Eternity and a Day

1998

2h 14m

Drama

List

95%

Tomatometer

22 Reviews

93%

Audience Score

2,500+ Ratings

A dying writer (Bruno Ganz), trying to finish the works of a 19th-century poet, rescues a kidnapped child about to be sold.

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Curtis Morgan

Miami Herald

This is not light stuff. But if Alexandre doesn't find the answer to [his] question, he does finally come to a reconciliation that ultimately makes Eternity and a Day a lesson more about living than dying.

Rated: 3/4

Aug 17, 2021

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Jonathan Rosenbaum

Chicago Reader

I was moved and captivated throughout its 132 minutes.

Nov 15, 2007

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Geoff Andrew

Time Out

Its long, fluid takes escort us through space and time, to universal themes and broader topicalities, effortlessly fending off charges of hermetic aestheticism.

Jan 26, 2006

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Sandra Contreras

TV Guide

Thought poets were a dying species, did you?

Rated: 3/4

Nov 15, 2007

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Jeffrey M. Anderson

Combustible Celluloid

Precisely controlled and confidently poetic.

Rated: 3.5/4

Oct 25, 2005

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Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com

Rated: 3/5

Jun 19, 2005

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Dani G

Profound, dense, philosophical. Angelopoulos & Ganz? Not surprised this kind of deep film resulted from that pairing.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

08/19/23

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Audience Member

People nowadays have been eating loads of belly-filling greasy junk food which is mostly spoon-fed by American streamlined production companies. People have lost the appreciation of how valuable beautifully crafted long takes are. How it navigates the collective space called society and the collective time called history, through an individual's subjective lens. An old man who fears the present lingers between his yesterday and tomorrow, his pain and desire, his secular attachment to his lost wife and his spiritual ambitions of his unfinished book. His introspection appears in his self talking to his dying mother in a care center. He questioned why he abandoned his native language and pursued a new one with his life, while the Albanian little boy constantly ran away from him, from the child traffickers, from his tragic homeland. When Alexsantro stoped sending the little boy back to his country and the little boy stoped run away from Alex, their intention of separating their path of life is gone. Alex shouted vulnerably in tears to the child "Stay with me!" the imagined line between secular and spiritual faded and two lonely islands float on the endless sea together side by side for one day, for eternity.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/11/23

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dimitris s

Greek cinema at its finest, pure art

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

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Audience Member

I'm scared, Selim. The sea is too big.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

02/25/23

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andrey k

Humanism of this movie is obvious, humanistic pictures are beautiful since they avoid politics and speak of the true love to humanity, they try to learn people to see the value of relationships and real love and care. Sadly this wisdom comes at an old age, when a human being begins to reflect on his life and regret about moments when he could have but actually didn't do something, ignored his loved ones. Bruno Ganz gives out a terrific performance and flashbacks make this movie the more poignant. Also a bit touch of Greek enhances the film's culture.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Final episode of a trilogy that got started at the beginning of the 90s, Angelopoulos asks himself the same questions that the writer Samuel Beckett once did: how to end? And he adds a new precision that will make an impact in the final answer: how to end one's life when there is only one day left to live? It is when our time is limited that we paradoxically make the most of it and we understand this by witnessing Alexandre's trip between the past, the present and the future in the last day of his life. Even though he metaphorically travels through his memories, his present will to take the boy to the border gives him the chance to make a last good action before his death. The photography, that goes from cold colours for scenes from the present to warm colors for the flashbacks, is dazzlingly full of sobriety. The words from the letters that give this poetical Odyssey its tempo are so wise that they fill us with wonder. And when we finally get the answer to the question "Tomorrow, how long does it last?", we realize that Alexandre is ready and he is no longer afraid to die. "Eternity and a day" is a magnificent legacy of this director who passed away too early but who left us several masterpieces and awards. Full review on our blog Los Indiscretos : https://losindiscretos.org/english/eternity-and-a-day-1998-theodoros-angelopoulos/

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

02/15/23

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Theodoros Angelopoulos

Director

Bruno Ganz

Alexandre

Isabelle Renauld

Anna

Achileas Skevis

The Child

Despina Bebedeli

Alexandre's Mother

Iris Chantziantoniou

Alexandre's Daughter

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Synopsis

A dying writer (Bruno Ganz), trying to finish the works of a 19th-century poet, rescues a kidnapped child about to be sold.

Director: Theodoros Angelopoulos
Producer: Phoebe Economopoulos
Screenwriter: Theodoros Angelopoulos, Tonino Guerra, Petros Markaris, Giorgio Silvagni
Production Co: Greek Film Center, Paradis Film, Instituto Luce [it], Theo Angelopoulos Films, Westdeutscher Rundfunk, Classic, Le Studio Canal +, La Sept Cinema, Eurimages, Intermedia Productions
Genre: Drama
Original Language: Greek
Box Office (Gross USA): $106.5K
Runtime: 2h 14m
Sound Mix: Dolby SR
Aspect Ratio: Flat (1.37:1)