36
International Dimensions of Mass Media Research, Edited by Yorgo Pasadeos, Greece, 2007 A SEMIOTICAL READING: THE WEEPING MEADOW Şehlem Kaçar Sebik Ege University Radio, Television and Cinema Studies Introduction The tradition of verbal literature has been a crucial instrument in conveying the cultural development through the ages. With the invention of writing, this oral culture has passed the flag to written language: a system based on symbols, invented to create and share meanings. According to Sassure, the father of linguistics, language, which has been shaped by the tradition of oral culture, had randomly associated with verbal images. These associations made us connect concepts to visual icons and caused every concept in our perceptional world to be associated with a connotation along with the denotation. This view, which finds its roots from structuralism, was shaped by the view that a piece cannot be evaluated independent of the whole. 1

A Semiological Reading: Theo Angelopoulos's The Weeping Meadow

Embed Size (px)

DESCRIPTION

This article is written by Sehlem Sebik for International Dimensions of Mass Media Research Book, Edited by Yorgo Pasadeos, Greece, 2007

Citation preview

Page 1: A Semiological Reading: Theo Angelopoulos's The Weeping Meadow

International Dimensions of Mass Media Research,

Edited by Yorgo Pasadeos, Greece, 2007

A SEMIOTICAL READING: THE WEEPING MEADOW

Şehlem Kaçar Sebik Ege University

Radio, Television and Cinema Studies

Introduction

The tradition of verbal literature has been a crucial instrument in

conveying the cultural development through the ages. With the invention of

writing, this oral culture has passed the flag to written language: a system based

on symbols, invented to create and share meanings. According to Sassure, the

father of linguistics, language, which has been shaped by the tradition of oral

culture, had randomly associated with verbal images. These associations made

us connect concepts to visual icons and caused every concept in our

perceptional world to be associated with a connotation along with the

denotation. This view, which finds its roots from structuralism, was shaped by

the view that a piece cannot be evaluated independent of the whole.

Philosophers such as Saussure, Metz, Eco, Wollen, and Pierce took interest in

semiotical analysis using structural methods.

Since the first film projection of the Lumiére Brothers, the cultural

function of mass communication is being redefined though cinema. In this

process of redefining, images which had been coded in our collective memories

though the ages are being used. Semiotics, which has emerged at the

beginnings of the twentieth century, has been dealing with these images that

were used in the process of creating cinematic meaning. Customs, traditions,

life, cultural indicators, language and social institutions are coded in cinematic

1

Page 2: A Semiological Reading: Theo Angelopoulos's The Weeping Meadow

expression and are conveyed to the viewer through an audio visual language.

The director, shaping the form and the content through the norms of cinematic

aesthetics and his own structure of thought, conveys his ideology to the viewer,

using cinema (as a means of mass communication) and his own methods for

creating meaning. Cinema is a universal language that houses within itself the

regional. Eco explains the design of art and the universal language it provides

as such: “The design provided by art surrounds the whole and carries within

itself the reflection of the universe.” (Eco 1989)

The expression of the director is shaped by the geographical region he

was born to and raised in, the struggles in this region throughout its history, the

social problems of the region, the education he had received and his resulting

perception of life. This historical, cultural, political and traditional background

forms the main theme in the films of the filmmaker (in the auteuristic context,

the director) especially for one whose aim is to research-explain-reflect, and to

look at history through the glasses of a critic. Theo Angelopoulos is such a

filmmaker. He has chosen to express his films holding high the aesthetic values

and concentrating on details. He is a poet who uses a camera for a quill.

Drawing power from a strong history of literature and using the delicacies of

the Greek Tragedy masterfully in his films, the director has built a unique style

of expression that is lyrical, epical and poetical with a theatrical background

and a sense for Brechtian Aesthetics. “The Weeping Meadow” with the usage

of time and space, its plot, the cinematic language used, and its lyrical nature

can be called a typical Angelopoulos narration. Angelopoulos, analyzing social

2

Page 3: A Semiological Reading: Theo Angelopoulos's The Weeping Meadow

events in history through focusing on the individual, meets universal values

and thrives in the aesthetic and visual riches of cinema.

In this study, the film The Weeping Meadow filmed in 2004 directed by

Theo Angelopoulos will be analyzed with a semiotical perspective.

