Das Mädchen in Schwarz

A film not so well known to the greek audience for reasons i cant explain.

Cacoyannis, best know for directing the film Zorba the Greek (aka Alexis Zorbas) in 1964, explored some of its themes in this 1956 film, which stars Ellie Lambeti. She plays a young woman who is constantly harassed by the young bachelors who live on the island of Hydra because she refuses to marry any of them. When a worldly Athenian comes by and rents a room in her home, the rumors begin to fly. In The Girl in Black and A Matter of Dignity (and even Zorba the Greek), Cacoyannis demonstrates a perfect and natural ability to explore moral issues within the culture, as well as create believable and moving tragedy. The earlier films came straight from his imagination (Zorba was adapted from a novel), and they are the works of a great screenwriter, one of the best of the era. Cacoyannis' direction in these two films is also flawless. He did really well in Zorba, too. One wonders why his abilities aren't more highly considered. I would guess it is because these early films are fairly obscure nowadays. I guess he's an artist who deserves to be rediscovered.

Ellie Lambetti's performance in "A Girl in Black" is one of the greatest performances by an actress in all of cinema and yet hardly anyone has seen it. Michael Cacoyannis made this film for virtually nothing on the Greek island of Hydra after achieving international success with "Stella". It's a beautiful looking film, (the great Walter Lassally was the photographer), and the simple island setting suited the simplicity of the style perfectly. Early in the film one of the character says that everything is exposed by the light, even men's sins and that is the theme of the film.

When two strangers arrive on the island their presence arouses passions among the locals that were always there but kept simmering just below the surface. Eleni Zafiriou is the widow who bestows her favours a little too freely, (the islanders are a very unforgiving lot), Lambetti is the daughter tainted by her sins, Anestis Vlachos is the son who is shamed by her, the better-known Greek actor Georges Foundas, (he was in "Never on Sunday"), is the fisherman who wants Lambetti and Dimitri Horn, the man from Athens, who gets her. It's a contemporary Greek tragedy on a small, but no less terrible, scale and it's heartbreaking. In America the film won the Golden Globe but it is seldom revived. See it at all costs.

This early black and white film by Michael Cacoyannis has a crude, highly melodramatic power. The initially idyllic island of Hydra gradually becomes the setting of a horror movie; the horrors come from the strict moral codes, the rigid gender roles, the class distinctions, the prejudices against "city slickers", etc. Ellie Lambeti is the star, and she is enchanting - when the film was over, I wanted to see more of her character. I wondered if she would ever find the happiness she deserves. **1/2 out of 4.

I'm not fluent in Greek and I have never been there but I personally desire to go to the Greek islands just like the men from Athens do for a vacation. They rent a house with a woman in mourning and negative reputation among the locals. He falls in love with her of course and he wants to marry her and take her away to Athens but of course, there is a doomed tragedy that affects everybody on the island. I won't give away much more than that. This movie has great acting from it's major characters and the locals as well. The beautiful woman does an excellent job in her role. The scenery reminds me of Venice. It's first rate filmed on location in the Greek islands in the post World War II world. It's a good film! I only wished that I knew Greek.