Greek Cinema

Act of Faith (Sto dromos tou theou) (1982)

Directed by Dimitris Arvanitis. Cast: Marialena Karbouri, Ersi Malikenzou, Olga Tournaki, Katerina Bourlou, Mirka Kalantzopoulou, Eleni Velidou, Froso Kokola, Kostas Tsakonas. Story of a young woman who, disillusioned with herself, her life and modern society, retreats to a monastery. There, she experiences the same exploitation and degradation she is trying to escape and also finds herself at odds with the mother superior who is hiding a secret that could ruin the convent. 90 min. 999:1841

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Antigone (Antigoni) (1961)

Directed by Yorgos Javellas (George Tzavellas). Featuring Irene Papas, Manos Katrakis. The Greek tragedy of Sophocles in which King Creon orders Antigone's death for burying her slain brother against the King's desire. 86 min. DVD 3141; vhs 999:373

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Attila 1974: A Testimony on Film (Documentary, 1974)

Directed by Michael Cacoyannis (Mihalis Kakogiannis). In July 1974, the Turkish Army invaded the Republic of Cyprus, forcing thousands of Greeks into displaced persons camps and causing the deaths of thousands more. Upon hearing the devastating reports from his homeland, director Michael Cacoyannis rushed to Cyprus to document the events on film. Once there he interviewed political leaders as well as victims and refugees, providing a candid, personal look at the injustices imposed on an innocent people. 101 min. DVD 707

Georgakas, Dan. "From Stella to Iphigenia: the woman-centered films of Michael Cacoyannis." (Critical Essay) Cineaste Spring 2005 v30 i2 p24(7)

The Cherry Orchard (Greece / Cyprus / France, 1999)

Directed by Michael Cacoyannis (Mihalis Kakogiannis). Cast: Charlotte Rampling, Alan Bates, Katrin Cartlidge, Owen Teale, Frances de la Tour, Michael Gough, Tushka Bergen, Ian McNeice, Xander Berkeley, Melanie Lynskey, Andrew Howard. Madame Ranevskaya returns to her decaying estate in pre-Revolutionary Russia after an exile in Paris. The estate and its beloved cherry orchard are threatened by Ranevskaya's financial problems. The family must either find their footing in a Russia turned upside down or flounder in a sea of longing and doubt, a luxury that they can literally no longer afford. From the play by Anton Chekhov. 141 min. DVD 1790

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Georgakas, Dan. "From Stella to Iphigenia: the woman-centered films of Michael Cacoyannis." (Critical Essay) Cineaste Spring 2005 v30 i2 p24(7)

Holden, Stephen. "Grand but idle in old Russia, a state of denial." (The Cherry Orchard) The New York Times Feb 22, 2002 pB1(N) pE1(L) col 1 (25 col in)

Jays, David. "The Cherry Orchard/O Visinokipos/La Cerisaie." (movie reviews) Sight and Sound Feb 2000 v10 i2 p42(1)

Kauffmann, Stanley. "On Films - The Truth of Form." (The Cherry Orchard) (movie review) The New Republic March 18, 2002 p26

Marks, Peter. "Chekhovian angst amid real trees: Michael Cacoyannis, attacking the Chekhov-can't-be-filmed curse, starts his own 'Cherry Orchard' with a lavish orchard." The New York Times Feb 17, 2002 pAR12(N) pAR12(L) col 1 (35 col in)

Electra (1962)

Directed by Michael Cacoyannis (Mihalis Kakogiannis). Cast: Irene Papas, Aleka Katseli, Yannis Fertis, Theano Ioannidou, Notis Peryalis. "Desolation and despair reign supreme in the kingdom of Mycenae. The great Agamemnon has been brutally murdered; his son Orestes has fled and his daughter Electra has been imprisoned within the walls of the castle. All hope seems lost until the sacred oracle speaks and replaces Electra's broken spirit with an unquenchable desire for justice and bloody vengeance." 113 min. DVD 1092

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Georgakas, Dan. "From Stella to Iphigenia: the woman-centered films of Michael Cacoyannis." (Critical Essay) Cineaste Spring 2005 v30 i2 p24(7)

Eternity and a Day (Mia aioniotita kai mia mera) (Germany / Greece / France / Italy, 1998)

Directed by Constantine Giannaris. Cast: Bruno Ganz, Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Isabelle Renauld, Achilleas Skevis. A celebrated Greek writer, who is terminally ill, sets his sights on one last idyllic day. Embarking on a voyage to relive an idealized time with his long lost wife, his day is interrupted when he happens upon a lost and troubled eight-year-old boy. The two strangers, crossing paths at a special moment in time, share a poignant life experience. 129 min. 999:3185

