perseuso1's reviews

I really suffered with this film! I felt bleeding from my eyes! Why Sergio, seriously now, why? The whole idea of the film is that when you have given everything you had to offer to the westerns, you invent a new era. So, Sergio Leone remembers the Revolution of Mexico. And because he has used every rediculous idea with shooting in his previous films, he now finds... explosives! But, what western can it be, when you explode innocent people crossing by? So, the Revolution gave the context, that the exploded people may in the end be "not so good". Well, I think he failed even in that! I sympathized the victims, I hated Leone and his arrogant, amoralist protagonists!.. I didn't really manage to watch the whole film, to be true. But believe me, I watched more than I could stand. The scenery and the explosions look so fake. The miniature of the bridge is so obvious it is a model in scale. The visual effects are worse than those in the adult films of Gousgounis, if you know! Also, the film is even more amoralistic. The one protagonist is a bandit, ok, but also a crazy killer, who enjoys slaying innocent people. In the train, one guy begs him to spare him, "I have children", he says. The protagonist throws him off the train right away! Then he says the outrageous: "I have children too"!? The other protagonist is an Irish explosives expert. He enjoys doublecrossing his best friends! First, he doublecrossed IRA and his own counrty, and got found in Mexico as fugitive. Then he doublecrossed Mexicans, preparing robberies with the worst killers. Then he doublecrossed the killers, and then all from the beginning again! I wonder, what teaches us a film like this? To be a piece of crap?

The movie starts well: an island emergies on the border line between Greece and Turkey, and tension rises up. You expect to see something wonderful. But pretty much that is all! Nothing at all happens, you can sleep. We must mention here, that movies about conficts between Greece and Turkey on an Aegean island are very common lately. They most support Turkey saying nasty things against Greeks, presenting them as crazy Hitler's fans! Weird, if you imagine that these movies are made by Greeks and aim to the Greek public! They also usualy repeat the moto: "The Aegean belongs to the fish"! That is why I didn't go to watch this film in the sinema, and I watched it today on TV. So, this film is the most objective on the subject. It has some funny exaggerations, but is not a fanatic anti-Greek rabbish like the precenting films. It is more like a documentary. It shows the various types of Greek soldiers, that we all experienced during our national service. There is the fanatic who believes he can kill all Turks alone, the guy from Karditsa with the funny accent, the guy that is lazy and wants to just have a good time. Also the Chief, is as the most people who served many years: he drinks, is rude, lets his personal problems distract him from his obvious duty. Now the girls: are the weak part of the movie. There is no reason to be on the island, they act like idiots, they are just annoying! And the Chinese merchant too! Also the dream with Fureira (the singer) is rediculous! An insult to our intelligence! Unfortunatelly the film is the first 10 minutes, then it becomes very indiferent...

Kazantzakis is one of my favourite writers. I think I know him well, although he looks very ugly and scary in his photos. He really was a good Christian and nice person, despite the try of the Greek Church to present him as "satan". The film shows the real Kazantzakis, something that was not for granded before the movie came out. Something bad in the movie are the plans. They are all short, like focusing only on the person that speaks every time. This is I guess due to the modern environment, where the movie had to be shot. You cannot show modern cars, elektricity pillars, internet caffees, people taking selfies next to the actors, as the film is supposed to take place in 1920-30s. The quality of the actors: they are almost all excellent. Papaspiliopoulos (or how they call him) was good in Zitite Pseftis, but I couldn't imagine that he would be like 10 times better in this film! I cannot even believe what I just saw. Excellent in the role of the priest Stathis Psaltis. He was so calm, like there was an angel on earth. A few days after the shooting he truly became an angel (died). A strange thing, director Smaragdis gave a role to Moustakas, 2 days after the shooting Moustakas dies. For his next movie calls Psaltis, 2 days after the shooting Psaltis dies too! Stiv Douzos surprisingly is excellent playing the father of Kazantzakis. Of course Douzos is a bully in his real life, could play that easily, but still. Atheridis in the role of Zorbas was rather a caricature of Antony Quinn, I would play him as more Cretan, than international figure. The Cretan song he sings in the farewell may be a Medieval poem, but the melody was written by Xylouris many years after the death of Kazantzakis. The woman that plays Eleni Kazantzaki was for me a disappointment. In some cases she plays real bad. Also, I think Eleni was in fact 50 or 60 years younger than Nikos! In the movie she looks quite older than him, making a bad impression. The guy who plays Angelos Sikelianos gives a gay tone to the poet, thank God it didn't ruin the film. The film improves a lot the figure of Sikelianos, in reality he was a hater of the Christians, trying to revive the Paganism in Greece, and to recruit Kazantzakis for his cause. The film covers their real conversations deliberately! In overal it is a very good film, giving to the young people inspiration to become something better in their lives. Is not like the Hollywood rubbish!

There is widely believed that the Greek Cinema industry died in 1970, with the start of the Greek TV. Only a few good movies have come out since then, and this is one of them. The stars in this movie are of the biggest ever, Voutsas, Rizos, Krevvata, Voyiatzis, Xenidis. Also Papanika, starting her career, shows that was a huge talent, it's a pity that the Greek Cinema died just then and she didn't have the opportunity to show more. As for Giannis Voyiatzis, he is the actor, not the singer, who did huge career exactly the same period. Voyiatzis started as one of the worst Greek actors, playing an idiot persona, Mikes. At the end of his career got rid this persona and played serious roles, like this one. So, in this role, he really gives a seminar of exellent acting. The story of the movie goes like this: Two guys have relationships with two girls, who work as flight attentants. The airline company prohibits the marriage of the attentants, so they hide their relationships. But the manager of the company, Xenidis, is in love with Papanika, and this drives to a lot of funny incidents. Inside the movie you also hear comments about the role of man and woman in society. It was strange back then for the woman to work, and pay for her man's bills. Especially air-hostess, was believed the most super-modern job, and the fact that the man could sleep in a different continent than his wife gets commented as shocking.

This movie is the peak of the Greek cinema. It teaches to the whole world how a movie should be made. It has wonderful music and songs, excellent dialogues, sophisticated jokes, and a happy end, which we all want, don't we? A strong point of this movie is that it preserves the picture of the purity of the Greek society in early 1900s, a picture that had already started to disappear, and the makers of the film seem to know that. It is more a laographical- anthropological work than a movie.

All the actors are here in the best role of their career. Even the young Tzeni Karezi, in her first role! Avlonitis also became legendary for his performance as the old man with the golden heart. Fotopoulos plays the patient young man who follows Pavlaras just because he is too old to do it alone. Something that most people don't know is that Manos Hatzidakis wrote the music of this film, and I believe this is the best work in his life, too. "Garyfallo st' afti" (=carnation to the ear)remains until today one of the most popular Greek songs.

The film very soon had had a sequel, "Laterna, ftocheia kai garyfallo", as result of the unbelievable success it had.

It is remarkable that the common people in Greece like this movie more than the "I Kalpiki Lira", which was made with the purpose to become the best Greek movie of all seasons. Truly, in Laterna, ftocheia kai filotimo the philosophical and other ideas come out more naturally, are not "pushed to". I love this film. Is a part of my life.