Greek Film Series
Organized by the Greek Film Society and the Hellenic Studies Program at Yale University
Free and open to the public
Tuesday, February 19, 7:30 PM
Luce Hall 202Loafing and Camouflage
by Nikos Perakis, 1984
This cult film about group of soldiers, assigned to the Greek armed forces television station, is a hilarious comedy about the ingenious and wily machinations that individual characters resort to as they weather the dire straits of political oppression during their compulsory military service before and immediately after the Greek junta of 1967. Though their responsibilities require them to produce mostly propaganda films and newsreels, the soldiers have more creative ambitions so they ‘borrow’ the station’s cameras to produce a…porno movie, a cinematic genre which was, not so coincidentally, rather flourishing in the decade prior to the film’s own making in 1984.
Thursday, February 28, 8:00 PM
Luce Hall 202PHAEDRA by Jules Dassin
Inspired by Euripides’ tragedy Hippolytus and set in modern times, this allegorical tale centers on the love triangle between a fabulously wealthy Greek shipping magnate, his lonely second wife, and his first-born son. Jules Dassin has updated the tale to modern times, finding apt counterparts for ancient royalty in the world of wealthy shipping tycoons, and giving the proceedings a contemporary feel that doesn’t negate the tragic aspects of the story. Melina Mercouri exudes sensuality and bring a spontaneous complexity to the role that is refreshing. Anthony Perkins is appropriately tortured; his neurotic quality is expected, of course, but there’s an intensity to it here that is beautiful, and his mad scene is nothing short of exceptional.
Tuesday, March 4, 7:30 PM
Luce Hall 202Hostage
by Constantine Giannaris, 2005
One morning, a young man boards an intercity bus on its daily route to Thessaloniki in northern Greece. He hijacks the bus at gunpoint and takes seven of the passengers hostage. In his left hand he holds a grenade. He turns out to be a 25-year-old Albanian immigrant by the name of Elion Senia. His central demands include a ransom of 50 million Greek drachmas and safe passage back to his homeland. The hijacking is transmitted live on national television. For the next twenty hours, a wild and at times bleakly comic chase ensues through northern Greece, with the hijacked bus at the head of a convoy of police cars, television crews, desperate relatives, and bystanders… all the while heading towards the Albanian border…
Tuesday, March 25, 7:30 PM
Luce Hall 202From the Edge of the City
byConstantine Giannaris, 1998
A powerful and provocative film about a group of outcast teenagers living in Menidi, a predominately Greek-Russian suburb on the periphery of Athens, and who prostitute themselves in search of an easy but costly gain. Filmed with a pseudo-documentary style–the actors gathered together by Giannaris had no prior acting experience—the film exposes the hard edges of post-Soviet migration and the complex, and often tragic, process of assimilation and its failures. (select image for review.)
Tuesday, April 15, 7:30 PM
Luce Hall 202Silicon Tears
by Papathanassiou & Reppas, 2001
If you have not seen any Greek film in your life, have no worry. This film will cover it all. A parody of the most important genres of Greek cinema, the film is a post-modern tour-de-force that transports us to pristine Greek islands (Mykonos, of course!), to bucolic fields and hills, and to the patriotic battlefields of War World II. Filmed with the explicit intent to ridicule everything and everyone in the Greek film industry of the 1950s and 60s, the film is also a tender homage to everything we have come to hate and love about Greek movies.