Greek Cinema – Greek Film Directors and Their Work 1900-2000, Volume 4/ Trifon Tzavalas Tzavalas, Trifon, 2012 P
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GREEK CINEMA Volume 4 Greek Film Directors and Their Work 1900-2000 Trifon Tzavalas © Copyright 2012, Trifon Tzavalas and the Hellenic university Club of Southern California. All rights reserved. Work may not be reproduced without permission by Trifon Tzavalas or the publisher. Quoting is permitted with a reference to the source and a notice to the publisher at [email protected]. Please use this e-mail to inform the editor of any errors. Published by the Hellenic university Club of Southern California PO Box 45581 Los Angeles, CA 90045-0581 USA Library of Congress Catalog-in-Publication Data Tzavalas, Trifon, 1935- Greek Cinema – Greek Film Directors and their Work 1900-2000, Volume 4/ Trifon Tzavalas Tzavalas, Trifon, 2012 p. cm Includes bibliographical references and index, 1. Greek Directors and Their Work, 1900 – 2000. 2. Greek Movies That Participated in Domestic and In- ternational Festivals, 1949 – 2000. 3. Greek Directors in Foreign Productions. Bibliography ISBN-13: 978-1-938385-14-8 791.976 Published in the United States of America First Edition 2012 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 ____________________________________________ DONATION INFORMATION The Hellenic university Club of Southern California is a Non-Profit Cultural Organization and its publica- tions are intended to help readers and researchers enhance the knowledge and understanding of the Greek cultural heritage. For more information on its activities go to: www.huc.org Use of this book is free; however we kindly request a donation of $5.00 per printed volume of the work. This donation will fund grants to educational organizations which promote Greek cul- ture. Libraries and public institutions are exempt from this request. You can donate by visiting the web site of the Club Please write below the PayPal receipt www.huc.org, and using PayPal or by sending a check to: or check number, and date to show Hellenic university Club of Southern California the legitimacy of your copy. PO Box 45581 Los Angeles, CA 90045-0581 USA Receipt/Check # Date Dedicated to the memory of my parents Sophia and Panagiotis -Trifon Tzavalas TABLE OF CONTENTS Foreword Greek Directors and Their Work, 1900 – 2000……………………………..8 Greek Movies That Participated in Domestic and International Festivals, 1949 – 2000……………………………….. 103 Greek Directors in Foreign Productions…………………………………167 Bibliography…………………………………………………………..….... 171 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my sincere thanks and appreciation to the well-known theatrical au- thor, scriptwriter, and director Giorgos Th. Tzavellas, (1916-76) for his kindness in providing me with his personal material regarding the Greek (Greek) cinema. I am also grateful to Vasilis Georgiadis (1921-2000) for his contribution of considerable data with reference to my work. Vasilis Georgiadis was an editor and publisher of Greek Motion Pic- tures Almanac. In addition, he was a motion picture and television director of note; the contribu- tions from such a very busy man are doubly appreciated. For his interest and help with material for my work I would also like to thank the well-known author, scriptwriter and film director, Nestor P. Matsas. I also wish to thank the editor and publisher of the Greek Motion Pictures Magazine Theamata (The Shows), Aeolos Varelas; also the producers Panayiotis and Christos Kiriakopou- los; and the producer Giorgos E. Pashalidis. Finally, I am indebted to the author Lewis Girion, and Panagiotis (Takis) Demopoulos of Los Angeles, California, for their kindness and their patient instruction in reading the manuscript of my work and correcting some errors. I also want to thank all the directors who responded to my requests for information. FOREWORD This work surveys the general work of the directors of feature movies in Greece from 1900 to 2000. It considers not only the films themselves, but includes a small biography if it was availa- ble. We also listed an index of their movies and their credits and a list of their movies in domestic and international festivals.While there is a rather meager supply of sources in United States, we have been fortunate enough to discover and use some important texts and sources of information. In this work, we have tried, to the best of our knowledge, to research the scattered infor- mation and to put them in chronological order. We use in our work only movies produced in 35 mm. If we have listed any video production in the movie index, we apologize. Before motion pictures were introduced to Greece by foreign cameramen trained by Louis Lumiere, the theater of shadows (Karaghiozis) was the main form of recreation available to the average person. In 19th century, Karaghiozis dominated the shadow entertainment of Greece. The Greek pioneers learned the cinema art from foreign cameramen such as the German Erich Bou- bach, Hungarian Joseph Hepp, Italian