Vasilis Fotopoulos
Art
Biography
Vasilis Photopoulos (Greek: Βασίλης Φωτόπουλος) (1934, Kalamata – 14 January 2007, Athens, Greece) was an influential Greek painter, film director, art director and set designer. He was an Academy Award winner for the film Zorba the Greek for art direction. Vasilis Photopoulos was born in Kalamata and studied painting at a very young age under Vangelis Drakos. He appeared for the first time on the Art scene as the stage designer for play "Servant Lady", in the Athens Opera House. He also worked for the National Greek Theatre, the Public Theatre of Northern Greece, and the Liberal Theatre. In 1966, he worked with Francis Ford Coppola in the film You're a Big Boy Now, which starred Geraldine Page, Rip Torn, Karen Black, Julie Harris and Elizabeth Hartman. He died in Athens in 2007, aged 72.
Known For
An uptight English writer traveling to Crete on a matter of business finds his life changed forever when he meets the gregarious Alexis Zorba.
Zorba the Greek
A young Anatolian Greek, entrusted with his family's fortune, loses it en route to Istanbul and dreams of going to America.
America America
Naive library clerk Bernard Chanticleer moves out of his parents’ home and into a chaotic city full of eccentric landlords, meddling parents, and romantic missteps. Infatuated with a glamorous but manipulative go-go dancer, he learns through heartbreak—and the kindness of a steadfast admirer—what growing up really means.
You're a Big Boy Now
Antonis and Marianna are in love and, although they are no longer young, they plan to get married. The only problem is how to break the news to their children, Elina and Giorgos, who are studying abroad. Elina sends a telegram saying that she will soon be returning to Greece, and Antonis and Marianna think they will make her like Marianna so that they can gradually tell her the truth. However, they do not know that she is returning with George...
Young and old in action...
The film approaches the work of the Greek artist Nikos Koniaris. The particular way in which the painter depicts human suffering is presented through a film - a hybrid of real recording and directed material. The grief, the sick body, is reflected in self portraits, portraits of dying strangers and paintings of dead models. The paintings, apart from his work, also express a different version of himself. All together contribute to the depiction of man as a "garment of pain".
Painting Pain
The third part of Euripides’ trilogy relates Orestes’ confrontation with the people of Argos after killing his mother Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus, and his struggle to defend himself and his heritage – with the support of his sister, Electra.
Orestes
Laura Truffaut shares her memories of her legendary filmmaker father.
Introducing My Father, François Truffaut
In this documentary, produced in 2019, director Miranda July and filmmaker Lena Dunham explore July’s beginnings, including her early work as a performer, the creation of her Joanie 4 Jackie project, and the development and production of her first feature film, ME AND YOU AND EVERYONE WE KNOW.
Miranda July: Where it Began
In this interview, shot by the Criterion Collection in 2018, Ron Briley, author of 'The Ambivalent Legacy of Elia Kazan: The Politics of the Post-HUAC Films', discusses the origins of the Lonesome Rhodes character in the biographies of populist celebrities such as Will Rogers and Arthur Godfrey. He also addresses the political implications of 'A Face in the Crowd' (1957) within the context of Kazan's career.
Ron Briley on 'A Face in the Crowd'
In this 2018 Criterion Collection program, screenwriter Jay Cocks and film critic Farran Smith Nehme discuss the adaptation for the film version of 'The Heiress' (1949) of the 1947 play by Ruth and Augustus Goetz, which was itself inspired by the 1880 Henry James novel 'Washington Square'.
Jay Cocks and Farran Smith Nehme on 'The Heiress'
'A Face in the Crowd' was Andy Griffith's first film role; he would go on to be most famous for his folksy portrayal of Sheriff Andy Taylor on television's The Andy Griffith Show. In this interview, filmed by the Criterion Collection in 2018, Griffith expert Evan Dalton Smith discusses the actor's difficulties with the role of Lonesome Rhodes and how it led to his career-defining television show.