Auteurs of cinema
Last year’s estimations that filmmakers Theodoros Angelopoulos – and his large-scale production «The Weeping Meadow» (a collaboration between Greece, France and Italy) – and Pantelis Voulgaris with «Brides» would monopolize the Greek film scene in 2004 proved to be correct. «Brides» shot to the top at the box office from the very beginning and has sold over 650,000 tickets to date, while audience interest remains keen, despite hesitant critics. «The Weeping Meadow» sold about 40,000 tickets in Greek cinemas last February but continues to be screened around the world, along with various tributes to Angelopoulos’s work and participation in international film festivals. The international press has published numerous articles about and interviews with Angelopoulos, who has also received the FIPRESCI (international film critics’ union) award recently; Voulgaris’s film received 10 national awards at November’s Thessaloniki Film Festival. The two filmmakers monopolized film interest for an entire year and, according to a foreign film critic who attended the Thessaloniki festival, «Angelopoulos and Voulgaris, whether one agrees or disagrees with them, know what cinema is.»
