My Greek Odyssey

Friday Night Movies

Double Feature Night at MGO

One of the highlights of growing up in a Greek immigrant family in the late fifties and early sixties in New York City, was going to the Greek movies. My parents didn't believe in eating out much. They're idea of entertainment was spending time with other Greek friends and relatives.  Occasionally, Mom and Dad would really let their hair down and take us to the movie theater in the Greek neighborhoods of  midtown Manhattan on the West side or the theater on Ditmars Boulevard in the Astoria section of Queens.  There, we were instantly transported to a black and white Greek World that was both oddly distant but familiar.  The offerings always consisted of a double feature. A movie that was guaranteed to have you bawling your eyes out and one that would invariably have the audience literally rolling in the aisles from unbearable laughter. Mama was an inveterate moviegoer who took great joy in the theater experience. She was the one who took Baba to his first movie and loved to relate  his wonderment at seeing the silver screen for the first time in his life.  Some of the thrill had apparently worn off however, since Baba would sometimes doze off into a peaceful slumber as soon as the lights were turned down. As for me, I was always on the edge of my seat, watching intently, telling my pesky kid sister, Katina, to quiet down and leave my popcorn alone.

The 1950s was a golden age for Greek Cinema, producing tremendously talented Greek actors and actresses, like Melina Mercouri,  Aliki Vougiouklaki, Thanasis Veggos, Tzeni Karezi, Dimitris Papamichael, Vassilis Logothetis, Ellie Lambeti, Rena Vlahopoulou and others. The technical qualities of many of these movies were questionable as evidenced by the ever present hanging microphone caught inadvertently by the camera. Despite the technical issues, Greek Cinema was dynamic, full of talented actors, writers and directors. More importantly, the reemergence of Greek Cinema came at a time of economic and societal renewal.  It also signaled a  rebirth of the Greek spirit and a desire to get beyond the tragedies of World War II and the Greek Civil War. Greeks wanted to get on with the task of living their lives again.  They wanted to laugh  and to revel in the stories of love and triumph. For Greek immigrants, the Greek Cinema provide a whiff of nostalgia, the ability to transport themselves back to their families and villages in the Patrida.

In the spirit of those days, I am posting a double feature today and on Friday. Thanks to Greek-Movies.com and Google, today's movies include a movie by director Michael Cacoyiannis and starring the Greek Diva, the late, Melina Mercouri.  "Stella" was produced in 1955, a classic of the early Greek cinema. Make sure you have a good supply of tissues nearby. The other movie, " E Mami (The Midwife)" stars Orestes Makris who plays a doctor who moves to a small country village after practicing in Athens.  There he comes up against a different kind of medicine, one designed to ward off the "evil eye" and practiced by the local midwife, Georgia Vassiliadou. The situations engendered by this collision of the past and the future make for a hilarious set of circumstances that will have you smiling if not occasionally doubling over laughing. Enjoy!

BTW, both films are sub-titled in English

Eternity and a Day by Theo Angelopoulos

Theo Angelopoulos, director of today's featured film, is deeply rooted in the soil and history of his native Greece. A director who considers film-making an art, he has been carrying the mantle of the Greek Cinema for the last thirty years. Despite the achievements of fellow Greek directors like Cacoyiannis, Voulgaris, and Kondouros, it has been Angelopoulos that has represented Greek cinema consistently on the international scene. His inclination towards outspokenness has garnered a good bit of criticism from Greeks, both in and out of the Greek cinema. This love-hate relationship with the Greek establishment extends as well to larger Greek issues. "Sometimes I feel like a political refugee in my homeland," yet he accepts that "one can be critical of his own family without feeling the need to abandon it."

It was only after he gained international recognition that Angelopoulos seem sto become the target of film critics and contemporaries in Greece. "No matter where I am, Greece wounds me.' It's due to our past, all that poetry learned at school. Until I studied in Paris I hated all that, but then I re-read Homer's Odyssey. And it filled me with nostalgia for my country and my culture. The poem still haunts me, and is central to my work. So for me, Greece isn't a geographical space, but a civilization: a text by Plato or some other writer. That's what's universal. So when I'm faced with the realties of today's Greece, it hurts."  His obsessions are easily identifiable; look for a father figure, the importance of his presence or absence, the centrality of Greek and Balkan history and its effect on those who inherit it, recreating historical truth through recollections and fragments of memory, the journeys his character embark on, displaced persons searching for a place they can truly call home and the trauma of the eternal return.

