Grigoris Grigoriou
Directing
Biography
Grigoris Grigoriou (1919–2005) was a Greek screenwriter and film director. Grigoriou was a Greek director. He was the son of the then well-known lawyer Michalis Grigoriou. He studied law and political science at the University of Athens, as well as foreign languages, took lessons in the theater department of the University Club but eventually became a self-taught director. During the German Occupation, he took part in the Battle of Crete, he was eventually captured by the Germans, escaped and then joined and fought through the lines of the EAM (National Liberation Front). From 1942 to 1949 he worked in the Legal Department of AETE (the predecessor of today's Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation). A film director since 1949 and theater since 1951. In 1948 he wrote the script and directed his first film The Red Cliff. His film Bitter Bread (1951) is considered a landmark for Greek cinema as the first neorealist Greek film in which he combined Italian neorealism with Greek reality criticizing the authorities. He stopped his film activity in 1971 with thirty feature films to his credit. Also, Grigoris Grigoriou directed many plays at the radio theater of the state radio, while from 1949 he was a co-founder of the Lykourgos Stavrakos Film School and from 1957 a professor of the Drama School. His presence in television was also intense with his direction in Immortal Love Stories and Kapodistrias as well as in a series of plays on ERT. The television series of the literary work Loxandra was a great success, as was the show Na i Efkairia, which contributed to the emergence of new artists. From 1984 to 1990 he presented and moderated the weekly show In the Area of Greek Cinema. He was the president of the Society of Greek Directors and, apart from the directing awards, he was also honored with an award from the Ministry of Culture. He spoke French and was a permanent resident of Ilioupoli, Athens. With his first wife Maria Papaleonardou, he had a child, the composer Michalis Grigoriou. He then married the actress Inta Hristinaki without having children and finally Eleni Tsimaratou in 1960 with whom he had two children, the musician Lefteris Grigoriou and the diving instructor-director Stelios Grigoriou.
Known For
Greek television series
Monday's Theater
Loxandra is a Greek mother and wife living the ordinary life of a well to-do Greek family in Constantinoupolis of the late 1800s-early 1900s, a world gone forever. Historical events intrude in the background -revolutions, palace coups, massacres, and the great upheavals of WW1 in which Greeks saw their wildest hopes fulfilled, then dashed: for a brief time Constantinoupolis itself was regained, then lost along with all Asia Minor. Through troubles great and small, Loxandra's simple optimism, belief in her Virgin Mary, and love of life carries her family past every difficulty - be it a sumptuous dinner for Easter or secretly giving away her savings to help persecuted Armenians. A representation of a time and place where all neighbors were friends, where they could cook in each other's kitchens or take shelter in each other's cellars.
Loxandra
A widow wants to remarry, but as often as he tries to flirt with younger women he faces the rivalry of his own son.
Yie mou... Yie mou...
A poor builder tries, with the help of his wife, to raise his three children. When he gets killed in an accident at the construction site, his oldest son undertakes the responsibility of providing for the family, facing all difficulties.
Bitter Bread
Andreas, nephew of the abbot of the Monastery of Dionysios, who died eight years previously, arrives at Agion Oros (Mount Athos) with a team of smugglers of antiquities, with the intention of stealing a gold cross set with precious gems, known as the Cross of Alexander the Great. He earns the trust of the meek and hospitable monks. However, a Jewish girl, Anna - whom, while still a baby during the war, her father had entrusted to the care of the hermit Vasileios - continues to pretend she is a young monk. She manages gradually to discover the entire scheme and acts to foil their plot.
Brother Anna
A young swindler steals the loot from her partner and hides it in a swamp.
Lust in the Swamps
A fickle and unfaithful husband, Antonis, tries to drive his rich wife crazy so that he can get his hands on her fortune, with the chauffeur and his lover as accomplices. In order to succeed, he fakes his own death, but fate, as usual, plays its own game. A game in which an old friend of his wife is also involved, a reporter on the police beat, Bekas, who is trying to solve a mystery in which strange phenomena come one right after the other, and doubts never seem to end.
