Greek Film Festival opens in style

'Mar Ardento' impressed the crowds at the opening night gala of The 44th Thessaloniki Film Festival in Greece.

Nov 22 2004

The 44th Thessaloniki Film Festival got underway with a strong opening gala on Saturday, when festival director Michel Demopoulos - who's turned the Greek gig into one of the most adventurous and respected European festivals after the big three of Cannes, Berlin and Venice - kicked off proceedings with Alejandro Amenabar's 'Mar Adentro'.

It's based on the true story of a Galician sailor who, having broken his neck in a swimming accident and spent a quarter of a century immobile in bed, fought the Spanish courts in a lengthy and very controversial euthanasia case; the film benefits from a superb performance by Javier Bardem, already being tipped as a hot Oscar-contender after the movie's massive success in Spain.

It's hard to disagree with such patriotic optimism - the film, while exhibiting all the virtuoso technique one would expect from Amenabar, is fundamentally a very fine and very manipulative old-fashioned weepie.

The following night's gala also drew crowds to see Isabelle Huppert, who took time off from rehearsing for a production of 'Hedda Gabla' to come to Thessaloniki to be presented with a Golden Alexander for her career, before the world premiere of her movie 'Les Soeurs Fachées', the first feature by Alexandre LeClere.

It's a strong if slightly uneven serio-comic study of sibling tensions, but boasts yet another note-perfect performance by Huppert, who happily sat with the audience to watch the movie; fortunately it received a warm reception, though heaven knows what she made of the fairly widespread local custom of conversing at fairly normal volume in screenings - most frequently, of course, on a mobile.

The festival, which besides a strong international line-up, a survey of Balkan cinema, and a programme of recent Greek films, is also running tributes to Abbas Kiarostami, Victor Erice (an hommage selected especially by festival president Theo Angelopoulos), Kiyoshi Kurosawa, and the best of recent Argentinian cinema.

For a full report from the festival, see next week's Time Out London December 1-8. Issue No. 1789.