NIKOS PANAYOTOPOULOS
Born in Mytilene (Lesbos Island) in 1941 and passed away in Athens in 2016. He studied film in Athens while working as an assistant director in Greek and international productions. From 1960 to 1973, he lived in Paris, where he studied at the Sorbonne. In 1974, he returned to Greece and directed his first film, The Colors of Iris, an instant classic of New Greek Cinema. He was one of the most originaL and prolific directors of the New Wave of Greek Cinema. Developing his personal style, blending various genres—from comedy to crime films and from musicals to road movies—he directed 13 more films. His work focused on the lives of people in contemporary Greece, their interpersonal relationships, cinema itself, and art in general. His cinematic vision was characterized by humor and tenderness, with strong doses of irony and sarcasm about the human condition.
During the beta version of Gr2me we will show only the first 6-8 minutes of a feature film. The entire movie will be available via VoD after the official launch of the site.
A film director, in existential and creative crisis, tries searches for the script for his new film.
CAST
Vangelis Germanos
Despina Geroulanou
Nikitas Tsakiroglou
Olia Lazaridou
CREDITS
DIRECTOR: Nikos Panayotopoulos
SCREENPLAY: Nikos Panayotopoulos,
CINEMATOGRAPHY: Aris Stavrou
EDITING: Costas Iordanidis
MUSIC: Sramatis Kraounakis
SETS: Dionysis Fotopoulos
COSTUMES: Marianna Spanoudaki
SOUND: Nikos Achladis
AWARDS
REVIEWS
Life and art progress through crisis. Every crisis opens a crack in normality and through that crack sometimes another reality blooms. A separation, the age crisis, creative crisis, existential crisis, love crisis.
“Variete,” this masterpiece by Nikos Panagiotopoulos, tells the stories of these crises with melancholic finesse, like the Chopin waltzes that accompany the entire film.
In a playful mood and without any attempt at seriousness, Panagiotopoulos places his hero, a director who is making a film while in a creative crisis, against the heroes he himself has created. They are also in a corresponding crisis, as separation redefines their entire life. Life asks and cinema answers. “With cinema, we try to surround life from all sides”, said Nikos Panagiotopoulos, “but life, superior of everything, always succeeds and escapes”.
Aggelos Frantzis – Filmmaker