Eternity and a Day won top honors at 1998's Cannes Film Festival. If you like fast moving action films. This film will disappoint. If you have a good attention span and want to think about a film well after you have watched it, you will be rewarded by Angelopoulos story of love, regret, life and memory. It transitions back and forth between light and darkness, hope and despair and ultimately, life and death.  The protagonist,  Alexander, is played by  veteran German actor, Bruno Ganz ( Ganz's lines are dubbed into Greek, but there is so little dialogue that it's hardly noticeable) who presents a somber, brooding presence. Ganz does most of his acting with his face and body language.  This movie has moments of a rare delicate beauty that is rare in a movie these days. I'm not sure what kept me glued to the screen while watching this particular movie.  Perhaps it is the character's  similar age or our shared quest to understand the meaning of our fading past.  The terminally ill writer and poet in the final stages of a disease that is about to force him into a hospital from which he will never emerge. Despite his impending future he continues to struggle for understanding and meaning.

During his lifetime, Alexander was a workaholic whose obsession with his writing led him to neglect his family. Now his wife is dead and Alexander is about to join her. As he spends his final hours outside of the hospital wandering around a seaside town, Alexander is overwhelmed with recollections of the one perfect day in his life. All of the present day action of Eternity and a Day takes place during a twenty-four hour period. The flashbacks are constrained to a limited period of time. His past memory is at the seashore, filled with light,laughter as opposed to the dark foreboding rainy streets of the city near the end of his life is a sad, lonely figure. That same man, laughing and dancing with his wife on the beach, is a picture of vitality and joy.

There is another side to the story. During the modern-day sequences, Alexander befriends a young boy (Achileas Skevis) who he saves from being arrested by the police.  That's his first encounter with the boy. The second sends the two off on an unplanned journey, during which Alexander learns the biter truths of how a 8-year-old winds up on the street cleaning windshields at stoplights. The boy is an undocumented refugee, a Greek from Albania, who crossed mountains and minefields in order to enter Greece, and who will soon risk another dangerous crossing to return to his home.The boy is a the mercy of criminal gangs, and Alexander provides companionship, safety and wisdom for him during their short time together. He, in turn, offers Alexander something that the writer desperately craves during his last hours - a form of human contact and comfort.      

Alexander, too, knows something about being a stranger, far from home. As you piece together his story, you understand he was a man who fled Greece after the 1967 coup, so that much of his writing career was spent in places where he couldn't hear his own language. Alexander and the boy develop a bond that helps both negotiate their private journey's, each in it's own way transformative.  Just when the old man feels he's seen enough for a lifetime, the boy comes along and reveals a new world, frightening and unexpected. He even reveals the language of this world, giving Alexandre the scattered words that become, in the end, his poem.

The three evocative words received by Alexander from the  boy during the course of their journey capture the film's nostalgic and contemplative tone. The first is korfulamu, the heart of a flower, comfort for his physical suffering.  The second is xenitis, the feeling of being a stranger everywhere that reflects his failures as a family man and writer.  The third is argathini, meaning very late at night, describing his impending death. Inevitably, the words express the thematic essence of Angelopoulos' film as well: the soul of the Greek village, the sentiment of perpetual exile, and the dying of a culture.

Angelopoulos' insistence on film as art rather than strictly entertainment assures him a limited distribution by Hollywood. Luckily, the rise of the DVD may make him more accessible. Then again I recently tried to purchase a DVD of an Angelopoulos masterpiece, The Traveling Players.  It is available only in PAL format, which means you cannot play it on the vast majority of  DVD players sold in North America. Eternity and a Day, may not be a masterpiece, but it is well worth seeing and its contemplation of life, death, regret, and memory have a subtle effect on those who make an effort to take something more away from it than just an evening of movie-watching.

It is available on MGO in two parts. I apologize for the lack of English sub-titles, however, it is the type of movie that can be understood almost as well, visually.

