Skip to main content

Greek Cinema

Greek Cinema-Luton, a film by Michalis Konstantatos



"Now more than ever we need to talk to each other, to listen to each other and understand how we see the world, and cinema is the best medium for doing this."

Martin Scorcese

 There's something quite distinct that happens when you view so many films in one sitting.  A theme seems to surface,  or perhaps a symbol, or even a particular colour, whereby you could swear that the filmmakers were all working from a universal mindset.  The New Wave of Greek Cinema is dark, grey, troubled, full of turmoil and characters that are detached and uncomfortable in their chosen landscape, never at peace or at one with their surroundings.  There is a constant sadistic element to the New Wave of Greek Cinema and I wonder if the pain of the population during the crises has desensitised violence and procured sadism, validating it within the realm of cinema, for a hurt society needs to lash out somewhat. 

At times, it goes beyond the crises itself,  questioning the economic philosophies that rule a country or attempt to; a testament of their failure.  Luton, a film by Michalis Konstantatos, 2013 focuses on three individuals, a wealthy highschool student, a trainee lawyer in her mid thirties and a father in his fifties who lead disparate lives full of monotony and grind.
Konstantatos makes sure that their lives are captured in their most mundane and awkward moments, through a voyeuristic lens, only to come together at the end.  There is no doubt that the beginning of the film where the young trainee lawyer is on a treadmill sweating it out, pounding her feet hard on the treadmill and breathing heavily sets the constricting rhythmical pace throughout the rest of the film. 
But, this is what Greek cinema is all about, since the advent of Dogtooth, Attenberg, Wasted Youth; directors have created a voice and a vision that distinctly cries out about the turmoil and displacement that a nation is undergoing. 

 I look forward to the Greek Film Festival in Australia which opens in Melbourne and Sydney on October the 15th.  No doubt there will be an exciting array of New Wave Greek cinema as well as some comedies, period pieces and romances for it is not all about the grim and the lost.  As Scorcese says, it is about understanding how we see the world, and no doubt Greek Film directors have had to see their world a little differently to the way we have been seeing ours. 
Stella Dimadis
August 2014



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Writer's block

Writer's block The Writer's responsibility is to his art.  He will be completely ruthless if he is a good one.  He has a dream.  It anguishes him so much he must get rid of it.  He has no peace until then... William Faulkner  Having written films, articles, essays, reports, it has always, at one stage or another, plagued me when I have had writer's block.  That moment when I sit staring at the computer screen as if it is an alien standing it's ground in a duel for battle with me.  Eyeing me, daring me to drop my weapons of my imagination.  The frustration builds up and chocolate beckons, serenading the virtues of itself.  It is all too familiar, this battle, and I may have thrown my writing in all together had it not been for my editor in the late 90's when I completed some articles for Who Weekly. I remember grizzling into the phone line with him that my writing was not perfect...there was something missing...I couldn't pinpoint it....
2 comments
Read more

Memories are the key not to the past, but to the future.

"Memories are the key not to the past, but to the future. "   Corrie Ten Boom Corrie Ten Boom was a Dutch watchmaker, who had helped many Jews escape during the Holocaust, was a prisoner and then a writer.  She held many memories, no doubt, fears; images that would stay forever and haunt her, but they were able to unlock a future for her that she would never have imagined.  Her writing and her boldness initiated her knighthood by the Queen of the Netherlands, The King's College in New York City named a new women's house in her honour, her book "The Hiding Place", was  made into a feature film, twice. Locked away in our computer hard drives are examples of our work and lives that we lock away when our computer sleeps, forgetting about their importance because we are always told to focus on the now, forgetting about our past.  Well, perhaps it is time that we also learn to love our past, regardless of what it was like, so that we can understand what our...
Post a Comment
Read more

Cruella

Cruella “Cruella was in a box a long time, now Estella can be the one who makes guest appearances!” -Cruella Every so often, a film encapsulates all of the factors that make it ‘wow’, leaving the audience totally satisfied.  Cruella, directed by Craig Gillespie, starring Emma Stone, Emma Thompson, screenplay by Dana Fox and Tony McNamara, produced by Disney does exactly that. It was released in Australia on May the 27th, 2021, not the best year for a release due to the Pandemic and inherent lockdowns in this country, but nevertheless a real treat on any screen. The film follows Estella before she becomes Cruella De Vil; a gifted, precocious girl whose rebellious streak, fighting spirit and desire to become a fashion designer is the perfect mix for her journey through life.  She was orphaned at 12 from whom she thought was her biological mother, but of course the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree and with the help of her two childhood partners, Horace and Jasper, Estella e...
Post a Comment
Read more