I. The Films of Theo Angelopoulos

Angelopoulos is a director who has managed to capture a perfect

harmony between form, content and theme. In the art of cinema, while

knowing what one wants to convey is important, knowing how to convey this

is a virtue. In this sense, Angelopoulos is a virtuous director, who knows how

to convey, what he wants to convey. Adanır expresses this virtue as such: “[To

know] how to express what you want o express is filmmaking in the real sense,

or from the point of view of the viewer, it means to enter the personal fantasy,

dream universe of the director and to feel, perceive his feelings deeply.

Directors who know, or had known, how to express what [he wants to express]

are the greatest directors of cinema. Because at this point an almost perfect

match is created between the theme and the director’s desire to express, and his

manner or style in doing so.” (Adanır, 2006) In an interview with Gerald

O’Grady, Angelopoulos states: “Usually, the process of writing becomes the

story of the film. In other words, not only the stories I tell, but the manner with

which I tell is equally important for me.” (Fainaru, 2001)

In his films, the other Greece is described. Greece is more than just a

heaven for tourism. In one of his first films Reconstruction (Anaparastassi,

1970), tries to reach the inner truth of Greece with a murder plot, with a rainy,

gloomy atmosphere and a sense of desolation. (Algan, 2005) His films

3

Page 4: A Semiological Reading: Theo Angelopoulos's The Weeping Meadow

displaying gloomy, rainy and desolate scenes go back to the film

Reconstruction. “When I got there, it was clouded and rainy; women wearing

black were lost in the vineyards; I heard someone in a far away café sing a love

song. That view, that voice, that rain… maybe after that day, every movie I

made was influenced by that moment.” (Andrew, 2001)

From the first film to the last, in every film of Angelopoulos historical

and mythological references hold an important place. Days of ‘36 (Meres tou

'36) The Hunters (1977) and Megalexandros (1980), those called “The History

Trilogy” indicate that the history of Greece bears the signs of the last century.

The ties of the players in the film The Traveling Players (O Thiassos, 1975) is

an allegory of “Atreus”. In his film Voyage to Cythera (Taxidi sta Kithira,

1984), mythological references are made to Odysseus. Also, this film is the

first film of the trilogy called “The Silence Trilogy”. The Beekeeper (O

Melissokomos, 1986) and Landscape in the Mist (Topio stin Omichli, 1988)

are the other two films of the trilogy. In an interview with Gabrielle Schulz,

Angelopoulos identifies Voyage to Cythera as “The Silence of History”, The

Beekeeper “The Silence of Love” and Landscape in the Mist as “The Silence

of God.”

The tension between an apparent reality and a spiritual reality, or the

tension between that which is intellectual and that which is poetical, can be

used to reveal the multi dimensions of the scenes from the films of

Angelopoulos. In this sense, Angelopoulos, using the phrase Tarkovski defines

cinema, “a sculptor in time”, or “a time traveler” as Volfram Schütte puts it.

The poetic device Angelopoulos uses is time. With unique images he creates in

4

Page 5: A Semiological Reading: Theo Angelopoulos's The Weeping Meadow

cinematic time he manages to take the viewer along with him in his inner

journey. It is because of this reason that he creates such long plans, and

panning slowly, he turns the question he studies into a deep experience.

(Algan, 2005) He believes that dead time should be used. Actually, this is an

opposition against the typical Hollywood mentality.

Angelopoulos uses themes that question immigration, expedition and

the concept of borders in his films. The question the little kid directs at the

bigger sister in Landscape in the Mist, “What do ‘borders’ mean?” is sought to

be answered in the other three films. The Suspended Step of the Stork is about

geographical borders that separate countries and people. Ulysses' Gaze (To

vlema tou Odyssea, 1994) deals with the borders and limitations of peoples

visions. Eternity and a Day (Mia eoniotita kai mia mera) discusses the borders

between life and death. The director states: “Life is a journey.” This journey

can be a journey of a person into his inner world such as the one made by the

character Mastroianni, who in the film The Suspended Step of the Stork (To

meteoro vima tou pelargou, 1991) immigrates into his own country as a

political refugee, or can be journey such as Harvey Keitel takes on in Ulysses'

Gaze to find the films of Manaki Brothers.

