1981-1990ExperimentalGreeceKostas Sfikas

Kostas Sfikas – Alligoria AKA Allegory (1986)

29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

SUMMARY
The film recalls various periods of Greece’s history. Sfikas studies and interprets the artistic movements of his time, influenced by eighties Post-Modernism. Starting in antiquity, he passes through the Byzantine and feudal eras and ends up in capitalism, without proposing this as a final end. Following the spire of this development, Sfikas resorts to poetic allegory. His cinematic oratorio, where angels are crushed in the abyss of civilizations, is something more than the transformation of a philosophical idea into a film; it becomes the very soul of the poet who wonders about its perpetual evolution.

EN
SYNOPSIS

Allegory purports to examine the fall of pagan culture and the rise of Christianity by moving the camera very slowly around a circular set filled with stationary actors supposedly forming an allegorical representation of Byzantine artwork. There is some good music to listen to as the camera completes its glacially slow rotations, and Greek cinema devotees may spot Yiannis Lambros among the human statues, but all but the most indulgent film students will probably want to give this experiment a pass.

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Kostas Sfikas (1927-2009) was born in Athens. He worked as an employee in the post office in his juvenile years. In 1961, he directs a short film and begins his adventure as a self-taught cinematographer. Seven years later, along with Stavros Tornes, he directs the short documentary, Theran Matins, bought later by MOMA in New York. Devoted to experimental cinema, Kostas Sfikas has filmed nine documentaries and fiction films. He also worked with Demos Theos, Theo Angelopoulos, Nikos Koundouros, Nikos Panayotopoulos and other greek film directors.

FR
A PROPOS DU FILM

Dans un décor circulaire clos, rappelant l\’art byzantin, des figures humaines immobiles évoquent la disparition du paganisme et la victoire du christianisme. Le tout accompagné de musique atonale (Ignacy Paderewski, Christou, Nono). Dans ce film, Kostas Sfikas évoque, en se fondant sur le mot « allégorie » remontant dans la langue grecque à l\’époque hellénistique, l\’évolution dialectique de la Grèce à travers le temps, de l\’Antiquité à l\’époque byzantine, puis aux années 1980.

A PROPOS DU CINEASTE
Kostas Sfikas commence à travailler comme commis des postes, en 1961. Cinéaste autodidacte, il débute avec le court métrage La maison du désir. En 1962, il tourne le documentaire Egainia, en 1963. Il participe au scénario de Les Petites Aphrodites (Mikres Aphrodites) et, en 1968, de Thiraikos Orthros, un film réalisé avec Stávros Tornés. De sa vision du matérialisme dialectique au cinéma résulte le film expérimental Modèle, en 1974, qui est un long plan-séquence sur Le Capital, de Karl Marx. Mitropoleis, en 1975, et Allégorie (Alligoría), en 1986, sont également inspirés du marxisme. Kostas Sfikas tourne ensuite Les oiseaux prophétiques pleins d\’inquiétude de Paul Klee (To profitiko pouli ton thlipseon tou Paul Klee), en 1995, et Promithefs enantiodromon, en 1998. À partir de 1976, il tourne plusieurs épisodes pour la série télévisée Paraskinio, comme Kata Markon evangelio (1979), To montaz tou Eisenstein (1983) ou Ο enigmatikos kyrios Ioulios Vern-Nemo – Alligoria II (1993). Kostas Sfikas est également acteur dans plusieurs films.

http://nitroflare.com/view/AB76A1FF1C53484/Sfikas%2C_Kostas_-_1981%2C_Allegory.mkv

Language(s):Greek
Subtitles:None (no needed)

One Comment

  1. Is this movie properly uploaded? It seems to be silent for the most part (exept the very end). But reports talk about a soundtrack of classic music and sound effects

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