[MGSA-L] ‘Notias’ tears the dust sheets off 1960s and 70s Athens

June Samaras june.samaras at gmail.com
Fri Jan 22 19:49:42 PST 2016


‘Notias’ tears the dust sheets off 1960s and 70s Athens

NIKOS VATOPOULOS

http://www.ekathimerini.com/205239/article/ekathimerini/life/notias-tears-the-dust-sheets-off-1960s-and-70s-athens

There is a void in the recounting of Greece’s recent history when it comes
to the period from the late 1960s to the early 80s, which for older
generations is still too fresh to discuss comfortably and for younger
Greeks is simply undiscovered. Athens and life in the capital during that
period – so misunderstood yet so simplified by the passage of time – is the
focus, or motif, of Tasos Boumetis’s latest film. It is about his own
experiences of that era, the director behind the acclaimed 2006 film “A
Touch of Spice” says.

It is rare for such a personal point of view to include an entire
generation, which possibly feels the need to take stock of its legacy.
Boulmetis claims that his film is not nostalgic.

“It goes a lot deeper than nostalgia, which is just a narrative tool
through which to tell the story I want,” says the director.

“Notias,” which opened at theaters last week, is both a coming-of-age tale
in the style of the literary bildungsroman, but also an exploration of
urban self-awareness.

“It is a film about handling loss,” says Boulmetis. The loss in question,
explains the director, is symbolized by the two girls the hero (played by
Giannis Niaros) is in love with, each representing a step toward his
political awakening. Athens is a stage where fantasies, desires and angst
are acted out, but beyond that it is also cast as a completely realistic
landscape that, like a guardian, takes a boy and turns him into a man.

“Notias” represents the first serious effort to recreate the atmosphere of
Athens in that period. For Greeks over the age of 50, it is more than a
nostalgic revival but, rather, a “mandatory” process of introspection. And
for the younger generation? The truth is that today’s 20-somethings know
very little – and that from their parents – about this period and its
atmosphere. “Many younger people who saw the film were astonished that, for
example, students held assemblies back then as well,” says Boulmetis.

“Back then” is a where lot of the tired and misshapen issues predominating
today started, but what seems to emerge strongly in “Notias” is a sense of
self-awareness and rebirth. On the canvas of a bygone Athens, the narrative
is like an escalator, retrogression on one side and self-awareness on the
other. It awakens an odd sensation for those of us who vividly remember
those years. Despite the deprivation and prevailing conservatism, we
believed we were living the “modern life,” and now it is strange to see
those years acquire the patina of the past and demand the filters of time
so that they take on more realistic and tangible proportions.

Boulmetis says that it was incredibly difficult to find spots in the city
that still look like they did 40 or 45 years ago. “The location scouting
was exhaustive and some spots were incredibly hard to find,” says the
director.

Technology was instrumental in recreating all kinds of details of the areas
in and around Omonia and Syntagma squares in the 1970s: the buildings, the
buses, trolley buses, cars, facades and commercial arcades.

One of the biggest projects was the complete redesign of the Pantazopoulou
Arcade, also known as the “Hollywood Stoa.” Dating from the 1950s, the
original form of the arcade within the big building at 69 Academias Street
near Kaningos Square – a solid modernist structure designed by architect
Ioannis Lygizos – was revealed through extensive cleaning and remodeling.
The building, a maze of corridors and office spaces, is associated with
Greek cinema’s golden era in the 1960s, and in “Notias” it is one of the
focal points of the action, a symbol and microcosm of reality.

For Boulmetis, the arcade, a hub of the then-newly emerging class of
shopkeepers, represents the birth and growth of Greece’s middle class, as
well as the huge changes that transformed society in the wake of World War
II.

The hero, Stavros, meanwhile, belongs to the much besmirched “Polytechnic
generation,” after the student uprising against the military junta in 1973.
This fact steeps the character in symbolism so that he represents not just
the zeitgeist of that era but also a type of person. The entire cast, in
fact, is well selected (by Sotiria Marini) and convincing, as are the
costumes (by Eva Nathena) and sets (Spyros Laskaris).

It is hard not to feel moved as this Athens comes alive before your eyes
and is revealed in a way that is both optimistic and extremely current.

-- 
June Samaras
2020 Old Station Rd
Streetsville,Ontario
Canada L5M 2V1
Tel : 905-542-1877
E-mail : june.samaras at gmail.com
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