“Immigrant travelers” is another favorite theme of the director. The

immigrants in the Suspended Step of the Stork are not discriminated according

to whether they are Serbian, Croatian, Greek or Turkish; they are all passengers

sharing the same fate. David Stratton wrote, “finds Angelopoulos refining his

themes and style. Just as the other great filmmakers have in the past explored

similar themes time and again, so Angelopoulos has evolved and come up with

5

Page 6: A Semiological Reading: Theo Angelopoulos's The Weeping Meadow

one of his most lucid and emotional journeys thus far." 1 The weeping

Meadow is a film that carries the characteristics mentioned above, and also it is

the first film of a trilogy. In this film, a historical duration, which starts on

1919 and which will end at the end of the century, is narrated.

II. The Weeping Meadow – Analysis of the Film:

Analysis:

The film starts by portraying a group of refugees coming from

Odysseia walking a path surrounded by the silhouette of misty mountains

towards a village near Thessaloniki. (Picture 1) (A voice coming from the

other side of the river asks “Who are you?”, and Spyros answers: “We are

Greek.” The narrator, then, starts telling us who these people are. The tradition

of using a narrating voice is a characteristic trait of tragedies. This technique is

traditionally used in many plays at the introduction, or at places when there is a

time gap, or to narrate how events develop. In this scene, Angelopoulos

introduces us to the sign he will be using throughout the film. The river, as in

the other films of Angelopoulos, makes a reference to the concept of borders.

In the film, the refugees on the other side of the river are portrayed as “others”

by people living near Thessaloniki through the general teachings of the society.

Immigration, borders, refugees, being without a homeland, journeys, political

and economical changes, the historical background and references to Greek

Mythology are blended with today. Angelopoulos, as an auteur director, uses

these themes while creating meaning in a synchronic context. With this

1 http://www.theoangelopoulos.com/cv.htm;14.04.2007.

6

Page 7: A Semiological Reading: Theo Angelopoulos's The Weeping Meadow

technique of expression, he also creates a sytagma context making references

to his other films.

In this sytagma context, Angelopoulos uses the names that he uses in

The Weeping Meadow, Spyros, Eleni and Aleksi also in his previous films. For

example, Voyage to Cythera (Taxidi sta Kithira) also makes a reference to

Odysseus, and the name of the main character is Spyros. Angelopoulos had

told Michael Grodent, while talking about the father character in the film, that

this was his father’s name. Although this connection he has drawn with his

father has no relevance with the film, it is important in the sense that the name

represents his father’s generation. In his first film, Reconstruction

(Anaparastassi), the name Eleni is used. According to Peirce, there are three

distinctions: Indices, Icons, and Symbols. When Eleni comes back to the

village, she can hardly get off the boat holding her belly. The way she walks,

and the fact that the woman by her side helps her walk is an indice that she is

not well. This indice takes its origins from Perice’s semiotical point of view.

Picture 1

Eleni had given birth to the twins and had come back to the village. A

few years after this, Spyros wishes to marry Eleni. Eleni runs away with

Syros’s son Aleksi. The band that has played in the wedding helps them get

away and take them to a theatre. Although Eleni is the main figure in the film,

7

Page 8: A Semiological Reading: Theo Angelopoulos's The Weeping Meadow

she is always in a passive role; the men are always leading. It is always the

men who make the decisions. All of the members of the orchestra are men. One

of the twins asks Eleni “What instrument do you play, mother?” Instead of

answering this question Eleni chooses to cry because her son called her

“mother.” Actually, the never-ending tears of Eleni keep dropping throughout

the film. Angelopoulos had dedicated this film to his mother:

Elements from Tragedies in the Film

We understand that Aleksi and Eleni had run away through indices.

The musicians are pacing up and down. Spyros is anxious. The priest prays,

and we are shown the empty table where the feast for the wedding was to be

given. In denotation, the table with its white covers, and plates and cutlery

neatly placed on it tells us that a group people will have food. In connotation,

with the empty plates reflected from the mirror on the wall, we understand that

the feast had not taken place. There is a boy in white clothes sitting at the table.

Probably, this child would toss rice at the bride at the wedding. We see the

same child, in the same clothes, after the flood scene sitting in front of the café

by himself in a similar posture. It is as if the boy is witnessing all of the events,

and is shown to us on a frame where time had frozen. (Picture 2) This time the

village has been cursed. The boy looks towards the next scene where Eleni and

Aleksi will be shown as if to indicate the reason for this curse. While these

parallels in time form the synchronic context, it is seen that the director uses

visual codes in a very refined manner. Also, this sign makes references to folk

tales. “In folk tales, events almost always take place in three series and there

are some signs. This trio of repetitions holds the pure feeling of curiosity alive.

