Reviews
Oh Babylon (1989)
High on atmosphere, low on plot...
Costas Ferris was aiming pretty high after the success of Rembetiko. He came up with this blend of Ancient Greek drama and sleazy giallo in the style of Jesus Franco, as the best way to conquer the international markets. Unfortunately, Oh Babylon showed in Greek cinemas only for a week in an awful English dubbed version despite being shot in Greek. For about twenty years, with the exception of a Japanese video release, this film was impossible to find until its recent resurfacing on Youtube. Low on coherence and high on atmosphere, with a wonderful main actress, Sotiria Leonardou from Rembetiko, its not without its merits as long as you don't try to figure out what's it all about. With ample nudity and some not so successfully staged gore scenes, this film is recommended for fans of trashy European films in the vein of Vampyros Lesbos and Sadisterotica.
Tetarti 04:45 (2015)
A Greek film that wants to be a Hong Kong film. Better stick to the real thing!
The films of Johnny To are the template for this noble effort which despite the intentions of the director, misses the mark. Visually its OK, if not great, as the trailer suggests. The night scenes have some atmosphere even if there is a long way to go until they reach Wong Kar Wai levels. The problem is that Athens doesn't look good on film and this shows during the daytime scenes. My favorite depictions of Athens on film are still Spielberg's Munich and 70's giallo Death Steps In The Dark. While this film has some impressive visuals, it fails to achieve the classy look the director was striving for. It may had to do with budget reasons. But the biggest problem of the film is the script. There is not much of a story to justify the two hours running time and the performances are quite weak. It may have helped if the film was thirty or forty minutes shorter.The fact is, there are no surprises here. The viewer knows from the start how this is going to end. The build up is quite problematic and the way the secondary characters and plot elements are handled is pointless. The violence scenes are not handled very well either mostly due to the fact that they are buried under several stylistic elements which diminish the impact of the scene. Still if you are interested in modern Greek cinema, give this a shot. If nothing else the director has proved that one day he may be able to deliver a really interesting film.
Tungsten (2011)
Made in Athens...and it shows!
A film with a very ugly look which you can't blame entirely the director. Even without the cheap digital black and white photography this is how Athens looks like. So if you're looking for lush photography in the style of Dogtooth or Alps better skip this picture entirely. It seems the director really is interested in his characters but the film fails to pack a punch mostly due to his insistence to not push them to the limits. Of course there is a lot of swearing (as in most Greek films) which after the first five minutes becomes tiresome. The film's main metaphor-trying to equate human actions with electricity-is rather clumsy. Obviously these people have a lot of problems in their lives even without a power cut. What's the purpose of including this plot element if you're not going to use it as a gimmick to build up some tension? There is also some casual racism,which could have been used to generate some physical violence in the third act but nothing happens. Dialogues are quite generic, the script definitely needed a couple more drafts before filming started.