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The... Copanoi (1987)
are those guys for real?
Who would ever think that Vouros and Petroheilos would be playing the role of......the punkies... Lezes is absolutely funny, Konstantinou makes you die laughing. But the coolest scene was the scene of a game of "chicken" between a tricycle and a Chessna plane, on the runway of the former Schinias airfield (now turned into the Olympic row-boat center). Or even the fat bodyguard who gets beat up all the time. "Today I'll work overtime"he quotes when his employer sends him to be pounded by a bunch of angry men for the second time in the day. Those lovable losers, end up doing the right thing , in the end....... and please the fat lady....all she has to say? "xeliiiiiiii"! Pleasant times during the Greek eighties
Peppermint (1999)
Peppermint
Peppermint was one of the psychosis of the Greek middle-to-upper class family of the postwar era. It was a status symbol, and almost every Greek home with a good reputation, had a bottle in its refrigerator. It was the time of the first electric fridges (those monsters built by Kelvinator, me thinks), the first private cars moving in Greece, and some of the coolest dancing songs ever made, like "She Loves You". Friendship, being childish, and teenage love are the themes touched in this film, and the scenario and direction are very affectionate about it.
Having never lived this era (I am a child born in the evil 80s) I cant say that it brings me memories of my childhood, at least not in the way it does to my parents. But it certainly reminds me the treats of being childish from time to time...
O Drakoulas ton Exarheion (1983)
"Its only rock and roll but I like it"
Well, Mick boy get a look at this.Communism, socialism, commercialization, zombies and rock and roll a la greca, all put together in a George Romero-meets-Francis Ford Copolla-and-have-a-ball-doing-a-Monty-pythons-movie.Featuring a celebrity a list of the 80s rock and roll scene, including social commentator Jimmy Panousis and his Musical Brigades, die hard rock and roller Johny Vavouras, professional Dissident Nicolas Asimos and Human growler Dimitris (Uncle Nondas to friend and family) Poulikakos, and famous comedians (thenmaking their first steps in cinema and TV antonis kafetzopoulos and sakis mpoulas doing their weird out-of-the blue appearances. The take of Poulikakos singing "Yparxw",Greek rock classic appears here for the first time, during a concert scene shot in the Peace and Friendship stadium, is a cinematic, and musical, classic........among Greek rock circles
I megali apofraxi (1987)
video era trash art
Probably trying to use the heritage of the Monty Pythons, this video era farcical comedy, is the comedy that initiated Greek filmography in surrealism. Believe, me the character of skatofatsa(who is literally stuck in a toilet bucket, and he only appears from the neck up), is the most surreal movie character ever created in Greek cult cinema. Furthermore the characters that add up to the almost non-existent plot are the extremely obese wife of Fonda, and his hilariously dumb assistant, who gets injured in a great variety of ways. In reality both of them (Fonda and the assistant) get into some hilariously weird situations, and some even stranger accidents, that end up being depicted in really surreal comic-styled visual effects....
O hamenos ta pairnei ola (2002)
its a beautiful world
Probably one of the greatest underworld movies ever created in a non-Hollywood environment. Man (gianis aggelakas), a mysterious man of the underworld, small time grifter and big time hard-man,who has an anarchic tendency to mumble and comment on the system, society, police, the underworld itself and other things,
along with his beloved bird, Bellafonte, meets up with an odd posse consisting of kid, who is a young songwriter, a prostitute who gathers money in order to open o bookstore, an alcoholic girl haunted by the relationship with her dead mother, and the grudgey bar-woman-ex-girlfriend. The five of them get caught up in a scheme involving the media, the mob, politicians and the police. And they definitely want to get the hell out of the city, probably to some Caribbean paradise.
This is the third Nicolaides film that has to do with Greek gangland, and the end of his "crime trilogy". Again,like in Glykeia Symmoria, nicolaides makes his own social comments, either using Man as a mouthpiece (mind you the lyrics of Trypes, the band where aggelakas used to sing in are very "socially aware"), or throughout the plot. The violence is still tough, but there is a wee progressive notion in the film, a sense that nicolaides has matured, and is trying to move on to newer things since Glykeia Symmoria, making a film that has the speed of a Jarmusch movie, with an underground storyline.
Trivia one: The most of the outside scenes were filmed in the district of Exarchia (Athens), which was famous in the eighties and the nineties as a place where anarchists, drug addicts, petty criminals and rockers hang out
Trivia two: The house were the rave scene was filmed, was torn down a few weeks after the shoot
Trivia three: The bar were the barmaid is working, was built in 1830. At first it was housing one of King Otthos commissars.During the 20th century it was neglected, or used as a brothel.Since the mid 1980s it houses club decadence, one of the most famous alternative rock bars in Athens
Mathe paidi mou grammata (1981)
Unbelievable
First of all i would like to bow to the genius of Nikos Kalogeropoulos. The whole story is seen from the point of view of the character he plays, an underprivileged teenager who is about to finish high school. He is in love with a very poor girl, that has to work in order to support her family, while studying. The problem is that his father is the very conservative schoolmaster, while she is the granddaughter of a Communist who was executed by the Germans. And during that historical period,even in the years of the reestablishment of Greek democracy, the core of Greek society (even more in villages like the one where the story is set) remained mainly really conservative.Furthermore, the arrival of his brother, after a lot of years of studying abroad, and his failure to find a suitable job, challenge his faith in the conservative social system that ruled Greece at the time.
But the most revolutionary part of the film is the social commentary. Subjects that where considered taboo for the Greek cinema of the time (sexuality, political sectarianism, unemployment,the rule of the church,miss education, poverty and the negligence toward rural communities) are touched and challenged in a film that only looks like a coming-of-age story. Probably one of the most amazing scenes showing this is the scene where the kids, in the classroom, read their compositions about everyday life in town, and while they read, the camera takes a tour in town showing us what happens in their typical day,and what problems they face. That and the final scene, inside the courtroom....
Oh and it is worth seeing for the beautifully cinematic scenes showing the town of stemnitsa, where the film was shot.......
Glykia symmoria (1983)
Thank god for sidewalk sidelines
A former jailbird that demands to listen to some Muddy Waters in order to perform well in a soft core movie. A prostitute that states that the revolution is being forcible entered into. A girl that hangs out with some strange characters that might be informants. A new-wave styled small time conman. And a porn actress who is along for the ride. Whats common between those petty criminals? They all live in the outskirts of society, in a grotesque old mansion, doing small time crimes in order to survive, and killing time (extra curricular activities include sex, drugs and partying).Probably they are the most rock and roll gang in the history of Greek cinema, probably not.
Surely they are a posse of romantics waiting for reality to (brutally) come into their lives and exterminate them. A group of rebels without a hope, lovable criminals an cult heroes...probably one of the most beautiful gangland movies ever made. Hence the