8

Page 9: A Semiological Reading: Theo Angelopoulos's The Weeping Meadow

Homer, instead of emphasizing the effect of repetition, changes the conditions

of the three signs as much as he can.” (Bonnard, 1957)

In addition, in reference to the tradition of sytagma analysis, as in the

other films of Angelopoulos, we don’t see a wedding scene in the film. On the

other hand, Angelopoulos, in the context of his structure of expression, uses

such images in his films that can present the traditional social structures such

as weddings and funerals.

Picture 2

As much as the tradition of tragedies, the director refers to Odyssey of

Homer and Ancient Greek Mythology and uses indices and repetitions of these

traditions in The Weeping Meadow. The bridal veil of Eleni, which is found

muddied by the lake is a metaphor of being tainted. In this scene, we see

Spyros’s house in the background.

After running away, Eleni and Aleksi, with help from Nikos, come to

a theatre homed by refugees. The camera slides and shows the insides of every

box. Here, the concept of being a refugee is questioned. Every refugee has a

life of her/his own. Angelopoulos, while questioning the concept of being a

refugee on an individual based view, he makes a similar kind of questioning

Tragedy, then, is a process of imitating an action which has serious implications, is complete, and possesses magnitude; by means of language which has been made sensuously attractive, with each of its varieties found separately in the parts; enacted by the persons themselves and not presented through narrative; through a course of pity and fear completing the purification (catharsis, sometimes translated "purgation") of such emotions." Aristotle. Poetics. Trans. Gerald F. Else. Ann Arbor: U of Michigan P, 1967

9

Page 10: A Semiological Reading: Theo Angelopoulos's The Weeping Meadow

with a sliding camera on the basis of countries in The Suspended Step of the

Stork. Here, using the same filming technique makes an intersection with the

theme of journeying. In this film, the theme of journeying comes in the form of

boats and rivers that symbolize inevitable movement. (Picture 3)

Spyros comes to the theatre in search of Eleni and Aleksi. Here, he

climbs to the stage and shouts and cries, as if he is acting a play for the viewers

in the boxes. The memory of the things experience in theatre, once put into

lasting words, carry with them the danger of being frozen in pages that may

render them incomprehensible. (Pavis, 2000) (Picture 4)

After learning that Aleksi will be leaving for America, Eleni goes to

the wharf. Empty tables and a few men drinking at a kiosk are shown at the

wharf. Eleni slowly moves towards an empty table. Eleni is being looked upon

by the men, and the men are onlookers. This is a scene where social gender

roles are being displayed.

10

Page 11: A Semiological Reading: Theo Angelopoulos's The Weeping Meadow

At his moment, Eleni is portrayed in the same picture with Greek flags.

Here the flags carry a Symbolic meaning in its true sense. The woman is

united as a whole with country, the image of ‘woman’ is presented together

with the meaning of country. At the table Eleni sits is an empty seat. This

symbolizes the lost spouse. In the wharf scene, before Aleksi arrives, Eleni

dances with the men. Again, here there is a reference to Penelope in Odyssey.

“The next day, Odyseus woke up with

the sounds of men who want Penelope.

They were eating, drinking, singing and

laughing heedless of their coming fate. If

Penelope had not entered the room this

would keep up. “Now, I will choose one

of you” said Penelope” (Hamilton, 1998)

The first job Nikos the musician picks up turns out futile. After this

news Nikos announces “we lost”. At this point he starts to play his violin and a

group of young men in uniforms passes him by. The thing that marks (the sign)

the young men as soldiers is their uniforms. In the next scene, the inside of the

train is shown. A young soldier hastily comes out of what is apparently a

bathroom and walks away. Nikos comes out after him out of the same place.

Axiomatically, with these indices Nikos is homo-sexual and in this scene has

sex with one of the soldiers in the train bathroom. The director delicately

through axioms conveys to us this relationship. After the sexual act, Nikos

comes back to the train car. He tries to tidy his clothes, and he starts looking

a sign which does not resemble the signified but which is purely conventional

11

Page 12: A Semiological Reading: Theo Angelopoulos's The Weeping Meadow

for his hat. The connotation of the lost hat is his lost manhood, his power or

potency. (Picture 5)

The death of Syros is a scene that feeds from the tradition of tragedies.

