Greece.
- Nicholas Sheffo
