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Focusing on the works of six major filmmakers active from just after WWII to the present day, with added consideration of many others, this book examines the development of cinema as an art form in the social and political contexts of Greece. Insights on gender in film, minority cinemas, stylistic richness and the representation of historical trauma are afforded by close readings of the work and life of such luminaries as Michael Cacoyannis, Nikos Koundouros, Yannis Dalianidis, Theo Angelopoulos, Antouanetta Angelidi, Yorgos Lanthimos, Athena-Rachel Tsangari and Costas Zapas. The book examines how directors visually transmute reality to represent unstable societies, disrupted collective memories and national identity.
List of contents
INTRODUCTION TO THE POST-WAR GREEK CINEMA 1945-2012
CHAPTER ONE
The Construction and Deconstruction of Cinematic Realism in Michael Cacoyannis’s Films
CHAPTER TWO
Nikos Koundouros and the cinema of anarchist realism
CHAPTER THREE
Yannis Dalianidis and the Cryptonymies of Visuality
CHAPTER FOUR
An introduction to the Ocular Poetics of Theo Angelopoulos
CHAPTER FIVE
The Feminine Gaze in Antoinetta Angelidi’s Cinema of Imaginative Cathedrals
CHAPTER SIX
The No-Wave Greek cinema of Transgression
OPTIMISTIC EPILOGUE
About the author
Vrasidas Karalis is Associate Professor in Modern Greek Studies at the University of Sydney, Australia. He has published extensively on Greek culture, history and art. He is the editor of the Journal of Modern Greek Studies (Australia and New Zealand). In the area of film studies he has published on Theo Angelopoulos, Sergei Eisenstein and Alfred Hitchcock.
Summary
The history of Greek cinema post-1945 is best understood through the stories of its most internationally celebrated and influential directors. Focusing on the works of six major filmmakers active from just after WWII to the present day, with added consideration of many others, this book examines the development of cinema as an art form in the social and political contexts of Greece. Insights on gender in film, minority cinemas, stylistic richness and the representation of historical trauma are afforded by close readings of the work and life of such luminaries as Michael Cacoyannis, Nikos Koundouros, Yannis Dalianidis, Theo Angelopoulos, Antouanetta Angelidi, Yorgos Lanthimos, Athena-Rachel Tsangari and Costas Zapas. Throughout, the book examines how directors visually transmute reality to represent unstable societies, disrupted collective memories and national identity.
Foreword
The history of Greek cinema post-1945 is best understood through the stories of its most internationally celebrated and influential directors.