The character falls on the stage, but a bloody scene is not shown. Aleksi

announces: “I killed him!” besides the dead body of Spyros. This is a reference

to the story of Oedipus. At the funeral, the villagers cast Eleni and Aleksi out,

stone their house and hang the sheep of Aleksi’s father on a tree shows that the

characters of the tragedy have to pay a price for the things they had done and

face the consequences.

Picture 5

“The tragic is always about values and

the confrontations with values. Tragedy

12

Page 13: A Semiological Reading: Theo Angelopoulos's The Weeping Meadow

can only be seen in a world where what

people do carry contradicting values.

Everything that can be named tragic

happens in the relationships between

values. In a tragic conflict, the common

property of both the destroyed value and

the value that prevails is that they are

both positive and high values. The value

that is destroyed may also be a person’s

life, design, wish, belief or ability.”

(Kucuradi, 1966)

In the film, the theme that is seen often is singing together and the use

of a chorus, which again stands in reference to tragedies. Nietzsche, in The

Birth of Tragedy states: “When the Dionysiac singing and dancing of a chorus

is joined with the more restrained and ordered speech and action of individual

players on a stage, as in Attic tragedy.” (Nietzsche, 1999) The director repeats

the pieces of music in the main themes and again feeds on this tradition. In

some scenes, the songs that are sung in a chorus perfectly match this tradition.

Mythical references are used in the film. According to Fiske, myth is “a

story that enables a culture to understand or explain reality or some situations

in nature.” Primitive myths are about life and death, men and gods, and good

and evil. More sophisticated myths are about masculinity and femininity,

family, success, and science. Fro example the scene where the sheep are hung

makes a reference to the myth of the herd of the god of sun. (Picture 6) The

13

Page 14: A Semiological Reading: Theo Angelopoulos's The Weeping Meadow

society blames the forbidden love for the death of Spyros. Theirs is a great sin

against god. After this scene the flood comes.

Picture 6

“Oracle Teiresias had told Odysseus to

stay away from the herd of the Sun, son

of mighty. So he wants to pass the

island of Thrinakia without a stop, but

his tired crew appears to start a mutiny…

Odysseus makes his men swear they will

not touch the sacred animals and goes

ashore. However, the wind of Notos

holds them in the island for a month.

While Odysseus is asleep a great crime

14

Page 15: A Semiological Reading: Theo Angelopoulos's The Weeping Meadow

against the gods is committed.”

(Homeros, 1988)

15

Page 16: A Semiological Reading: Theo Angelopoulos's The Weeping Meadow

Barthes thought of myth as a chain of interrelated concepts.

According to Barthes, a myth is the cultural way of thinking over something, to

conceptualize it or to understand it. (Fiske, 1990) According to Barthes, myth

is the secondary system of semiotics. The sign in the primary system becomes

the signifier of the secondary system (myth). Barthes names primary

semilogical system the object of language, and the secondary system, that is the

myth, meta-language. (Barthes, 1990) Aleksi pulling the thread of the scarf

Eleni had woven for him when he was on the boat to the ship sailing to

America again makes a reference to Penelope’s story in Odyssey.

The audio-visual codes in the film:

The colors, locations, the weather, and the filming techniques used in

film are classified under visual codes. The director, who bears sign of Brecht

influence, uses a distanced filming technique to alienate the viewer. In

addiction, making outside shots from indoors, the cinema viewer is

transformed into a theater viewer. Not venturing into the private sphere of the

characters, the director uses a filming language in the framework of epic

theatre. Epic theatre puts forth the idea of man changing himself and in the

process changing his environment as well.

Apart from these, the choice of dark colors and the overcastting

weather is in correspondence with the tradition of tragedies. For example, the

color coding in the films of Sir Laurence Olivier is in direct relationship with

the film’s plot and its genre. Henry V (1944) is in color, whereas Hamlet

(1948) is black and white. Henry V was filmed in color, because it is very

16

Page 17: A Semiological Reading: Theo Angelopoulos's The Weeping Meadow

fitting with glamorous costumes and for the battlefields; Henry V is a hero and

the film tells the story of a hero. On the other hand, Hamlet is a tragedy. The

film mostly takes place indoors, and includes many scenes that take place at

night; Hamlet is a suspicious and anxious tragic hero. (Büker, 1991)

Montage sequence does not take as much an important place in the

creative language of Angelopoulos as principal photography. Eisenstein cut

scenes, dissects them and in the montage sequence builds everything over

again, but for Angelopoulos the stage of principal photography is more

important. Using the outline in his head, he concentrates in the creative process

in the principal photography stage. In this sense he is comparable to Rosellini.