For more information visit www.theoangelopoulos.com

Greek Cinema & Music Week at MGO

Today will mark the beginning of Greek Cinema & Music Week at MGO.  Part of the problem with Greek cinema,  which I personally think is a well kept secret, is the fact that it is in a language that is not widely understood.  Adding to its limited market share among those who enjoy  foreign films is the inexplicable absence of English sub-titles. Be not afraid, however, I have been able to find a few Greek films with English sub-titles, a few in English and a few in Greek, for those that understand the Greek language. The Greek only films have been chosen for their artistic, visual merit and ability to transcend language without losing their ability to inform. Greek music although more successfully marketed outside of Greece is still relatively unknown, especially in the United States. The musicians and singers I'll be including this week are world class and worthy of a wider audience.

The first featured movie will be, "America, America" directed by a Elias Kazan, a Greek-American who was born in Constantinople but whose family roots were in a small village in Anatolia. Unless you are a lover of vintage cinema, like me, you may have some trouble with this director's name. Kazan was a living legend in the movie industry until his obscure death in 2003. He was primarily known for his films however, he was also an author and wrote a number of excellent novels. Kazan was awarded the Academy Award for Best Director twice and was nominated three times. I won't try to replicate his biography in this post since others have done a much better job here and here. Suffice it to say that Kazan, a former member of the Communist Party was disgusted by his close association with it and with the Stalinist tactics that it employed, so much so, that he admitted his membership to a investigating Congressional committee known as the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) during the McCarthy era in the 1950s. Under pressure from a fellow Greek, President of Fox Pictures, Spiros Skouras, he confirmed what was already known by the committee, that others in the industry were involved with the Communist party. As a result, he became a pariah in  Hollywood, which has been and still is dominated by the Left. Avoided and shunned, his genius was only recognized a few years ago with a lifetime achievement award, shortly before his death. Kazan paid a heavy price for his testimony. Some in the media are now beginning to better understand the era in light of the facts, Kazan's courage and not according to the romanticized version inspired by Hollywood leftist liberals like George Clooney. It should also be pointed out that Kazan ignored and was in turn, largely ignored by the Greek-American community.

Despite having seen other Kazan landmark films like "On the Waterfront" and "A Streetcar Named Desire," this 1962 movie, starring a little known Greek actor named Stathis Giallelis, made a major impact on me when I first saw it some years ago. "America, America" hit me like a ton of bricks. Perhaps it resonated because Kazan's personal and family background mirrored that of my family to some extent, or maybe it was because he gave me a window into my own history. The film is the story of a young Greek named, coincidentally, Stavros, who leaves his village in Anatolia to fulfill his dream of going to America. His odyssey through Turkey is very difficult, teetering on the edge of disaster, in a land that is inhospitable, barren and cruel. As the would-be immigrant, Stavros, he is all boyish, self-effacing smiles when his father sends him off to Constantinople to invest his family's meager fortune and thereby save them from life Turkish persecution. Stavros is headstrong and rebellious, no longer willing to smile and ingratiate himself with his oppressors. His relationship with his father is strained as a result. In one poignant scene he is taken aside by his father who slaps him in the face only to hug him a few seconds later. Kazan describes life in Turkey in startk terms: "The Anatolian Greeks were completely terrorized people. My father's family comes from the interior of Asia Minor, from a city called Kayseri, and they never forgot they were part of a minority. They were surrounded with periodic slaughters and riots: the Turks would suddenly have a crisis and massacre a lot of Armenians, or they'd run wild and kill a lot of Greeks. The Greeks stayed in their houses. The fronts of the houses were almost barricaded, the windows shut with wooden shutters. One of the first memories I have is of sleeping in my grandmother's bed and my grandmother telling me stories about the massacre of the Armenians, and how she and my grandfather hid Armenians in the cellar of their home ... The Armenians were lustier, their history a much bolder, more rebellious one. The Greeks were crafty, they did not rebel and they did not get killed as much. The Greeks in Kayseri spoke Greek in the house, but outside, in the market-place where the men worked and the women shopped, they spoke Turkish. I still speak both languages. In other words, I speak the language of the oppressed and the language of the oppressor equally well." On the way to Constantinople, everything goes wrong. Stavros is robbed and humiliated by a roguish Turk, whom he finally murders. He works as a lowly beast of burden or "hamal," hauling back-breaking burdens on the Constantinople waterfront, only to be robbed again by a prostitute. He is shot and left for dead after falling in with a band of rebels. One compelling scene shows the rebels' bodies being flung into the sea, while their women, swathed in black, watch from the hillside.

