Realism in Greek Cinema ─ From the Post-War Period to the Present

This book explores the development of post-1945 Greek cinema focusing on the work of some of its most influential and internationally known film-makers. After examining the foundational historical and stylistic questions of Greek cinematic tradition, it discusses the work of Michael Cacoyannis, the first director who brought Greek cinema to international repute with his famous films Stella, Electra, Zorba the Greek amongst others.

After him, the book presents for the first time in English the seminal work of Nikos Koundouros probably the most innovative and versatile film-maker of the country.

Together with them, Yannis Dalialidis was the most commercially successful and prolific director of the Golden Age of Greek cinema during the sixties. His underestimated work is discussed with special emphasis on films made between 1965 and 1975.

Any discussion of Greek cinema would have been incomplete without mentioning the work of its most celebrated auteur Theo Angelopoulos. The analysis gives foregrounds his use of colour, mise-en-scene and continuity from his early political films to his later incomplete projects.

After him, the book explores the diversity of cinematic styles that thrived in the country especially during the seventies. The work of Antouanetta Angelidi gives the opportunity to study women's cinema and the local tradition of experimental or poetic film-makers.

Finally, the book explores contemporary Greek film-makers, in an era when the Greek society is experiencing one of its greatest crises. The films of Constantine Giannaris, Yorgos Lanthimos, Athena Rachel Tsangari, Yannis Koutras and Costas Zapas are discussed giving a broad picture of the diversity of creative responses to the crisis and the visual orientations of the medium.

Associate Professor, Department of Modern Greek Studies, University of Sydney, Australia. Previous books include Petros Vlastos: Works, Martin Heidegger and the Aesthetics of Living.