Cinema of Greece


The Cinema of Greece has a long and rich history. Though hampered at times by war or political instability, the Greek film industry dominates the domestic market and has experienced international success. Characteristics of Greek cinema include a dynamic plot, strong character development and erotic themes. Two Greek films, Missing and Eternity and a Day, have won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Five Greek films have received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
Though Greek cinema took root in the early 1900s, the first mature films weren't produced until the 1920s, after the end of the Greco-Turkish War. Films during this period, such as Astero by Dimitris Gaziadis and Maria Pentagiotissa by Ahilleas Madras, consisted of emotional melodramas with an abundance of folkloristic elements. Orestis Laskos's Daphnis and Chloe, one of the first Greek films to be shown abroad, contained the first voyeuristic nude scene in a European film. During the Axis occupation, the Greek film industry struggled as it was forced to relocate overseas.
Following the Greek Civil War, Greek cinema experienced a revival. Inspired by Italian neorealism, directors such as Grigoris Grigoriou and Stelios Tatasopoulos created works during this period shot on location using non-professional actors. During the 1950s and 1960s, Greek cinema experienced a golden age, starting with Michael Cacoyannis's Stella, which was screened at Cannes. The 1960 film Never on Sunday was nominated for five Academy Awards, and its lead actress, Melina Mercouri, won the Best Actress Award at Cannes. Cacoyannis's Zorba the Greek won three Academy Awards. Other films released in this era, such as The Counterfeit Coin and The Ogre of Athens are nowadays considered some of the greatest works of Greek cinema.
Censorship policies of the 1967 junta and rising foreign competition led to a decline in Greek cinema. After the restoration of democracy in the mid-1970s, the Greek film industry again flourished, led by director Theo Angelopoulos, whose films captured international recognition, making him probably the most acclaimed Greek director to date. Other acclaimed directors of this era include Nikos Nikolaidis, as well as Pantelis Voulgaris and Alexis Damianos, the director of the landmark film Evdokia. However, this drift toward art-house cinema in the 1980s led to a decline in audiences. In the 1990s, younger Greek filmmakers began experimenting with iconographic motifs. In spite of, or because of, funding issues created by the financial crisis in the late 2000s, unique Greek films such as Yorgos Lanthimos's Dogtooth, Panos H. Koutras' Strella and Athina Rachel Tsangari's Attenberg received international acclaim, constituting what has been called the "Greek Weird Wave".

History of the Greek cinema

Origins

In the spring of 1897, the Greeks of Athens watched the first cinematic ventures. In 1906 Greek Cinema was born when the Manakis brothers started recording in Macedonia, and the French filmmaker "Leons" produced the first "Newscast" from the midi-Olympic games of Athens.
The first cine-theater of Athens opened about a year later and other special 'projection rooms' begun their activity. In 1910-11 the first short comic movies were produced by director Spiros Dimitrakopoulos, who also starred in most of his movies. In 1911 Kostas Bachatoris presented Golfo , a well known traditional love story, considered the first Greek feature film. In 1912 was founded the first film company and in 1916 the Asty Film.
During the First World War, production was limited to documentaries and newscasts only. Directors like George Prokopiou and Dimitris Gaziadis are distinguished for filming scenes from the battlefield and later, during the Greco-Turkish War, of the efforts of the Hellenic Army and finally the Great Fire of Smyrna.
, pioneers of the cinema in the Balkans
The first commercially successful Greek film was Villar in the Women's Baths of Faliro, written, directed by and starring comedian Villar and Nitsa Philosofou. In 1924, Michael Michael, a Greek comedian, presented some short film comedies.
In 1922, Gaziadis founded Dag Films and tried to produce the first speaking movies. This company presented its first movie, Love and Waves, in 1927, and experienced moderate success in the late 1920s and early 1930s. The company mainly produced historical movies, usually adaptations of novels. In 1930, Dag made an attempt for a speaking movie, Apachides of Athens, which was based on a Greek operetta by Nikos Hatziapostolou.
Gaziadis also filmed the 1927 Delphic Festival, an idea of Angelos Sikelianos and Eva Palmer-Sikelianos, as part of his general effort towards the revival of the "Delphic Idea". The event consisted of Olympic contests, an exhibition of folk art, and a performance of Prometheus Bound.
The 1931 film Daphnis and Chloe, directed by Orestis Laskos, contained the first voyeuristic nude scene in the history of European cinema; it was also the first Greek movie which was played abroad. In 1932 Olympia Films presented the speaking movie The Shepherdess's Lover, which was based on a play by Dimitris Koromilas. Also influential during this period was director Achilleas Madras, whose work included Maria Pentagiotissa and Sorcerer of Athens.
During the late 1930s, a number of Greek filmmakers fled Greece due to the hostility of Metaxas Regime and the material lack of ability for producing speaking movies. The Greek film industry reemerged in Turkey, and later in Egypt.
In spite of German occupation during World War II, Philopemen Finos, a film producer who was active in the Greek Resistance, founded Finos Films, which would later become one of the most commercially successful Greek studios. One of Finos's earliest productions, Voice of the Heart , drew large audiences, to the consternation of the Germans. Another important film during this period, Applause , was produced by Finos's rival, Novak Films.
In 1944 Katina Paxinou was honoured with the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as "Pilar" in the Sam Wood film, For Whom the Bell Tolls.

