*MINOR SPOILERS*
Dekapendavgoustos (August 15th) is probably the holiday awaited by most in Greece; cities are vacated while people resort to the countryside, escaping from the routine for a while. This movie (which I saw last night) features multiple stories about the experiences of several people the day before, on, and the day after August 15th. They are all inhabitants in the same apartment building and while they 're away on vacation, a burglar breaks in their apartments. The stories are shown in parallel and are knit together very cleverly. The camerawork is superb (there are only a few occasions where the camera is actually still) and is accompanied by tight editing, making the movie quick-paced, so that the viewer never feels bored.
The acting varies from hardly believable (in only one scene: the confession of the burglar to a girl - however, the actor's performance was excellent when he was mute :o) ) to excellent (Chilakis, Iatropoulos, Tzimou, and basically the rest of the cast) and even to stunning (Moutoussi, Kastani). Amalia Moutoussi was a very pleasant surprise (it actually took me more than half an hour to recognize her), not only on the grounds of her appearance, bur mainly because of her acting. What a performance! Kastani's performance also gave me goose-bumps in a couple of very well directed scenes. Generally there was good character development notwithstanding the number of characters involved.
I tried to find a deeper meaning to this film, because I think the director uses symbolism to express some ideas (it is not a coincidence that one of the most significant holidays in orthodox christianity was chosen as a time frame, nor is the frequent verbal use of Mary's name by the characters, nor even the ever-so-used scene of a girl washing some guy's feet), but the film on the whole hasn't grown on me yet, so I won't attempt to interpret the director's intentions. I have to say though that I loved the rainfall; it was put at the end of the movie, as if it was finally purging the characters' souls, washing away their pain, guilt, sorrow, or just giving them strength to move on.
Dekapendavgoustos is not flawless but very close to a masterpiece. One of the best movies I've ever seen.
almost 9
Dekapendavgoustos (August 15th) is probably the holiday awaited by most in Greece; cities are vacated while people resort to the countryside, escaping from the routine for a while. This movie (which I saw last night) features multiple stories about the experiences of several people the day before, on, and the day after August 15th. They are all inhabitants in the same apartment building and while they 're away on vacation, a burglar breaks in their apartments. The stories are shown in parallel and are knit together very cleverly. The camerawork is superb (there are only a few occasions where the camera is actually still) and is accompanied by tight editing, making the movie quick-paced, so that the viewer never feels bored.
The acting varies from hardly believable (in only one scene: the confession of the burglar to a girl - however, the actor's performance was excellent when he was mute :o) ) to excellent (Chilakis, Iatropoulos, Tzimou, and basically the rest of the cast) and even to stunning (Moutoussi, Kastani). Amalia Moutoussi was a very pleasant surprise (it actually took me more than half an hour to recognize her), not only on the grounds of her appearance, bur mainly because of her acting. What a performance! Kastani's performance also gave me goose-bumps in a couple of very well directed scenes. Generally there was good character development notwithstanding the number of characters involved.
I tried to find a deeper meaning to this film, because I think the director uses symbolism to express some ideas (it is not a coincidence that one of the most significant holidays in orthodox christianity was chosen as a time frame, nor is the frequent verbal use of Mary's name by the characters, nor even the ever-so-used scene of a girl washing some guy's feet), but the film on the whole hasn't grown on me yet, so I won't attempt to interpret the director's intentions. I have to say though that I loved the rainfall; it was put at the end of the movie, as if it was finally purging the characters' souls, washing away their pain, guilt, sorrow, or just giving them strength to move on.
Dekapendavgoustos is not flawless but very close to a masterpiece. One of the best movies I've ever seen.
almost 9