Rosellini says that he never uses the step outlined and cannot know how the

film will end up. (Wollen, 1973) In addition, the film technique of

Angelopoulos, which includes long scenes, can be considered within the

boundaries of the aesthetic concept of Bazinian.

“The Bazinian aesthetic of the long take

had a broader and a powerful influence.

Bazin looked to the work of Eric Von

Stroheim, F.W. Murnau, Jean Renoir,

Orson Welles, William Wyler and the film

of the post – war Italian Neo Realistics

(Roberto Rossellini, Vittorio De Sica,

especially) as the examples of cinema of

long take. The followers of Bazin, from

Jean Luc- Godard and François Truffaut to

17

Page 18: A Semiological Reading: Theo Angelopoulos's The Weeping Meadow

Michelangelo Antonioni, Bernardo

Bertolucci the Greek director Theo

Angelopoulos depend upon the complex

gaze of the camera rater than editing

construct their mise-en-scéne and, from it

their narrative.” (Kolker, 2000)

The director has paid maximum attention to the music in the film to

emphasize the effect of the things he is trying to communicate. At crucial

points, the music stands out more. Music, which has an important role as an

element of the structure of expression, can take scenes to a climax, can separate

real and imaginary constructs, or may help in the process of tying scenes

together. In its semantic function, music may fill tasks shaped with ideological

/ associative meanings or other goals. (Erdoğan & Solmaz, 2005)

In The Weeping Meadow, at a time when leftist movements are on

the rise the musicians want to go on a strike, but they are now given permission

for a strike. The musicians, led by Nikos, organize a night, where music and

dance become a whole against the system. This unison is also seen in the other

films of Angelopoulos. When a relationship is made on the context of

sytagma, there is a scene in the Ulysses’ Gaze (1995) that takes place in

Bosnia, where Serbian, Muslim and Croatian youngsters come out at the cease-

fire and to gather they walk around the city making music.

As he does with music when working with Eleni Karaindrou, the

director uses the method of telling the story in his own words rather than

18

Page 19: A Semiological Reading: Theo Angelopoulos's The Weeping Meadow

handing out script to the players. This helps the director and the actors to share

feelings that may not be conveyed through the script.

“Strangely enough, I have the same

request from all the actors in my films. It

is not the scenario they want to

familiarize themselves with, but my

interpretation of it. It is probably because

when I am telling a story, I do not do it

in a logical, linear sequence. I am trying

to create an adequate climate for it. The

words I choose to express my thoughts,

the structure of the phrases, the silences,

all these establish a direct contact

between me and my listeners, something

they cannot get by reading a

manuscript.” (Mera & Burnand, 2006)

Just as the location where the play revolves around is placed (house,

school, church etc.) in the midst of the stage in the theater, in The Weeping

Meadow, the main location is place in the midst of the area of visual

perception.

Throughout the film, the white sheets in the film symbolize the longing

for peace. The white is violated with the death of Nikos, with his blood. In one

particular scene, the white takes another purpose, which is to act as a curtain

19

Page 20: A Semiological Reading: Theo Angelopoulos's The Weeping Meadow

hiding and protecting the country’s children, namely the musicians. The color

black symbolizes death.

The passing trains are in relation with changes in time. The scenes

where Eleni comes out of prison and when she finds the dead bodies of her

sons are accompanied by the passing trains.

In the film, dialogs are minimal and scene that are filled with silences

are enriched with visual splendors. While using this visual richness as an

extension of the tradition of cinematic expression, the director uses the dead

time and the silences, which have almost been made obsolete in Hollywood

tradition of expression, masterfully.

Conclusion

Cinema is a universal language. Some filmmakers take it upon

themselves to use this universal language to express, discuss and explain their

views and thoughts. Since cinema is a product of culture, it contains a richness

that surpasses the concept that semiologists call “cinematic storyline” (or the

sum of denotations – diegesis). (Monaco, 2000) Angelopoulos is such a

director. He has chosen to construct his language in cinema “looking beyond

what is apparent” and staying outside of the popular, Hollywood style of

expression. Semiotics explains symbols, signs and the components that

complement the expression by looking beyond the “sens propre”. To

understand the connotational meaning one needs to be able to “look beyond

what is apparent.” In this sense, in order to be able to understand the films of

Angelopoulos the method of semiotical analysis is used. In his films, the

20

Page 21: A Semiological Reading: Theo Angelopoulos's The Weeping Meadow

historical, mythical and tragic elements and auteristic themes that have been

shaped by the connotations should be examined.

