Greece in movies

Never on Sunday

Directed by : Jules Dassin
Starring: Melina Merkouri , Jules Dassin ,Giorgos Foundas
An american scholar Homer (Jules Dassin) meets Ilya (Melina Merkouri) a prostitute that lives at the port of Pireas.Homer is infactuated  by her and wants to improve by her setting in a path of morality.
The film presents the greek culture , music , dance and language.The music was composed by Manos Hadjidakis and won the Academy Award for Best Song.Film was also nominated for the Academy Awards for, respectively,Best Actress in a Leading Role (Melina Mercouri), Best Costume Design,  Best Director (Jules Dassin) and Best Writing, Story and Screenplay as Written Directly for the Screen (Dassin). Mercouri won the award for Best Actress at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival.

 

Captain Corelli’s Mandolin

Captain Corellis Mandolin (2001)

Director : John Madden
Starring : Nicolas Cage, Penélope Cruz and John Hurt

When a fisherman leaves to fight with the Greek army during WWII, his fiancee falls in love with the local Italian commander. Filmed in the south of the island of Kefalonia.

Zorba the Greek

Zorba The Greek (1964)

Directed by : Mihalis Kakogiannis
Starring : Anthony Quinn, Alan Bates and Irene Papas

Writers : Nikos Kazantzakis (from the novel by), Mihalis Kakogiannis (screenplay)

An uptight English writer traveling to Crete for businesss finds his life
changed forever when he meets Alexis Zorba.

Mamma Mia!

Directed by: Phyllida Lloyd
Starring : Meryl Streep, Pierce Brosnan and Amanda Seyfried

The story of a bride-to-be trying to find her real father.Musical with hit songs by the popular ’70s group ABBA.Filmed Most of the filming was done on the small Greek island of Skopelos (during August/September 2007), and the seaside hamlet of Damouchari in thePelion area of Greece. On Skopelos, Kastani beach on the south west coast was the film’s main location site.The producers had built a beach bar and jetty along the beach, but removed them both when fiming ended.

 

Rebetiko

(1983)

Directed by: Costas Ferris
Starring : Sotiria Leonardou,Nikos Kalogeropoulos ,Michalis Maniatis

The story of a group of Rembetes, singers and musicians of the Greek equivalent to the blues, in the early decades of the 20th century,
seen through the eyes of a young female singer Marika (Sotiria Leonardou).

 

 

Summer Lovers

Summer Lovers (1982)

Directed/writen by :Randal Kleiser
Starring : Peter Gallagher, Daryl Hannah and Valérie Quennessen

A young American couple go to the Greek islands for the summer and are dazzled by the beauty and the uninhibited people surrounding them

Euripides: Electra

Electra  (1962)

Directed by : Mihalis Kakogiannis
Starring : Irene Papas, Giannis Fertis and Aleka Katselli

A powerful rendering of the tragedy of Elektra by Euripides.
The film begins with a summary treatment without dialogue of the action of the preceding play
in the trilogy, The Agamemnon, in which the wicked Queen Clytemnestra and her lover Aesgisthes murder her husband Agamemnon upon
his return from the Trojan War.

Apollo Goes on Holiday

Appolo goes on holiday (1968)

Directed by :George Skalenakis
Starring :Elena Nathanail, Thomas Fritsch and Athinodoros Prousalis

A young German prince on an official visit to Greece falls in love with a Greek tour guide (Elena Nathalail) but she does not know his true identity.The story sounds like a fairytale and is quite naive but the movie is enjoyable.The couple is wonderfull and  the music of Vaggelis Papathanasiou and Giannis Markopoulos excellent.You might recognise some of the sites he visits with the tour guide such as the ancient theater of Epidavros.