I haven't seen the previous movie, which this one follows. But I don't think that it matters that much. This movie with a heavy burden is really hard to swallow. The German actor who plays along William Dafoe said so himself. At the Berlinale screening he came up after the movie and stated (more or less, this is not an exact quote): "It is my first time watching this movie, too. I have to admit it's pretty heavy and hard to watch!"

Which made me admire the actor even more (he also played "Hitler" in the movie "Downfall"). And considering the ending of this movie is really lyrical and aspirational, it's almost a shame, that I really had to fight myself during other parts of the movie. It's an odd movie, which definitely will strike a nerve with the viewer. The only question is, will it be an enjoyable enough experience or not? I can't answer that for you, but it's slow pace and a storyline that is anything but linear, will confuse and appall more people than it will attract

Like all of this great director's challenging work, I have a feeling this will improve with repeated viewings, as the sometimes disparate story stands make their connections more clear. On first look I found this full of thrilling moments and beautiful images (as one comes to take for granted with Angelopoulos),as well as a terrific, fun and heartbreaking performance by Bruno Ganz.

However, I also found myself more lost than usual, even being used to Angelopoulos' complex, time, place and style shifting style. At the end of the day I felt unsure how it all added up, or even that the pieces really did all fit. Not unlike an earlier poster I felt a bit like I was watching someone else trying to do a film in Angelopoulos' style, and not quite

pulling it off. That's perhaps a bit harsh. but there's some truth in it.

It felt less sure handed than I'm used to. Character motivations and story choices felt forced or distractingly hard to buy. Even when Angelopoulos' earlier films confused me the viewer, I always felt strongly that the film-maker was never confused, he knew just how and why the pieces fit together, intellectually, thematically and emotionally. This time I wasn't quite as sure.

Other than the acting, the rest of the technical aspects of the film were fine: the end scene, after Jacob and Eleni die, where Spyros and his granddaughter walk out into a snowy urban scene, is beautiful, but, again, bereft of real emotion (the voice-over, from Dafoe, even rips off the ending from James Joyce's The Dead),for these two characters have barely been on screen all film, and in the few scenes they are in, barely register concern or emotion. And none of the scenes in this film, as lovely as they are, achieve the power of similar scenes in earlier Angelopoulos films, partly due to the lack in other areas, but mostly due to the anomy this film inhabits and inflicts in its viewers. Cinematographer Andreas Sinanos does his usual good work, and the film is radiant, in its 1.85:1 aspect ration, but the best part of the film is the scoring by Eleni Karaindrou, which is unfortunately never put to the best possible use, due to the visuals that Angelopoulos and editors Yannis Tsitsopoulos and Giorgos Chelidonides pair it with. Also, this film has substantially more shorter takes than most of Angelopoulos's canon, and far fewer longer ones. The script, by Angelopoulos, with some help, apparently, from Tonino Guerra and Petros Markaris, is not up to the usual standards of these men. The DVD, by Artificial Eye, has no extra features, and is in a Region 2 format, so North American viewers will need a codeless DVD player. Languages used are English, Russian, German, and Greek, with subtitling, as necessary.

Overall, The Dust Of Time has glimpses of what made Theo Angelopoulos one of the all time greats of cinema, but not enough to make this merely solid, but frustrating, film, great. It is not a bad film, like the later films of other cinematic greats like Ingmar Bergman (Saraband) nor Federico Fellini (Intervista),but it definitely is an 'old master's film,' in the worst possible, and most self indulgent ways. Still, for its moments and its technical skills, it should be seen. More importantly, though, it should have been better. Much better.