Description
Book SynopsisA filmic guidebook of the Greek capital, World Film Locations: Athens takes readers to film locations in the central historical district with excursions to the periphery of Athens – popular neighbourhoods, poor suburbs and slums often represented in postwar neorealist films – and then on to garden cities and upper class suburbs, especially those preferred by the auteurs of the 1970s. Of course, no Grecian vacation would be complete without a visit to the sea, and summer resorts, hotels and beaches near Athens are frequent backdrops for international productions. However, more recent economic strife has emptied city neighbourhoods, created urban violence and caused an increase in riots in the Mediterranean city, and representations of this on film are juxtaposed with images of the eternal and idyllic city. Featuring both Greek and foreign productions from various genres and historical periods, World Film Locations: Athens ultimately works to establish connections between the various aesthetics of dominant representations of Athens.
Trade Review'Reading the book World Film Locations: Athens feels like riding a hop-on hop-off bus through time and, of course, space…With the more recent films, the more familiar ones, you appreciate how your point of view shifts. If Athens is your city, you look at her anew. If it is not, the encounter seems enchanting. In any case, the result is the same: you instantly desire to stroll like a tourist amidst her wonders. Old cinema, new cinema, old Athens, new Athens – the rides are endless, by bus or not.'
-- Elena Christopoulou, Journal of Greek Film Studies
Table of ContentsMaps/Scenes
Scenes 1–8 – 1924–1956
Scenes 9–16 – 1956–1966
Scenes 17–24 – 1968–1984
Scenes 25–32 – 1982–2003
Scenes 33–39 – 2005–2010
Scenes 40–46 – 2011–2014
Essays
Athens: City of the Imagination – Anna Poupou & Eirini Sifaki
Open-air Cinemas in Post-war Athens – Dimitris Eleftheriotis
Athens is Burning – Dimitris Papanikolaou
Nikos Panayotopoulos's Athens: From Relic of Antiquity to Hipster Urban Refuge – Athena Kartalou
Controversies of Space in Popular Greek Cinema (1950–70): From the Courtyard to the Living Room – Angeliki Milonaki
Dirtopia and Its Urban Subcultures: Cinematic Athens in the Post-dictatorship Era – Afroditi Nikolaidou & Anna Poupou
Athens in the 1960s Greek Musical – Lydia Papadimitriou