Philip Martelli, the French Leon Gaumont and others. Later they learned from each other. The first "film" (its French title was La Sortie des Ouvriers de l' Usine Lumiere) was origi- nally presented in Paris by brothers August and Louis Lumiere, on March 22, 1895. It was a pri- vate presentation and it was followed by another one, this time in Lyons, about three months later. The first "public" presentation, which proved to be a great financial success, was given by Louis Lumiere, again in Paris, at the end of the same year (28th of December, l895). On December, 1995, cinema celebrated its 100th birthday. The evidence indicates that the first films in Greece were presented in 1897 by foreigners. The newspaper Akropolis (January 2l, l897) announced the event will take place in a hall behind the building of the old Greek Parliament, the present National Historical Museum. The films were with French sub-titles; they included such films as La Sortie des Ouvriers de L'Usines Lumi- ere, L'Arrivee d' un train en gare, Lyon Les Cordeliers, Le Gouter De Bebe and L' Arroseur arrose. In 1903 the Greeks Kleanthis Zanos, Apostolos Kontaratos, and the Phychoulis brothers presented short movies in Athens. Later, the Phychoulis brothers enjoyed a financially successful tour of the provinces. In 1911, Spiridon Demetrakopoulos formed the first film production company “Athene - Film.” He produced and directed with the help of German cameraman, Erich Boubach, four short movies. At that time they were all short movies in every country. In 1915, Kostas Bahatoris made the first long movie “Golfo.” In 1916, Asty-Film was founded by Demos Vratsanos and the Hun- garian cameraman Joseph Hepp. Vratsanos directed a few movies with Joseph Hepp as camera- man and assistant director. In 1920, Demetris Gaziadis with his other three brothers, Michalis, Kostas, and Alexandros, reorganized in Athens the DAG-Film Company. The DAG company was originally founded in Berlin in 1915 by Demetris Gaziadis. The DAG company started the first serious film production in Greece. In 1931, the poet, actor, scriptwriter, and director Orestis Las- kos made his debut as a director with the successful movie Daphnis and Chloe. In 1940, Fi- lopoimin Finos made his debut as a director, and later founded Finos-Film. He became the most prolific producer of many successful movies. The quality of movies steadily improved with the appearance of director-writers Giorgos Th. Tzavellas in 1944, Alekos Sakellarios in 1946, Mav- rikios Novak and Nikos Tsiforos in 1948, Grigoris Grigoriou in 1949, and Maria-Hatzinakou Ply- ta 1950 (the first female director in the Greek film industry). They made films in all genres, in- cluding comedy, drama, and melodrama. From 1960 to 1975, there was an overproduction of movies in comparison with the population. To a great extent during this period, film production was in the hands of people who looked at cinema as an industry only and not as art. Some direc- tor-writers made movies according to the wishes of producers, and others stayed independent seeking the freedom to choose their work. From 1950 to 1975, many fly-by-night producers and directors appeared, and several directors who made several bad quality movies. From 1975 to 1976, a new producer, Giorgos Papalios, helped some directors such as Tasos Psarras, Angelos Theodoropoulos, Dimos Theos (Dimosthenis Gerasis), Nikos Panayiotopoulos and Yannis Smaragdis, to mention only a few, to produce some movies. After 1975, they started to refer the cinema as the “New Greek Cinema” but no one explained what is meant by “New Greek Cinema.” After 1976, there is decline in both old and new cinema with attendant financial failures. But the establishment of the Thessaloniki Film Festival in 1960, the development of tele- vision in the 1970’s, the establishment of the Greek Film Center, and government support through the Ministry of Culture kept the cinema alive. In 1982, Melina Merkouri became Minister of Culture and tried very hard to improve the quality of movies by subsidizing some producers and directors. The Ministry formed the Greek Film Center, which assisted in the promotion of films hoping to achieve international recognition. After 1982, when the Ministry of Cultur, through the Greek Film Center, supported film-makers, several good movies were produced. Unfortunately, very few of those movies were financially successful or appealed to large audiences. With new directors appearing every year, there were some successful movies made up to the year 2000. Greek Directors and their Work 1900-2000 The directors are alphabetically listed with the year of their debut. 1911 garian cameraman Joseph Hepp. Baha- toris moved to Paris and no records are available of his activities after that. Spiridon Demetrakopoulos was a stage Golfo (A feminine name) (1915) actor who, with the arrival of cinema, es- tablished the first film production compa- Michalis Glitsos was a businessman who ny “Athene -Film.” He was not only the had built the first movie theater in Piraeus.