Alter Ego is a very glossy film with Hollywood pretensions, which may or may not be a good thing depending on your point of view. From its opening shots it is obvious this is not going to be an art house film. It is the story of a hugely popular Greek rock group of the film’s title and their life of sex and drugs, at least initially. It could be seen as a Hellenic Almost Famous rather than Spinal Tap. Of course being a Greek film it is all about emotions, as the long time friends start to tire of the dream they have been living. When a strike stops the group from flying to the opening concert of their European tour (coincidentally in Thessaloniki) they have to take a bus, forcing the band members to face certain realities they had been avoiding, especially Stefano the group’s frontman. This is further compounded by a dramatic turn of events after the concert that splits the band and sends Stefano into a spiral of depression that only the bus driver can save him. The three acts almost play out like three separate films, from pop video to road movie to romance with Stefano at the core of the story. Beautifully shot and well-acted it is difficult to say how much appeal it will have outside Greece. It is unashamedly commercial in its approach and the music is very much Euro-rock/pop which may put off the foreign language art house snobs which is a shame because it is an engaging film. It was produced by Village Roadshow (who were involved with The Matrix amongst many other films) and written and directed by Greek-born Nikolas Dimitropoulos, who studied filmmaking in London, where he was bought up. So who knows? I’m sure all parties would like to see it get wider distribution.
The second film was called Encarnation and is about an actress in her fifties who realises her days as a glamorous star are over and even the cosmetic enhancements aren’t helping. It is a bit sad when such people won’t age with grace and she faces this attitude when she returns to her home in the country for her niece’s fifteenth birthday. While one feels a certain amount of empathy for the character there is no real drama in the film to maintain the interest.
After these two films I succumbed to the Mediterranean tradition of a siesta, just to keep my energy up for another late night of film.
The evening started with the Golden Alexander Award being presented to John Malkovich. Festival director Despina Mouzaki started the evening by complimenting the actor-director, describing him as a mythical figure who is as simple as he is mysterious and added that the award was for all the enjoyment he has given in the roles he has played over the years. George Corraface then ‘awarded’ Malkovich with the Greek word for actor, explaining that it is made of two parts. The second part of the word means poet and creator and the first part refers to morality and attitude, finishing by saying, “I believe that the artist we are honouring tonight expresses these two notions in the best of ways”.
As soon as the award was over I slipped out of a side door so as to not see Being John Malkovich again (not that there is anything wrong with the film). Mouzaki and Corraface did the same thing and we found ourselves temporarily locked in a vestibule together, so I tool the opportunity to give them copies of the magazine, which they were immediately impressed with.
With a bit of time to pass until my next screening grabbed a bite to eat before heading to the cinema for a midnight screening of a Greek fantasy film, Giagonan, showing as part of the DigitalWave programme. I was amazed to see so many people waiting to get in for what looked like a low budget version of Conan the Barbarian. Admittedly there was a lot of long hair, beards and piercings so assume they were mostly students (Thessaloniki is a student city).
After a spirited introduction from the filmmaker which had the audience laughing and shouting (although I don’t have a clue what was being said) the movie got underway, and yes, it was a low budget Conan meets Xena. I’m not even going to try and explain the story, sufficient to say there were big swords, scantily clad women, magic, evil rulers, pirates (including one called Jack Psarrow) and a quest to save the world. It was badly acted with cheap special effects and costumes, shot on grainy DV with some dreadful lines of dialogue (at least in the subtitles, which were obviously written by someone not fluent in English) – and the audience loved it. They laughed and cajoled the whole way through it, which is just the spirit in which the director expected to be received. To be fair it was no worse than Monkey, apart from the quality of the video, and given that the director did just about everything on the film, including playing the lead role, it was truly in the spirit of indie digital filmmaking. He even shot scenes, guerrilla style, on the Great Wall of China, which is pretty heroic in itself. It may not win any awards (except possibly an audience one) but who cares when it was that much fun.