This movie, obscured by time, is a classic bit of Americanism. It speaks to the immigrant experience like few other films. One can't help but cheer for Stavros on his odyssey to the promised land. The scenes are emotional and gut wrenching. Glimpsing America from the bow of the ship, arriving at Ellis Island, waiting on line, not knowing whether something might cause a new immigrant to be rejected and sent back. Stavros is given a new name, Joe Arnes, and baptized a second time in his life, "without benefit of clergy" by an American customs agent.   His new life as an indentured bootblack will be fraught with new difficulties and challenges yet it offers both him and his family new hope in a better life.

I am not going to publish an advance list of movies and artists appearing this week, let's just say I don't want to spoil the excitement of tuning in to find out what's next. So break out the popcorn or chick peas and enjoy.

Greek Cinema and Television on the Internet

EXCITING  NEWS: Many thanks to Demonax for alerting MGO readers to a website that offers full length versions of Greek movies from the fifties until now. Unfortunately, for those that don't speak Greek, I haven't found any with English subtitles.  Surprisingly, "NIFES (Brides)" is included in the offerings and it is primarily in English. Well worth your time.

Go directly to www.greek-movies.com and tell a friend.

More Clips from the Golden Age of Greek Cinema

By popular request, more clips from  the Greek Cinema, including Costas Hatzichristos, Tzeni Karezi, Giannis Gionakis and Dionisis Papagianopoulos:

For more information try the Finos Films website.

A Night at the Movies

One of the highlights of growing up in a Greek immigrant family in the late fifties and early sixties in New York City, was going to the Greek movies. My parents didn't believe in eating out much. They're idea of entertainment was spending time with other Greek friends and relatives.  Occasionally, Mom and Dad would really let their hair down and take us to the movie theater in the Greek neighborhoods of  midtown Manhattan on the West side or the theater on Ditmars Boulevard in the Astoria section of Queens.  There, we were instantly transported to a black and white Greek World that was both oddly familiar and comfortable.  The offerings always consisted of a double feature. A movie that was guaranteed to have you bawling your eyes out and one that would invariably have the audience literally rolling in the aisles from unbearable laughter. Mama was an inveterate moviegoer who took great joy in the theater experience. She was the one who took Baba to his first movie and loved to relate  his wonderment at seeing the silver screen for the first time in his life.  Some of the thrill had apparently worn off however, since Baba would sometimes doze off into a peaceful slumber as soon as the lights were turned down. As for me, I was always on the edge of my seat, watching intently, telling my pesky kid sister, Katina, to quiet down and leave my popcorn alone.

The 1950s was a golden age for Greek Cinema, producing tremendously talented Greek actors and actresses, like Melina Mercouri,  Aliki Vougiouklaki, Thanasis Veggos, Tzeni Karezi, Dimitris Papamichael, Vassilis Logothetis, Ellie Lambeti, Rena Vlahopoulou and others. The technical qualities of many of these movies were questionable as evidenced by the ever present hanging microphone caught inadvertently by the camera. Despite the technical issues, Greek Cinema was dynamic, full of talented actors, writers and directors. More importantly, the reemergence of Greek Cinema came at a time of economic and societal renewal.  It also signaled a  rebirth of the Greek spirit and a desire to get beyond the tragedies of World War II and the Greek Civil War. Greeks wanted to get on with the task of living their lives again.  They wanted to laugh  and to revel in the stories of love and triumph. For Greek immigrants, the Greek Cinema provide a whiff of nostalgia, the ability to transport themselves back to their families and villages in the Patrida.

Right now it is snowing outside in Maine. We are in the middle of the worst  Northeaster storm of the year that will be dumping about a foot of snow or more. If you live in Buffalo, New York, you probably consider this a mild dusting. If you live in Miami, Florida, you're probably thinking this is reminiscent of the Al Gore disaster epic, "The Day After Tomorrow." It's neither. Just an excuse to stay home,  enjoy a warm fire and watch a very short double feature, thanks  to YouTube, that may take some people back to the old days of Greek Cinema.  The first clip shows Melina Mercouri singing a popular, poignant love song in a classic film directed by Michael Cacoyiannis, entitled "Stella."  That should get you crying.  The accompanying  scene from a  comedy featuring Thanasis Vengos, in which he plays a waiter trying to deal with an especially recalcitrant customer is guaranteed to make anyone laugh despite the language barrier for those who don't speak Greek. Vengos is an actor who is under appreciated but who is considered by many, familiar with his work, as  one of the world's greatest comedians. Enjoy!

