There was a time when Greek cinema was, as everywhere else, the main mean of everyday fun for the masses. From the early '50s until the coming of tv in late 60's an ever growing industry was producing an ever increasing number of films with ever bigger box office revenue. With Finos Films as flagship, this industry lasted until 1977 and then collapsed completely losing the battle to television. Until then they managed to build a Greek miniature facsimile of Hollywood, with Greek star system, famous directors and script writers, producing mainly comedies and dramas. Their artistic merit does not stand to serious criticism. They were almost all sub-par aimed to the average viewer, although quite a handful was quite adequate in terms of production.
Yes they were bad cinema, but with repeated showings in tv, they had a second career from mid 80's till today, transformed to a cult phenomenon to more than three generations of Greeks. Almost all of us have seen those innumerous times, and quotes of films has passed to everyday life.
To Klama Vgike Ap Ton Paradiso, meaning Crying Came Though Paradise (a satire of a famous film name of the 50's) it's a non stop satire of that era and cinema industry. Unrelentingly it parodies famous films, actors, writers, quotes and cliches of the era. And it does it in a lightweight manner, a little gross verbally, but in general quite good, if you are Greek and grew up with those films around. But it is a compete waste of time for a non Greek to try and watch this film. It is full of verbal inside jokes aimed only to us that have exposed ourselves to the original material to really be able to understand the pun. Stay away, you won't catch the joke.
