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The Hellenic Society Prometheas
Newsletter 16
December 2002
Prometheas’ Kafenio,
at St. George, Bethesda MD, Friday, November 8
Prometheas’second kafenio of the year took place at St.
George, Bethesda on November 8th and the feedback of the participants
suggests that it was a big success. Good music by Achilleas and Compania
created an environment everybody danced and had fun. The komboloi theme of the
kafenio was a good addition to a memorable evening.
Mark your calendars:
Marios Fragoulis and “Visions of Greece” on WETA (Channel 26) on Dec 5th
On Thursday, December 5, WETA (Channel 26) will air two
programs of interest to the Greek-American community. Greek singer Mario
Frangoulis will be at the WETA studios as special guest.
“MARIO FRANGOULIS: SOMETIMES I DREAM”,
WETA (Channel 26) - Thursday, December 5th at 8:00 pm.
Everything from a hard-rock anthem to an operatic aria -
Mario Frangoulis is the tenor for a new age. As a young boy he studied violin
and composed music and he later attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama
in London.
Taped on a hot summer night in Thessaloniki, Greece, “MARIO
FRANGOULIS: SOMETIMES I DREAM” features the tenor in concert, performing
passionately romantic songs that demonstrate the beauty, power and an incredibly
expressive range of his extraordinary voice.
“VISIONS OF GREECE”
Thursday, December 5, 2002 at 9:30 pm
Shot in high definition from a helicopter-mounted camera,
VISIONS OF GREECE showcases the mainland of Greece and the Greek islands from a
vantage point held only by the gods on Mount Olympus. The program airs on PBS as
part of the December 2002 pledge drive (check local listings).
VISIONS OF GREECE is a virtual postcard, vivid with a
palette of pure white-sand beaches, the essential blue of island coastlines and
church domes. The soundtrack of traditional and modern Greek music underscores a
poetic narrative that celebrates Greece's history and mythology. Lifting off
from Athens, viewers embark on a modern odyssey as varied and dramatic as Greek
history, exploring exotic islands scattered like stones in the Aegean Sea;
storied ruins; verdant hills; rocky coastlines; and timeless tradition.
Launched from the port of Piraeus, VISIONS OF GREECE sets
off island-hopping in the Aegean through the Cyclades - over Naxos, Santorini
and others in that circular cluster, circling over to Crete. Then back to the
Greek mainland, to Meteora, the inaccessible monasteries built into the
mountains and seem eternally suspended between heaven and earth. The
helicopter's flight path marks an itinerary to please world travelers,
historians and Greek-Americans alike. It soars around the mainland and islands
from Corfu to the Corinth Canal, from Mount Olympus to Mykonos, to Delphi,
Rhodes, Thessaloniki, and every glorious destination along the way, until the
Aegean beckons again for one last look.
Dr. Veremis at SAIS on Dec 5th
THE EMBASSY OF GREECE, Press Office and
THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
School of Advanced International Studies
European Studies Department
Invite you to a presentation
by
Dr. THANOS VEREMIS
Professor of Political History, Athens University
and
Karamanlis Professor of Greek and Balkan History,
Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy,
Tufts University
of his New Book
"GREECE: THE MODERN SEQUEL"
co-authored by Yiannis Koliopoulos, University of Thessaloniki
Thursday, December 5, 2002 at 6:00 p.m.
Introduction by Dr. Charles Gati, SAIS
at
The Rome Auditorium
Johns Hopkins University/SAIS
1619 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC
Reception will follow
THE EMERGENCE OF
MODERN GREEK PAINTING, 1830 -1930
from the Collection
of the Bank of Greece
September 30 -
December 3, 2002
FEDERAL RESERVE BUILDING - VISITORS'
CENTER
Nikolaos Gysis
Pallas, Athena, 1887
Konstantinos Parthenis
Athanasios Diakos,
1933-38
Theodoros Vryzakis,
Karaouli, 1854
Other News of Interest
Ancient Greeks Studied Infinity
Contrary to what scholars had thought, the ancient Greeks,
who invented mathematics, did explore the concept of infinity.
Mathematicians have long thought that the concept of
infinity wasn't studied in any detailed way until the Scientific Revolution.
But Reviel Netz, an assistant professor of classics at
Stanford University, recently examined an ancient text called the Archimedes
Palimpsest, which was authored by Archimedes and is currently housed at the
Walters Art Museum in Baltimore.
Netz and some colleagues were shocked to discover a
reference to a proof that Archimedes had worked on comparing two infinitely
large sets.
"We could hardly believe our eyes," Netz wrote in the Nov.
