Mikres Afrodites

I wail and gnash teeth in worry that my two VHS copies of this outstanding film will further degrade before the Lords of Film Preservation and Distribution pull this one from the oh so undeserved bin of neglect. Yes, another coming of age story. Yes, another love triangle. And yes, another oh so splendid example of what film can do! Lucent imagery, commanding black and white, classic movement, a story both exotic, ancient, and utterly timeless - integrally conveyed by images, images, images! A film to make you wish to be on some isolated Greek island, sitting mesmerized by the profound sea, and pondering the endless repetition of man's desire. Or rather, grateful to live in an age of film. A prayer to Mercury to speed this wonderful film to Criterion!

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.

Not many people may have seen this film. It's probably almost impossible to get hold of these days. A great pity. I saw it twice in the seventies. Ever since the first viewing it has been in my personal top five. It's a story told in images, full of wonderful symbolism, beautifully photographed in black and white. It plays in a long ago Greece, in a village by the sea. The men are out fishing, the women are waiting for their return, and from the mountains a group of shepherds come down with their flocks. Thus the land meets the see, earth and water, male and female, birds and stones, a stork and a fish, birds captured in fishing nets etc. etc. This archetypical encounter is played out by the young (who remembers the intriguing poster of the prepubescent girl with the fishing net draped over her shoulder?) and the mature. I remember, when the film ended, I did not want it to end. I was feeling melancholic and a little sad that you could not be there as well. This film is like a dream you would wish you could dream every night.

There will be two reactions from the average movie viewer. You will either think this is garbage or you will think this is the highest expression of movie-making. I fall in the middle.

On the one hand, the concept and creation of this film is flawless. It is a Greek film by Nicos Koundourou, one of the greatest directors to come from Greece. It is the story of the discovery and pursuit of love in a nomadic community in 200 B. C. There is minimal dialogue in the movie. With the minimal dialogue you will find yourself emotionally invested on the individual lives of the main characters. Dialogue, indeed, is not needed. The story is told through the movement of the actors. This is a very visual film. All one needs to do is look at the action and body language of the actors and you will know what is going on. In some ways this movie can be described as a limited silent movie. Moreover, Koundourou employed many non-actors in Young Aphrodite; many were actual shepards in real life. However, this did nothing to take away from the finished product. This alone gives an air of authenticity to the movie. Many parts of this movie are striking and compelling. A very unique movie experience.

On the other hand, the movie suffers in very accurately and laboriously depicting what everyday life is like for shepards suffering through a drought. As a result, a good part of the movie will show the tedium and boredom of a shepard's life intersperse between incidents of real action. Most will probably look at this tedium and dismiss the movie itself as boring. This is a mistake. This film is one of the best examples of an art-house film. Shot entirely on location, this can be viewed time after time and still be enjoyed.

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.