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November 21, 2005
Greek chic: the next breakout national cinema?
Fiachra Gibbons of the Guardian thinks Greece might have the next breakout national cinema, writing on the eve of the International Thessaloniki Film Festival: "Only a few years ago Greek cinema was the preserve of arid intellectual epics choked with philosophical allusion and cloying nostalgiac melodramas on the manifold historical misfortunes of the Greeks.
"The only relief was provided by the odd... very broad comedy (we are talking films like the fantastically-named Cow's Orgasm here). [But] not only have mainstream directors found a formula that has Greeks returning in their millions to cinemas to see big, well-made films like Brides and A Touch of Spice, but a new wave of young filmmakers has emerged to rewrite the rules and create a very particular extreme humanist style of their own. For the first time in what feels like aeons, Greece is staring itself squarely in the face. To everyone's surprise - most of all the Greeks - the results make compelling cinema.... Yet this is not iconoclasm (another Greek invention) for the sake of it. There is something else going on that is very Greek in its way of melding conflicting, often contradictory emotions, and which avoids the chill cynicism of so much extreme cinema in Europe and the US." [She surveys specific titles at the link.]
Posted by pride at November 21, 2005 03:14 PM
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