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The Suspended Step of the Stork

The Suspended Step of the Stork (1991)

December. 04,1991
|
7.5
| Drama

A reporter notices an old man in a border town who may be an important Greek politician who disappeared mysteriously years ago.

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Actuakers
1991/12/04

One of my all time favorites.

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Mjeteconer
1991/12/05

Just perfect...

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ThrillMessage
1991/12/06

There are better movies of two hours length. I loved the actress'performance.

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Bob
1991/12/07

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

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a-tsitsos
1991/12/08

Our house is your house. Our house ... We passed the borders and we are still here. But how many borders must we pass to go to our home?This particular phrase from the unforgettable Theo Angelopoulo's film sums up the whole meaning of the film and the Trilogy of borders.Alexandros a TV reporter armed with the energy of the youth seeks a missing politician in a border town.The town is full of people from many ethnicities among them there is the politician(Marcelo Mastoioanni).His character a talented writer and politician disappears mysteriously and leaves everything behind to seek the very place which will make him happy,he seeks a home.The film title is a reference on the fatal step that people may take to cross the borders literally and not,the thoughts in that hour and danger of doing the step or fending off from it.Mastoioanni's character for another time in the end of the film takes the step of the stork and goes in another journey crossing borders once more.One of the best movies of Theo Angelopoulos.Unlikely from the most of his films,here the dialog serves the plot smoothly.The actors marry words with emotions.The beautiful landscape photography makes the movie even more beautiful.Although as all Angelopoulos movies the action is reduced.The mainstream viewer might get bored as it is a cult film with deep emotional scenes.Humanism dominates as people are the center of the films's axis.People have to overcome all the borders in their way even if they are guarded from soldiers.The movie with a simple plot delivers deep messages who change everyones way of thinking.All in all one of the greatest Greek films of the century.Highlight of the film: The Suspended Step of the Stork on the board line of Evros and the odd wedding across the river.

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runamokprods
1991/12/09

On first viewing, this was not an Angelopoulos film I loved. Of course it looks great, that's a given. But the first time around, the seeming central story line seemed almost tacked on. A journalist is tracking Marcello Mastroianni, who may or may not be a famous politician and philosophic author who simply vanished one day, to a refugee zone on the edge of the Greek border, where he lives in squalor with the others there. The problem, for me, was that the Mastroianni mystery was far less powerful and interesting then the stories of those around him, who aren't refugees by choice, but in order just to survive. So, for me, it felt we were focused on the wrong plot, or certainly the more intellectual, less moving one.Also, the dubbing of Mastroianni is pretty awful, to the point of being distracting. Oddly, that's something I didn't find in the earlier "The Beekeeper" (in fact, it was so good in that film, I thought perhaps Mastroianni spoke Greek, and was able to do his own lines). But on second viewing I realized the film is really a chance for Angelopoulos to ask important and pointed questions about the nature of borders; national, emotional, racial, from ourselves, between men and woman. The 'main plot' is just the skeleton to hang the meat of the film on. There are, memorable and lovely scenes here. An amazing tracking shot as the camera goes by box car after box car housing refugees from different places, deliberately and chillingly recalling the trains of German WWII, as if to ask, have we really left that past behind? The wordless slow seduction of the journalist in a restaurant is odd, and amazingly tense, as the two people simply look at each other in fairly wide shot for the longest time, the tiniest shifts in body language and facial expression telling the kind of story that is usually filled with bantered pointless dialogue. And the film's opening and closing images are particularly powerful. Seeing it again, knowing up front the film wasn't really about the mystery it sets up, didn't solve all my problems with it, but certainly made it a much stronger experience the 2nd time around.

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kolo-5
1991/12/10

This was my first, and probably the last Angelopoulos movie. I was eager to get into it, as it featured Mastroianni, one of my favorite actors and was a film By Theo, of whom I've heard a lot. The opening was promising, a long shot over a jeep of soldiers across the Albanian-Greek border. OK! but that was all. Nothing left. The movie had big holes and I don't know which to mention first. The main plot of the story is revealed to the journalist by the old woman. during a long walk. It's like a 15 minutes monologue, killing the action and viewers patience, nothing happening on screen for 15 or even 20 minutes, apart this old lady telling a story. All that is presumed to be shown through action, was simply told to the camera by the old lady. In a moment, the equippe of TV was heading to the bar. They turn the corner and immediately the winter begins! Probably, shot in different days, continuity leaked. A lot of problems with the story-telling, it went from absurd to irrational never sticking to a style, making the viewer asking questions that never got answers. Poor Mastroianni, given a role which lacked integrity or charm. On the other hand, as many Greeks or Albanians or Balcan people would agree with, the movies showed lot of historic, ethnic, or politically incorrectness, just for the sake of making a movie about "humanity" as a red in another review. A lot more to say, but no time to lose on a poor movie, which was not movie at all, but lunacies of a person impressed on film and paid with state money.

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Mouzafphaerre HB
1991/12/11

A most recommendable masterpiece, not only for the underlying themes of the story but also for the unmatchably brilliant and ingenious picture work of Angelopoulos, not to mention the acting of giants, Mastroianni and Moreau, and the remarkable character play by Ilias Logothethis. Gregory Karr's performance may seem overshadowed by his "tough" partners' at first stance but in fact he perfectly plays his character, which is revealed in his very last scene with the girl (Khrysikou) and the man (Mastroianni), albeit hinted beforehand. (Hence the spoiler.)Get your expectations straight! It's an "art movie" in whatever meaning that phrase has to offer and requires attention. Not for spending free time, but for watching an artwork with the necessary concentration as in reading a book or attending a concert. Due to the overall photographic style, large screen viewing is recommended.Dialogues are used sparingly. But the film includes -in addition to the standard Greek and English speaking- fragments spoken in Albanian, Kurdish and Turkish, which will be attractive for those who are charmed by the beauty in hearing various languages.

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