Fonissa

Just watched Fonissa in all its glory on the big screen: Great picture and DoP. Costumes,scenery,ligh,props,all really well taken care of.

The acting as expected was top notch by the star Ms Karabeti,however due to the strange idiomatic 1800s Greek language the rest of the cast felt sub par to me,as expected once again: most actors in Greek movies perform like they are on a theatrical stage rather than on a movie. And they always use the excuse of "that's how we wanted it,it's more dramatic" Well,nope it's just annoying.

Same goes for the usual problem in 99% of Greek movies: LACK OF CURVES. Films need to have some curves of tension,change of pace,emotion,and have a climax. This one didn't. Same stuff happening to all the film same pace same angles until the last scene when it's ends so abrupt and you re like "ah ok" But in all,a decent movie and bravo to everyone,especially director and DoP and costumes.

Lets start with the basics. The same name novel is outstanding!!

A great thriller novel with ethographic (represents the ethic and customs of a society) elements of a poor agricultural society.

The novel explores the psyche of an old woman (Hadoula), who lived on the margins of society and suffered a lot from poverty and other people mostly from her mother. The old woman having existential thoughts, starts to "Psilonei o nous tis" that means to embrace madness. These thoughts and her insane believings lead her to become a serial killer of young girls.

On the other hand the movie has nothing to do with this. On the movie the society not only seems to know about Hadoula killing girls, but also invite her sometimes to kill their girls. There is no suspence, no existential dilemmas, only a sick corrupted society where all the problems comes from the evil slothful Men. And of course the film doesnt explore the psyche of a troubled woman who turns into serial killer, which is amazing on the book, reaching Dostoyevskys explorations of troubled people!!!

In few words the film has a dull and misleading atmosphere with no suspence and very slow plot. Without any deeper meanings and dilemmas.

I would like to see a different "spin" from the director on the classic "Fonissa" of Papadiamantis . Personally, I wanted a more modern approach and building of the main character of Kariofilia Karabeti. Karabeti on the role of Fonissa - the murderer- delivers perfectly and throughout the whole film building her psychological background and her opinion which is that when you kill a young woman you save her from world's cruelty. I would like some deeper profiling without the simplicity that is noticed on the film. I felt a rush on it but also getting a repetitive pattern . The main female actors on the film were absolute breathtaking especially in some scenes , but the directing of the film making it a horror version of the classic nouvelle, was just not that what was needed . The sense that something is missing was there , the social era was depicted and the film was saved by it's actors . Needed something extra to reach on top , and that couldn't come with ghosts but only maybe with the true horror of the eyes of a gifted artist such as Karabeti.

A pretentious boring film hyped by the local media as an artistic masterpiece!!! All we have instead are schematic characters, bad acting from all, even from the leading actress, lack of directing guidance to the actors, inferior sound design as it was often the case voices to sound dettached from the image context, questionable soundrack foreign to the spirit of the story and more keen to the spirit of Herzog's Nosferatu!!!

Angelopoulos 50 years earlier with his "Reconstitution" has so much more poignantly described and blended his story into its socially anthropological and geographhical context.

Modern Greek Cinema has so many better samples to offer in world viewers.

Nai men alla...

The story needed more work; as Georgousopoulos once told me when we were having coffee in Kolonaki, if a creator uses Papadiamantis' work they should respect the main structure, and then they may add whatever the heck they wish to add; if they don't, the plot starts to have problems.

I went to watch the movie hoping it would be a masterpiece. I think they did a good job but something was missing...

On the other hand I loved the level of production; them cloths; the scenery; the beautiful village; the actresses; Karampeti, in particular.

Maybe next time a creator makes a movie out of Fonissa they try to use Zoulias' work for "the women of Papadianantis".