Trilogy: The Weeping Meadow

Theodoros Angelopoulos - 2004
Very long takes, time passes. Yet there is ellpisis here; in a continuous, deep, long space and time, space and time are compressed into this (wide as possible) frame. As the camera moves, nearly always in a continous smooth direction throughout the shot (track, no zooms), we could be passing across more time and space than is 'realistic'. If cinema can't do this, then what is the point in cinema?
The shots are often long, but when necessary, in rooms or if someone approaches a camera, there's no real problem with getting close. It is really more a matter of respect, not intruding on someone's space, feeling the false need to 'intensify' emotions. As with the pretty much direct addresses to camera, storytelling, what is happening is that we are shown, allowed to see, witness to a history; it is our task, and perhaps responsibility, to choose whether to listen or not.
The use of a high angle is again near constant, but not in a formalist way; it just gives us the best look at the environment, those huge horizontals, smoke rising, we would usually call desolate; but they live there. In this mis-en-scene people move, pass each other, it is complex, but again, not 'deliberately' so. It is also very beautiful, in an ugly way. Often there are still figures in the centre; not statues, but people standing. These people are small, in sober clothes; yet they aren't ants, they shuffle, they look. Angelopoulos shows huge sympathy, but never emphasises. How?
Their is constant tragedy here, if that makes sense in this kind of world, but woven in with that wide history. An exciting cinema for me.