Les petites aphrodites

Like the other reviewers above, I too was captivated by this movie upon it's initial (and seemingly short-lived) theatrical release. It must have been about 1968 or 1969 when I saw it at one of those 'arty' type cinemas in Sydney, and I am almost certain that that copy was overdubbed in English, which made it a lot more watchable, even if it did upset the lip-synch! I was enthralled from the very first frames, and all I can do is agree with an earlier reviewer who noted that he/she did not want it to end, and another reviewer who stated that it was like a beautiful dream that one wishes that one could have every night.

Sure, there are a few glitches in the continuity, and many more in the reasoning behind the screenplay (?) but the whole beauty of this little gem of a film is in the IMAGERY, supported mostly by the minimal dialogue, and gorgeous musical score. You can actually believe that you are looking through a time-window into an ancient coming together of opposing faiths and forces.

I have a subtitled copy on VHS, which was cross-recorded many years ago from my original copy on Beta (before the Beta died), but it was originally recorded from our SBS channel (still in its formative years in the early 1980's) and the quality leaves something to be desired. (Ghosting of the images, which leaves some scenes difficult to watch, and several picture rolls, due to the advancing age of the tape.) Even so though, it is still a powerful piece of work, and I would dearly love to have a crisp, clear copy on DVD.

As none seems forthcoming, I shall have to rely on the annual playing of my copy on VHS, and simply remember how achingly beautiful it was on the big screen, all those years ago..........

I bought "Young Aphrodites" on videotape from Movies Unlimited several years ago. Atmy first viewing I was enchanted. Eventually I watched it so many times over the following years that I wore it out. The two youngsters (the boy sheepherder and the village girl who interests him) are the main story. Also, there is a story of an adult couple. The passionate pursuit of the bird tamer (young woman) by the shepherd (young man) and the sexual consummation of that pursuit colors the story of the boy and girl. A dead pelican? seems to be the unusual center of the boy's attempts to interest the girl. Not entirely sure why he is pursuing the girl (but having an idea from having stumbled on the sexual encounter of the older couple, he invests her with an innocence only to find that he has a rival in the form of another boy. This boy sees the girl as a sexual conquest. The rivalry, the innocent pursuit and its shattering resolution end the main story and the sheepherders return home.

I have 3 different DVD versions.

One is from CMVC which is dubbed in English. The dubbing is very good and non-intrusive. The picture quality lacks punch however and 6 minutes have been cut from the original.

From Amazon you can get the Cinema Epoch version. This contains the full uncut movie and uses English subtitles. There is more contrast to the picture. Yet the subtitles really litter up the beautiful images presented in this movie.

From EBAY I was able to get a copy from Greece. This version is uncut, with no dubbing or subtitles. It is in the original Greek. Since there is little dialog to begin with, this is really no big deal especially if you have watched it a lot. This version has the best picture quality. But the sound is not that good. There are parts where the actors voices seem to lose volume all of a sudden.

I would love to get a version which is uncut, with great audio and video.

The filming locations are gorgeous. The production design is lovely, though superficially minimal, and the costume design is outstanding. Giannis Markopoulos' original score is beautiful, yet notably relatively sparse as it is employed. Somewhat echoing these facets, most surprising is how very loose, unbothered, and slight the title seems to be in many regards. There is a discrete story being told, but it often feels like a conveyance only of big ideas, essential beats, rather than a detailed delineation of a course of events. Nikos Koundouros' direction likewise seems to be focused on major feelings and concepts for each scene rather than firm guidance of the narrative - less a guardrail along a highway, and more like sparing cairns that dot a remote hiking trail. Surely enough, 'Young Aphrodites' could be described as a drama, or a romance film, if one wishes to put labels on it; a "historical" descriptor is also theoretically applicable. Above all, though, it rather comes across as an art film, with a mind emphatically toward aesthetics more than anything else.

The latter slant is especially accentuated in the relatively little dialogue that is employed, mostly letting scenes speak for themselves, and the quasi-amorphousness that characterizes the dialogue we do get. Characters, as written, feel more like sketches, as do scenes and even the tale at large, and Koundouros seems to orchestrate shots and scenes with the very same mindset. I don't know what it was that I expected before I sat to watch, but it wasn't this. Such as it is, however, I think the movie is superb - crafted with tremendous care and passion, and shaped just as much with an ethos of restraint and deliberation. Giovanni Varriano's cinematography is arguably most fetching of all, coming off as very fluid and natural - which, come to think of it, might be the best word to apply to 'Young Aphrodites' overall. Though bound up with specific sensibilities of film-making and storytelling, in some capacity this feels like a treatment of the bare essence of humanity at a particular time and place, without all the enormity of civilization and culture informing events. Whatever else is true of the feature, I appreciate the tack it has taken, and the commitment to it of everyone involved.

Though bearing recognizable flavors, this is the type of movie in which those flavors are reduced to their simplest form, and approached somewhat obliquely. It's a lot to take in at first, and I can't blame anyone who sits to watch and has a hard time engaging with it. Yet for whatever ways in which it's well removed from the usual conventions of cinema as general audiences see it, it's very well made, with strong acting on top, not least from Eleni Prokopiou with the sharp nuance and personality that defines her performance, and young Kleopatra Rota. Despite all the idiosyncrasies, ninety minutes fly by unexpectedly quickly, and the result is a rich, absorbing viewing experience, one in which the origins in classical literature can be easily discerned. Content warnings are necessary for animal cruelty, and elements of sexual violence - but provided that these in and of themselves are no obstacle to one watching a film, and one is open to the more artistic nature of the presentation, I'd have no qualms recommending this to just about anyone. For everything that 'Young Aphrodites' is and represents, it's an engrossing, compelling picture, and ultimately highly satisfying. So far as I'm concerned, if you have the chance to check it out then this is well worth one's time.

This Greek film was obviously marketed as a piece of soft-core porn about nubile young Greeks getting it off when, in fact, it's a reasonably serious, and incredibly boring, account of ancient Greek shepherds struggling to survive or at least cope with a lack of water, which may or may not be symbolic.

The "Young Aphrodites" of the title are rather comely maidens and certainly not the type to entice you into the porn cinemas of Soho or should that be downtown Athens and yet I am sure this is just the kind of 'art-house' movie that once upon a time was squarely aimed at what was affectionately known as 'the dirty mac brigade', at least here in the UK, (and if that were the case, they would have been severely disappointed).

There isn't much of a plot, (there isn't much of anything really), but at least it nicely shot in black and white and has an easy-on-the-ear score by Yannis Markopoulous. Still, I can't imagine when this was being made who the producers imagined their intended audience might be or that it won the Best Director prize at the Berlin Film Festival. I gave up before the end.