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From the Edge of the City (Apo tin akri tis polis) (1998)

Directed by Constantine Giannaris. Cast: Stathis Papadopoulos, Costas Cotsianidis, Panagiotis Chartomatsidis, Anestis Polychronidis, Dimitris Papoulidis. Buff and eighteen, Sasha lives with his mother and father in a Kazakhstan immigrant settlement on the outskirts of Athens. At night, he and his teenaged friends rollerblade through the city, where they hang out in brothels and work as male prostitutes. Every day they endure an obstacle course of johns, drug dealers, pimps and gangsters, as they try desperately to survive in a country that is not their own. 94 min. DVD 1319

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A Girl in Black (To Koritsi me ta mavra) (1956)

Directed by Michael Cacoyannis (Mihalis Kakogiannis). Cast: Ellie Lambetti, Dimitri Horn, Eleni Zafiriou, George Foundas, Notis Perghialis. A young Athenian writer, on holiday on the island of Hydra, lodges with a family of impoverished gentility. The daughter of the house falls in love with him but he is too immature to respond until a disaster, provoked by spiteful, vengeful peasants, shocks him into an awareness of his own involvement in life and its responsibilities. 101 min. DVD 708

Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database

Georgakas, Dan. "From Stella to Iphigenia: the woman-centered films of Michael Cacoyannis." (Critical Essay) Cineaste Spring 2005 v30 i2 p24(7)

Hostage (Omiros) (Greece / Turkey, 2005)

Directed by Constantine Giannaris. Cast: Stathis Papadopoulos, Theodora Tzimou, Giannis Stankoglou. In a desperate attempt to reclaim his honor, a young Albanian immigrant hijacks a bus in northern Greece. Demanding a ransom and safe return to his country, he holds the passengers hostage at gunpoint. Based on a true story. 97 min. DVD 7215

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Iphigenia (Ifigeneia) (1977)

Directed by Michael Cacoyannis. Cast: Irene Pappas (Clytemnestra), Costa Kazakos (Agamemnon), Tatiana Papamousko (Iphigenia). Presents the ancient Greek tragedy in which the Greek leader, Agememnon, must sacrifice his daughter as punishment for having offended the gods. 100 min. Video/C 814

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Georgakas, Dan. "From Stella to Iphigenia: the woman-centered films of Michael Cacoyannis." (Critical Essay) Cineaste Spring 2005 v30 i2 p24(7)

Landscape in the Mist (Topio Sten Homichle) (France / Greece / Italy, 1988)

Directed by Theo Angelopoulos. Cast: Michalis Zeke, Tania Palaiologou, Stratos Tzortzoglou. This is the story of a journey across Greece by two children who've run away to find the father in Germany they've never seen, but whom their unwed mother has described in order "to give them something to dream about." 126 min. 999:2978

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A Matter of Dignity (To Teleutaio psemma) (1958)

Directed by Michael Cacoyannis (Mihalis Kakogiannis). Cast: Ellie Lambetti, George Pappas, Athena Michaelidou, Eleni Zafiriou. Cloe, a girl from a wealthy Greek family on the verge of bankruptcy, is pressured to marry a boring Greek-American millionaire whom she fundamentally despises. In love with another man, torn between passion and duty, Cloe must choose her destiny. 101 min. DVD 709

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Georgakas, Dan. "From Stella to Iphigenia: the woman-centered films of Michael Cacoyannis." (Critical Essay) Cineaste Spring 2005 v30 i2 p24(7)

Never on a Sunday (Pote tin Kyriaki) (1960)

Directed by Jules Dassin. Cast: Melina Mercouri, Jules Dassin, George Foundas, Titos Vandis, Mitsos Lygizos, Dimitri Papamichael, Alexis Solomos. The Pygmalion-like story of a Greek prostitute and the American who decides to educate her in the hope that she will abandon her streetwalking. 93 min. DVD 5356

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"Never on Sunday." Film Quarterly, Vol. 14, No. 2. (Winter, 1960), p. 62.

Stella (1955)

Directed by Michael Cacoyannis (Mihalis Kakogiannis). Cast: Melina Mercouri. Stella, a bouzouki singer and dancer who abhors marriage, defies the rules of conventional morality and in an effort to liberate herself from traditional Greek society, embarks on a series of passionate love affairs that end in tragedy. Based on the play Stella with the Red Gloves by Iakovos Kambanellis. 95 min. DVD 710

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Constantinidis, Stratos E. "The Greek studio system (1950-1970)." Film Criticism Vol XXVII nr 2 (Winter 2002-2003); p 9-30

Georgakas, Dan. "From Stella to Iphigenia: the woman-centered films of Michael Cacoyannis." (Critical Essay) Cineaste Spring 2005 v30 i2 p24(7)

Peckham, Robert Shannan; Michelakis, Pantelis. "Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained: Cacoyannis's Stella." Journal of Modern Greek Studies, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 67-77, May 2000.

