Ta kokkina fanaria (1963) AKA The Red Lanterns

Great film, full of colorful performances and good music.

This movie is about a district in the port of Piraeus Greece where the legal brothels and Cabarets were there until late sixties.
It’s very realistic and well acted and received good reviews and some awards I believe it was also nominated for an Oscar for best foreign movie.

This is such a classic in Greece (not least for the spectacular soundtrack which was in fact the debut of one of the greatest modern Greek music composers) that it has since become a stereotype. This is unjust, as it is not a cliché-ridden melodrama, despite some melodramatic acting at parts which is due the theatrical origins of most of the cast. There are some of the greatest Greek actors of the era here, in fact, but their style will occasionally appear to a modern viewer as scenery-chewing. If this bothers you, just imagine you are sitting in an auditorium watching a live performance.

Because It pays to persevere. Far from being “dated” this film was in fact remarkably ahead of its time. It still poignant and impactful, and I like that it doesn’t feel compelled to spell everything out for the viewer like modern movies do. It allows the viewer to reflect and to appreciate subtext. For instance, notice that in the social pecking order of the club/brothel the foreign black sailor (implied to be American, but never pointed out explicitly) is tolerated and treated politely on the surface, but in reality ranks below even the prostitutes who will not accept him even as a paying customer. This in a country which was effectively an American protectorate at the time, when every lowly sailor from the Sixth Fleet were considered demigods in comparison with a country that had come out of a 10 year war (plus civil war) pretty much flattened. Every lonely sailor that is, apart from black ones. They will be treated carefully and politely – they ARE American after all – but not to the point of allowing them “to climb up on the bed” (as the Greek proverb would put it). This fact was occasionally commented upon in print (e.g. in Nikos’ Tsiforos’ hilarious and controversial collection of underworld tales like Ta Paidia Tis Piatsas, lit. The Boys From The Hood) but showing it to the mass audiences of the cinema was on another level. Few American movies at this time would have dared to play with themes of “interracial” sex (and they might have used the disgusting term “miscegenation” if they had), when Civil Rights were still being fought for but definitely not yet fit for mainstream cinema. Guess Who’s Coming For Dinner in fact came out 4 years later than this one. Another theme I noticed after rewatching this after many years is that all the main female characters have agency in their lives – whether they take it willingly like Eleni, or try to avoid it as much as possible like Marina. None of them is “saved” by a man – they have to stand on their own feet or perish. But it’s down to them. The movie is about the women above all.

This is a fine movie even almost seventy years later. At the time it must have felt amazingly modern and powerful. And did I mention the music?

Well done to the person who subtitled this. As another reviewer pointed out here, this is a very wordy movie and they had to make some hard choices in giving a free translation.