Alexandreia

Diane and I marveled at this wonderful film this afternoon after it had lain unwatched since its original taping months ago--our foolish mistake! Both of us were enchanted by the beauty of the story; the superb, natural acting of all the characters as well as the visual beauty of the exceptional cinematography. I was particularly intoxicated by this camera work enhanced by the stark beauty of the set decoration or should I more correctly say its lack of decoration because of the sparseness and simplicity of the sets. With movies I am more visually oriented than I am scriptorily oriented; therefore, this movie well be in my memory because of the simplicity and beauty of the interior shots. These shots were established through the brilliance of Maria Lliou' as director and completed by the photographic excellence of Yannis Drakoularkos.

As the movie progressed it became more and more apparent that Drakoularkos was setting his shots in the semi-darkened rooms of these older, larger, high-ceilinged rooms filled, very sparsely, with period furniture leaving the viewer with a delicious sense of past times as in a Somerset Maughan short story. Agnes Doutsi and Miranda Theodoridou, as Set Directors, were responsible for these minimalist sets that would not be out of place in a Sydney water-side apartment.

If you anticipate films filled with visions of beautiful images then this is a film for you. Do not let it disappear in film archives before you obtain a copy to accompany the decay of Venice; Alexandria, Egypt has much in common with this city of perpetual decay.

I was fortunate to catch "Alexandria" as part of a film series in 2006. What a wonderful movie! The story is very well written and the actors are wonderful. What really struck me however was the cinematography - which was absolutely stunning!

Unfortunately, this little gem of a film doesn't appear to be on DVD anywhere - I even checked on a recent trip to Greece. What a shame, as I would dearly love to own this movie and be able to introduce it to others.

If you have the opportunity to see it, do yourself a favor and give it a chance. I don't think that you'll be disappointed.