The Travelling Players (O Thiassos) (1974)

Written and directed by Theodoros Angelopoulos. Cast: Eva Kotamanidou, Aliki Georgouli, Stratos Pachis, Maria Vassiliou, Petros Zarkadis, Kyriakos Katrivanos. The adventures of a small acting troupe are the framework for an impassioned overview of recent Greek history. The Metaxas dictatorship, the Nazi regime, the British occupation, and NATO colonization are presented as a vicious cycle of oppression, resistance, and betrayal. 230 min. 999:2974

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The Trojan Women(1971)

Director, Michael Cacoyannis (Mihalis Kakogiannis). Cast: Katharine Hepburn, Vanessa Redgrave, Genevieve Bujold, Irene Papas, Patrick Magee. Set at the end of the Trojan War, all the Trojan warriors and princes are dead and the women and children are left to be divided among the conquerors. An indictment against the horror and futility of war. 105 min. DVD 3142; Video/C 732

Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database

Georgakas, Dan. "From Stella to Iphigenia: the woman-centered films of Michael Cacoyannis." (Critical Essay) Cineaste Spring 2005 v30 i2 p24(7)

Ulysses' Gaze (To vlemma tou Odyssea) (1995)

Directed by Theo Angelopoulos. Cast: Harvey Keitel, Erland Josephson, Maia Morgenstern, Thanasses Vengos, Yorgos Michalakopoulos, Dora Volanaki, Mania Papademitriou. In this mystical film a Greek-American director travels in the Balkans in search of lost reels of film shot by the Manakia brothers, pioneers of cinema. The film travels through war-torn Eastern Europe giving a compelling eye-witness account, as well as an informed and compassionate description of the scope of the conflict that is still unraveling in the Balkan states. 173 min. DVD 729

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Barnes, Hugh. "Ulysses' Gaze." TLS. Times Literary Supplement n4847 (Feb 23, 1996 n4847): 21(1)

Kimberly, Nick. "Ulysses' Gaze." Sight and Sound 6.n2 (Feb 1996): 55(1).

Portuges, Catherine. "Ulysses' Gaze." American Historical Review 101.n4 (Oct 1996): 1158(2)

Romney, Jonathan. "Make it yellow.(film director, Theo Angelopoulos)(Interview)." Sight and Sound 9.5 (May 1999): 8(4).

The Weeping Meadow (Trilogia I: To Livadi pou dakryzei) (Germany / France / Greece / Italy, 2004)

Directed by Theodoros Angelopoulos. Cast: Alexandra Aidini, Nikos Poursanidis, Giorgos Armenis, Vassilis Kolovos. In 1919, as Greek refugees flee Odessa and the invading Red Army for their homeland, a forbidden love affair unfolds between Elena and Alexis. After giving birth to twin sons, the couple elopes to Thessaloniki to start anew, but their lives are shattered by the outbreak of World War II and the Greek Civil War. 162 min. DVD 7507

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Z (1969)

Directed by Costa-Gavras. Cast: Yves Montand, Irene Papas, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Francois Perier, Jacques Perrin, Charles Denner, Pierre Dux, Georges Geret. A Greek pacifist leader is murdered at a rally. Despite the official police report of accidental death, a journalist's persistent questioning leads to a full-scale investigation, revealing corruption in high places. 127 min. DVD 5533; vhs 999:548

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Zorba the Greek (1964)

Directed by Michael Cacoyannis (Mihalis Kakogiannis). Cast: Anthony Quinn, Alan Bates, Irene Papas, Lila Kedrova. Set on the Greek island of Crete, this is the story of Basil, an inhibited English writer who is befriended by a boisterous peasant named Zorba, who exhibits an astonishing zest for life. When Zorba agrees to work at Basil's abandoned mine, it is the beginning of a lesson for the young man as he gradually moves from being an observer of the world to a participant. 142 min. DVD 2824; vhs 999:3348

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Bien, P. "Nikos Kazantzakis's Novels on Film." Journal of Modern Greek Studies, 2000, VOL 18; PART 1, pages 161-170

Callenbach, Ernest. "Zorba, the Greek." Film Quarterly, Vol. 18, No. 4. (Summer, 1965), p. 61.

Georgakas, Dan. "From Stella to Iphigenia: the woman-centered films of Michael Cacoyannis." (Critical Essay) Cineaste Spring 2005 v30 i2 p24(7)

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