The Travelling Players (O thiasos) (1976)

Critic Reviews

• Richard Eder, New York Times

  Length is part of its problem. A much greater problem is that the political message that is only one of the threads in the first part thickens into hawser dimensions, strangling the film and the audience along with it.

• , TV Guide's Movie Guide

  Although there are any number of subtle moments in the film, even its admirers admit it is long and difficult, especially for audiences unfamiliar with its subject matter.

• Philip French, Observer [UK]

  A didactic, audacious, tendentious, highly original movie that justifies its great length.

• , Empire Magazine

  The human tragedy becomes increasingly compelling as it unfolds, while Angelopoulos' stately visual style is constantly arresting.

• , Time Out

  The stately pace of the film soon becomes compulsive; and the shabby provincial Greece of rusting railway tracks and flaking facades which the slow camera examines is visually beguiling.

• Nick Davis, Nick's Flick Picks

  I was aglow after The Travelling Players, which honestly strikes me, in all its alienation and opacity, as a thrilling and important and good motion picture.

• Peter Bradshaw, Guardian [UK]

  Undoubtedly requires a substantial investment of attention -- but richly rewards it with a moving film of dazzling sweep and substance.

• Jamie Russell, BBC

  Inaccessible and imposing, it may be a masterpiece, but it's a hard one to like.

• , Film4

  A cinematic endurance test, this frosty epic holds some surprising rewards, as well as an atmosphere of graceful power. Unfortunately, it also pushes the audiences' patience way beyond the limit.

• Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews

  You can feel the pulse of the times through the music and realize by the liveliness of the music when the big events are happening to the people of Greece.

Read all 10 critic reviews