Doubts
A dark atmosphere pervades this film in true noir fashion. So does the feeling that our principals are trapped. They fight their way against economic forces and their status in life, and love might conquer all.
Trouba '67
No description available.
The fate of the innocent
No description available.
Ο μεγάλος διχασμός
A deliberate injustice forces an orphaned music student to leave home, only to land a job as a pianist for an affluent woman's canaries. Now, it's time to turn the page. Can she find a bright future amid two hundred and one songbirds?
The 201 Canaries
Pantelis, a building contractor, is informed that the mother of his adopted daughter Julia has been released after many years in prison. He decides to speak to the girl about her mother's past and character. The story began in Aegina, where his partner Agis and he had undertaken the construction of a pier in the harbor. There they met her mother, orphan Roi, who worked at Jimmy's taverna. Agis fell passionately in love with her, but, due to other obligations, he had to leave the island and return to the capital, without knowing that Roi was already pregnant.
I Sinned for My Child
Tonis and Rena are loved, but their uncles have objections, as they are deadly competitors in the field of swimwear marketing. Rena's uncle promotes a modern swimsuit, while Toni's uncle is a fan of the classic line. The two young men decide to steal ..
Sharp as a Needle
Lighthouse keeper Captain Bochalis, whose wife abandoned him years ago, lives in a remote lighthouse with his daughter, Chrysa. One day, they find a man in the shore under the lighthouse.
Storm at the Lighthouse
Ioannina, in the beginning of the 19th century. The whole Greece is under Turks. Ioannina is governed by the fierce and vulgar Ali Pasas. Ali’s eldest son, Muchtar, falls in love with a young Greek widow, Frosyni. The problem is, he’s married to the vindictive and cruel Chanife. And the muslim penalty for having an affair with a married man is death…
The Lake of Sighs
An only child of poor farmers goes to Athens to study medicine. He meets and falls in love with an orphan girl who aspires to become a singer. The young man's father and the girl's aunt, with whom she lives, oppose their relationship. Eventually, the two go to live in a boarding house with their newborn child. They live in poverty and hardship because the young man is an unknown doctor. They quarrel, but they make up and go to live in the doctor's village, now happy.
The Big Streets
An unorganized and spoiled guy, Telis Partalis, who is only cut off for his amusement, is squandering all of his father's possessions in feasts and cartogangers. His sister, Ellie, a tasty girl and a serious lawyer, as well as Julie's rich aunt, do their utmost to avert this situation but telis is not at all aware of his own misery. His aunt is forcing him to get engaged to the wealthy Nana, who in turn is a fanatic of the spree and has the ability to bail him out of debt. They once realize that Telis has fallen to the clutches of the deft who, led by the impostor Stelios, want to take away even the factory he has inherited. Then they all buckle together, even his sister and Nana, so they take down the bad guys. The factory survives, the hero's mind is somewhat "coagulates" and the love that arises between dues and nanas seals the happy ending.
That Something... Else!
Spring 1941. A group of soldiers under the command of Lieutenant Alexis Komninou, protects the border at Fort Rupel and prepares to accept the German attack. The officer together with the soldier Kosmas Georgiou undertake a spying mission of the German forces in Bulgaria.
Los heroes del patibulo
A struggling trio of artists has a chance encounter with a sad industrialist, and decide to undertake three challenging tasks to make him happy. Each day is a new one. So, good morning, Athens, and good morning new life. Will they succeed?
Goodmorning Athens
A scientist, inventor of the "ray of life", is found murdered. The perpetrators are Arachne and the inventor's former assistant, Mona. However, the two naive servants of the deceased took the blueprints of his invention with them when they left: Kokkovios and Sparos. Arachne and her gang constantly set traps to extract the coveted paper from the two fools.