Angelopoulos is a director who has not closed his eyes to the political

events that the century has witnessed. Even if he does not believe in politics

anymore (which he declared in The Suspended Step of the Stork,) he believes

in people. He has factually questioned the exiles, immigrations, and being a

refugee people have gone through after wars. In his questioning, he makes use

of symbols and icons. In The Suspended Step of the Stork, with the words of

Marcello Masroianni, “We have crossed the borders, but we are still there.

How many more borders should we cross to reach home?” he tries to describe

allegorically how borders become indistinct in the inner journey of the

individual. Symbolic expression is an essential tradition of expression in his

films.

The last film by Angelopoulos, The Weeping Meadow, is a hard film

to read that is filled with symbols. When the connotational evaluation of the

semiotic analysis is made through an auteristic perspective, the wholeness of

theme that is seen in his other films is also seen in this first film of the trilogy.

The historical background that he delicately portrays bears a structure that

feeds from the tradition of tragedies and makes references to myths as in his

other films. Using visual splendor very successfully, Angelopoulos does not

give up his habit of defining every frame as a living thing that has its own

breath. In his cinematic structure of expression, he has captured wholeness

again in The Weeping Meadow and has brought to life the unique timbre of

tragedies in the realm of his viewers’ senses.

21

Page 22: A Semiological Reading: Theo Angelopoulos's The Weeping Meadow

Bibliography

Adanır, O. (2006). Kültür, Politika ve Sinema. İstanbul: +1 Kitap Press. [In Turkish].

Algan, N. (2005). “Angelopoulos Sineması”. Toplum Bilim Magazine 18(1): 153. [In Turkish].

Andrew, G. (2001). “Ulysses' Gaze.” In: Angelopoulos, T., & Fainaru, D. (2001). Theo Angelopoulos: interviews. Conversations with filmmakers series. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.

Barthes, R., & Yücel, T. (1990). Çağdaş söylenler. İstanbul: Hürriyet Vakfı Yayınları. [In Turkish].

Bonnard, A. (1957). Greek civilization from the Iliad to the Parthenon. London: G. Allen and Unwin.

Büker, S. (1991) Sinemada Anlam Yaratma. Ankara: İmge Kitabevi Press. [In Turkish].

Eco, U. (1989). The open work. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.Erdoğan, İ. & Beşevli Solmaz, P. (2005). Sinema ve Müzik : Materyal Satış ve

Bilinç Yönetimi için Bilişsel ve Duygusalın oluşturulması. Ankara: Erk Publishing. [In Turkish].

Fainaru, D. (2001). Theo Angelopoulos: interviews. Conversations with filmmakers series. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi.

Fiske, J. (1990). Introduction to communication studies. Studies in culture and communication. London: Routledge.

Hamilton, E. (1998). Mythology. Boston: Back Bay Books. Homer, Erhat, A., & Kodir, A. (1988). Odysseia. Büyük dünya klasikleri.

İstanbul: Can Yayınları. [In Turkish].http://www.theoangelopoulos.com/cv.htm;14.04.2007.Kolker,R.P. (2000). “The Film Text and Film Form.” In: Hill, J., & Gibson, P.

C. (2000). Film studies: critical approaches. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Kuçuradi, I. (1966). Max Scheler ve F. Nietzsche'de trajik olan. İstanbul: İstanbul Matbaası.

Mera, M., & Burnand, D. (2006). European film music. Ashgate popular and folk music series. Aldershot, England: Ashgate.

Monaco, J. (2000). How to read a film: the world of movies, media, and multimedia art, technology, language, history, theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Nietzsche, F. W., Geuss, R., & Speirs, R. (1999). The birth of tragedy and other writings. Cambridge texts in the history of philosophy. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press.

Pavis, P., & Aktas ̧, S. (2000). Gösterimlerin çözümlenmesi: tiyatro, mim, dans, dans tiyatrosu, sinema. Ankara: Dost Kitabevi.

Wollen, P. (1973). Signs and meaning in the cinema. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

22