Le Réveil du dimanche

It was his sophomore effort ,"Stella" ,which put Cacoyannis on the map and made Melina Mercouri a star.

At first 'kirlakatiko xypnima " appears like some documentary ,something Robert Siodmak ("Menschen am Sonntag") and Marcel Carné ("Nogent ,Eldorado Du Dimanche ") did in the late twenties/early thirties ;the director 's depiction of still sleepy Athenes retains lots of freshness and charm ;the ending also imitates the German and French attempts .Sunday is a time to rest even if a shrew has not yet understood it .And then you have to wait till the next one...

The core of the movie ,the ticket chase ,reminds the French of René Clair's "le million" and Jacques Becker's "Antoine and Antoinette " (but without the nasty side of the latter) ;at least to my eyes ,it beats Clair at his own game : Cacoyannis,in a derivative screenplay ( the married lawyer,the jealous wife, the handsome artist whose rich father cut off his means of subsistance ), shows freshness, delicacy and plenty of go ,particularly for a first effort.