GREAT ALEXANDER
[via Theo Angelopoulos]
Great river--a sadness fell upon him.
Rise out of the sea between the pillars.
Expect from this new century
{at last} your guide,
“The Lords are in good health.”
All the other prisoners who took to the mountains . . .
loathsome mask has fallen.
Events have overtaken us.
X
Anarchists wanted by the police
need clocks here.
Deliver me from the orifice of this death.
Elected judges of the community
resort to violence. We are lost.
Barry Alpert / Silver Spring, MD US / 6-21-06 (12:59 PM)
I should mention that my filmic source, “O Megalexandros”, does not focus
on the historical figure Alexander the Great but rather on a 19th century
brigand who assumed the name, and beyond him, on the cyclic surfacing
of “liberators” / false political heroes who will attempt to wear the mask
of Alexander. Its director, Theo Angelopoulos, perhaps the major figure in
contemporary Greek cinema, started writing poetry at age 9, practiced law,
studied in Paris with Claude Levi-Strauss and Jean Rouch, and eventually
decided that the only thing he wanted to do was make films.
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