Giannis Kondoulis

Giannis Kondoulis

1920-01-01
61 (1981-01-01)

N/A

Most Known for...

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Babylonia 1970 (4.3)

In 1827, at an inn in Nafplio, the capital of the newly established Greek state, a group of people from different parts of Greece are celebrating the defeat of the Turkish fleet in Navarino. However, in their patriotic fervor they drink too much, and a hot-tempered Arvanite, not understanding the dialect of a Cretan and thinking he has insulted him, injures him with a pistol. Police Inspector Dionysios Fantes from the Ionian Islands arrives at the scene to interrogate the witnesses but he too can't understand their various dialects as they can't understand his.
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The Roundup 1965 (6.6)

One of filmmaker and expatriate writer Adonis Kyrou's best-known quotes translates roughly as "I urge you: Learn to look at 'bad' films, they are so often sublime." The same could be said of Kyrou's own directorial work in Greece before the advent of the 1967 dictatorship forced him to flee to Paris. This confused mess, the first cinematic attempt at portraying the Greek resistance in WWII, caused quite a stink upon release, as much for its surprising style (recalling that of Bertolt Brecht) as for its subject matter. Reaction to its screening as part of the 1966 Cannes Film Festival's International Critic's Week was heated and divisive, proving Kyrou's later statement by rising above its own inherent silliness to achieve a sort of rarefied critical status. It's bad drama that nonetheless succeeds by dint of audacity more than quality (a comment which could apply equally to the work of many exploitation directors like Jean Rollin whom Kyrou later so lovingly profiled).
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Oh, If I Only Were a Man 1966 (5.1)

Frustrated and unemployed after being sexually harassed repeatedly, Stella decides to play the role of a guy, using the identity of her twin brother (who is living in Australia) hoping to get a job. She immediately wins the trust of her new employers and soon gets promoted to manager. The troubles begin when she falls in love with her boss' son.