Kavafis

I respect Smaragdis for his efforts to do great cinema, but unfortunately he is not a great film director. The proof is this movie. Some beautiful images are not enough when you have to deal with Kavafis' life and work. The only analysis on his character is that he was homosexual and a shy person. Nothing more. The worst of all is that we never hear his excellent way of speaking that he was famous for. Dimitris Katalifos is a really good actor and he portrays Kavafis well with his expressiveness, as we never hear him talk. Vasilis Diamantopoulos who portrays Kavafis at his late is also great and unfortunately also mute. Maybe the suitable title for this movie should be "The mute poet". Vangelis music is majestic as always. Konstantinos Kavafis was a great poet and one of the most significant personalities of the modern greek world. He deserves a better film version of his life, work and personality. Cause he wasn't just a homosexual poet as he is displayed in this movie.

Greek cinema doesn't boast many good films, and when a film like "Kavafis" comes out, people take notice. The film has beautiful scenes from 19th and early 20th century Alexandria, Constantinople and Athens and a wonderful score from the famous Vangelis (of "Chariots of Fire" fame). Most Greek films never reach a level that "Kavafis" has in these aspects. However, the script and story is so poor that "Kavafis" reveals little about the poet's life and inspiration and makes a movie that has so much potential utterly disappointing.

Director Smaragthis does two controversial things with the film. First, he has Cavafy speak no lines in the entire film, except for voice-overs of his poems. This decision is understandable considering that we only hear the true words of Cavafy in a film about him. Can't do much better for historical accuracy I suppose. However, for an audience, scenes where everyone else is speaking and Cavafy is sitting silently seem very odd. The times where Cavafy opens his mouth to speak and then suddenly doesn't are almost comic.

The second controversial aspect of this film is the fact that the movie deals only with Cavafy's homosexual love life. We learn very little about his family, education and inspiration for his poetry. Someone who had never known Cavafy before this film would think that all Cavafy did all day was lurk the dark alleys and tavernas of Constantinople and Alexandria to find men. The poems that Smaragthis chose to have in the film almost exclusively focus on homosexual themes. While Cavafy's homosexuality needs to be dealt with in a film, it seems every scene involves Cavafy staring into the eyes of some new man. In fact, Cavafy's rejection by the Athenian literary establishment is portrayed as Cavafy being rejected sexually by one of the leading Athenian poets of the time, Mavroudis. Not only do these scenes limit our understanding of Cavafy's life, but they really make for a static, and honestly boring movie.

A great poet like Cavafy deserves better. Let's hope the next person to take on the life of Cavafy decides to portray him as the complicated genius he really was.

Kavafis is visually compeling but leaves alot to be desired as far as the script is concerned.The story begins with the poet in his deathbed and an eager young researcher by his side trying to write his biography. This is the framing device for the past to unfold in relentless flashbacks most of which are laden with sexual nuances about the poet's homosexuality.

There are many sequences where the poet looks at young men and they look back at him and he looks back at them and they look back at him and so on. The entire film is like a staring down contest with Kavafis scoring very high.Death in Venice comes to mind but in a lot more repressed and a lot less lavish version. The poet barely utters ten words in the entire film and one gets the impression that the impetus behind his exquisite poems was his repressed homosexuality.

OK, so the average movie in Greece is far worse. But that doesn't mean that this movie is any good. What we get is Kavafis wandering round, while some majestic music accompanies etc. There are no characters, no real dialogs, but, much more than this, the problem lies elsewhere: The film is too sentimental. One has the impression that he's watching a kids advertisement than a serious movie. There is no point; The movie is about one of the greatest poets ever lived, but the audience gets nothing. The film is just too meaningless. It could have been so much more, but the final impression is... truly disappointing. Greek cinema needs ideas, not vague dreams.

a beautiful film. not profound, not really serious. but beautiful. images from Luchino Visconti universe - and too many gay references -, the cold atmosphere, Kavafis as only a silhouette are virtues and sins of film. a film about a great writer must be more than this sketch. that was, maybe, the conviction of director and scriptwriter but the basic obstacle was the fear. the movie is its expression. the fear to not make mistakes, the fear to not present the facts of a reach biography in perfect light. so, a small portrait, like an invitation to discover him out of movie images, an invitation to read his poems is enough. and this is the great problem - what is purpose of film ? to seduce ? to be one beginning for another, more courageous and precise artistic team who can realize a better film about Kavafis ? to be a refined homage to one of magnificent voices of Greece in XX century ?I do not know. only certitude - it is a beautiful film and the contribution of Vangelis gives little drops of force to a film who remains, unfortunately, a kind of Death at Alexandria.