The Golden Age

The 1950s and 1960s are considered by many to be the "Golden Age" of Greek cinema. Directors and actors of this era were recognized as important historical figures in Greece and some gained international acclaim: Mihalis Kakogiannis, Alekos Sakellarios, Melina Mercouri, Nikos Tsiforos, Iakovos Kambanelis, Katina Paxinou, Nikos Koundouros, Ellie Lambeti, and Irene Papas. More than sixty films per year were made, with the majority having film noir elements. Notable films were The Counterfeit Coin, Bitter Bread, and The Ogre of Athens.
Finos Film and director Alekos Sakellarios collaborated on several films in the late 1950s, namely The Hurdy-Gurdy and its sequel, Laterna, ftoheia kai garyfallo, as well as Aunt from Chicago and Maiden's Cheek.
The 1955 film Stella, directed by Michael Cacoyannis and written by Iakovos Kambanelis, was screened at Cannes, and launched Greek cinema into its "golden age." Melina Mercouri, who starred in the film, met American expatriate director Jules Dassin at Cannes while attending the screening, and the two would eventually marry. Dassin directed the 1960 Greek film, Never on Sunday, which starred Mercouri. The film was nominated for several Academy Awards, including Best Actress for Mercouri, and won the Academy Award for Best Song for composer Manos Hatzidakis' title track. The couple also collaborated on the 1967 musical stage adaptation, Illya Darling, for which Mercouri received a Tony Award nomination. She went on to star in such films as Topkapi and Phaedra, both directed by Dassin, and the 1969 American comedy, Gaily, Gaily.
Cacoyannis' 1964 film, Zorba the Greek, which starred Anthony Quinn, was a major commercial success, and was nominated for the Academy Awards for Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Film. The movie was based on the novel, Zorba the Greek, by author Nikos Kazantzakis. Other important films during this period include Antigone and Electra, both of which starred Irene Papas, The Red Lanterns by director Vasilis Georgiadis, and Battlefield Constantinople, which starred the "Greek Brigitte Bardot," Aliki Vougiouklaki.
The Thessaloniki International Film Festival was first held in 1960, and would subsequently evolve into the primary showcase for emerging filmmakers from Greece and the Balkans region. The festival showcases both international and Greek films, and awards the "Golden Alexander" for the best feature film.
In 1969, the Costa-Gavras film Z was nominated for the Academy Award for both Best Foreign Language Film and Best Picture.

Modern period

The production of Greek films increased after the fall of the dictatorship in the mid-1970s, though the industry struggled with foreign competition and the rise of television. Michael Cacoyannis' 1977 film, Iphigenia, was nominated for an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. During the 1970s and 1980s Theo Angelopoulos directed a series of critically acclaimed movies, among them The Travelling Players, The Hunters, and Voyage to Cythera. His film Eternity and a Day won the Palme d'Or and the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival. Costa-Gavras's film Missing won the Palme d'Or at 1982 Cannes Film Festival. Director Costas Ferris's 1983 film, Rembetiko, won the Silver Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival.
When the left-leaning Panhellenic Socialist Movement was elected to power in 1981, actress Melina Mercouri, a member of the party, was appointed Minister for Culture. In this role, she obtained government support for the Greek film industry, and set up networks to promote Greek cinema abroad. The increase in government funding led to a predominance of slow-moving, cerebral art-house films, which lacked mass appeal.
Beginning in the 1990s, younger directors turned to more contemporary-paced films and social satires, which brought moderate commercial success. In 1999, TV series writers Michalis Reppas and Thanasis Papathanasiou, collaborating with contemporary famous actors made the sex taboo comedy Safe Sex, which was the most successful movie of the decade.
In 2003, A Touch of Spice, a big-budget film by director Tasos Boulmetis, was the most successful film of the year at the Greek box office, making over 12 million euros. 2004 was also a good year for Greek films, with Pantelis Voulgaris's Brides gathering more than a million spectators and over 7 million at the box office. In 2007 the most successful film was El Greco, directed by Yannis Smaragdis.
In 2009, Dogtooth, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, won the Prix Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival, and in 2011 was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 83rd Academy Awards. The 2010 film Attenberg, directed by Athina Rachel Tsangari, won the Coppa Volpi Award for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival. In 2011 Alps won the Osella Award for Best Screenplay at the 68th Venice Film Festival. Dogtooth, Attenberg and Alps are part of what some film critics, including Steve Rose of The Guardian, have termed the "Greek Weird Wave," which involves movies with haunting cinematography, alienated protagonists and absurdist dialogue. Other films mentioned as part of this "wave" include Panos H. Koutras's Strella and Yannis Economides's Knifer.
In 2011, just twenty feature-films were produced.
In 2013, Miss Violence, directed by Alexandros Avranas won Silver Lion for best director at the 70th Venice International Film Festival. Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian, compared the film to the previously mentioned, saying that "It does not have the humour of those movies by Yorgos Lanthimos and Athina Rachel Tsangari and by that token, less of their richness and inventiveness. But its force can't be doubted."

Notable films

Pre-WWII
After-WWII
Modern

Past

Directors

at the Manaki Brothers Film Festival in Bitola

Scenographers