Greek Cinema Comes Roaring Back

THIS POST WAS FIRST PUBLISHED IN JUNE, 2006.  I'm reprinting it since gaining access to the movie trailers.

Greece had a prodigious and expanding film industry in the 1950s and 60s. It was able to produce world class actresses and directors like Irene Pappas, Melina Mercouri and Michael Cacoyannis.  I'm not sure what happened to it since.  It seemed to peak and then decline precipitously.  Probably hit hard by Hollywood produced blockbusters and the cost of doing business in Greece.  As a kid growing up in New York, my parents would take us to  a movie theater in Astoria ("Greek Town") that used to show double features of the movies from Greece.  They were usually black and white, grainy with poor sound quality. They always started out with a "tear jerker" tragedy in the finest Greek tradition.  That was in turn,  followed by a slapstick comedy.  The theme was often a variation of  idiot boy meets beautiful girl and they live happily ever after.  Greek movies were always the butt of funny stories for my Greek friends and I, yet deep down I actually looked forward to those little glimpses of that magic place the grown-ups always talked about.

If some recent Greek films are any indication, it seems that the Greek film industry is starting to make a comeback .   They are doing it by producing films that can hold their own before a global audience.  The only problem is that the  recognition of Greek creativity and acting talent is being hampered by the lack of a marketing strategy.  Greek films are often left to wither on the vine, not because they aren't good enough to compete with other foreign films, but rather due to a lack of serious global marketing. Two great films that I recommend highly are:  "Nifes"  (Brides) and "Politiki Kouzina" (A Touch of Spice).

Nifes is a spectacular film by acclaimed director Pantelis Voulgaris. It was produced by Martin Scorsese, with a nostalgic and very beautiful score by Stamatis Spanoudakis.  It chronicles the voyage of a young Greek woman named Niki (Viktoria Haralambidou)  from the island of Samothraki and 700 other mail order brides from Greece, Russia, Armenia and Turkey, traveling to the US.  The backdrop for this film is the turbulent era of conflict and upheaval in 1922.  During the voyage a young American photographer falls in love with Niki while she helps him  photograph the new brides in their wedding dresses.  It is a tender romance that exposes the do's and don'ts of the era. The dialog alternates between Greek and English.  Sub-titles in Greek only. That means English speaking audiences can't understand half the film. Not the best approach to marketing the movie in other countries.

Politiki Kouzina is a labor of love by director Tassos Boulmetis, reflecting events in his own life. His alter ego in the film is  Fanis Iakovides, a professor of Astronomy at a Greek University, played by George Corraface.  The movie depicts his memories of growing up in Constantinople and his family's expulsion by the Turkish authorities.  His family's welcome in Greece is marred by their feelings of being considered out of place and being treated more like  foreigners than Greeks.  When he returns to Turkey to see his dying grandfather, the experience triggers memories of his childhood and playing in his papou's spice shop.  He is able to meet childhood friends, now grown up and living in a world that is not the same for any of them.  The movie is in Greek with English or Turkish subtitles.

Both DVDs are in PAL format, which requires either a multi-region DVD player in the US or Canada.  You can also use a computer with a DVD drive.  Just another example of poor marketing for two Greek films that deserve better.

Here's two trailers for your viewing pleasure, courtesy once again of YouTube:

Greece: Secrets of the Past

Recently, I took my sons to see Greece: Secrets of the Past at the IMAX Theater located at the Boston Museum of Science. It is visually impressive and highlights two key events in Ancient Greek history: the Golden Age of Athens and the Destruction of Thera. The documentary film financed by Greek-American billionaire Alex Spanos and narrated by actress Nia Vardalos is stunning when viewed in the large screen IMAX format which literally surrounds you with an expansive view and bathes you in sound. WOW. They have done a great job of recreating the Parthenon, the Temple on the Acropolis dedicated to the Goddess Athena through the miracle of digital animation. In addition you get to see the island of Santorini from a bird's eyeview and find out something about the archeaological finds on the island that have uncovered an ancient civilization that was abruptly destroyed by the most devastating volcanic eruption in the last 10,000 years. Check out the film's  website.