1 Science. "It has always been thought that modern mathematicians were the first
to be able to handle infinitely large sets."
-- Compiled from reports by Rob Stein
November 11, 2002
“Dark Odyssey” by Dan Georgakas
Perhaps the best film featuring Greek American characters
ever made has gone virtually unknown for more than four decades. That film is
Dark Odyssey
(l957), a labor of love by Bill Kyriakis, a child of Greek immigrants who grew
up in the then heavily Greek area of New York's Chelsea district. Kyriakis did
most of the writing of the film (aided by James Vlamos and Radley Metzger), and
he co-produced and co-directed with Metzger. His account of how Dark Odyssey was
made and its exhibition history is as harrowing as the fate of the film's tragic
hero.
Rather than a production of a major studio, Dark Odyssey was part of the
innovative independent film scene of the time. New cameras had made it possible
to shoot on location with natural light, making costly studio rentals
unnecessary. Much impressed by Italian neorealism and recent Hollywood fare such
as Jules Dassin's
The Naked City (1948) that used location shooting,
Kyriakis was determined to make an authentic film about the immigrant culture in
which he had been reared.
The plot revolves around Yianni (Athan Karras), a young Greek sailor who
illegally leaves his ship to find and slay the man whose sexual indiscretions
caused the death of Yianni's sister in Greece. During his efforts to locate the
man's apartment, Yianni encounters Niki Vassos (Jeanne Jerrems), a wholesome
Greek American who works at a waterfront diner. Not knowing the purpose of his
visit, Niki guides Yianni to Washington Heights, then a Greek enclave. Unable to
immediately confront his prey, Yianni visits the Vassos home.
Niki's parents, played brilliantly by Ariadne and Nicholas Zapnoukayas,
culturally connect with the sailor and are delighted at the bond that they see
developing between him and their daughter. Helen (Rosemary Torri), their other
daughter, is dating an American, a relationship the parents try to thwart. As
the film progresses, we see how the kind parents will eventually accept Helen's
suitor as worthy, but it is not certain that even Niki's love will deter Yianni
from his rendezvous with murder.
Two major components of the story are outstanding. The first deals with the
dynamics inside the Greek family. The parents are affectionate but very old
country, struggling hard to understand their American-born daughters. Although
Yianni becomes privy to certain of Niki and Helen's secrets, he generally shares
the attitudes of the parents. Particularly well done is a low-keyed family party
that features Greek dancing casually performed in the manner Greek Americans
have experienced in untold numbers of American living rooms. Capping that scene
is the most extraordinary Greek dance to appear in any American film.
Choreographed and performed by Karras, the dance physically expresses the
struggle between the budding love he feels and the abiding hate that has brought
him to America.
Just as fascinating are the film's outdoor locations, which give the film a
staying power that its melodramatic plot and some awkward scenes cannot. To this
day, Kyriakis remains awed by the generosity of strangers in granting him the
right to shoot on their property. A Greek ship owner allowed him to use a ship
docked in Brooklyn harbor for the opening scenes. A Greek diner owner allowed
him to shoot in his premises on a Sunday morning. The owners of a Greek
nightclub on Eighth Avenue allowed him to shoot several scenes, some involving
their paying customers and a belly dancer. A Washington Heights resident allowed
them to use a rooftop. A priest offered his church for a baptismal scene. And a
tugboat captain allowed his boat to be in sequences featuring the Hudson River
(the shooting was interrupted when the tug assisted in guiding the liner SS
United States out to sea). Still other scenes were set around the George
Washington Bridge. The result is a remarkable evocation of New York cityscapes
and sounds of the l950s.
The film took nearly five years to move from the first pages of a script to a
full-length feature film. All the actors donated their services, so shooting was
done only a few hours a week as the cast was available. Erratic cash flow
created other gaps at various stages of filmmaking. Once completed the film
faced new problems. Major distributors thought the film was too ethnic to reach
a mass audience. On the other hand, distributors dealing with the Greek market
felt it must be presented in the Greek language. Thus, the usual pattern of
Greek films being dubbed into English for American distribution was reversed.
Dark Odyssey opened at the Cameo Theater on 44th Street with the Greek language
version alternating with the English version. The New York Times hailed it as,
"Thoughtful, unpretentious and creative. . . . Messers Kyriakis and Metzger rate
a warm welcome to the movie fold." Despite similar praise from other American
dailies, there was minimal advertising and the film did poorly at the box
office. Later, it was shown at the Steinway Theater in Astoria, but again
without adequate advertising, the film failed to draw an audience. From that
time on, Dark Odyssey remained unseen and unknown. Only in 1999, thanks to First
Run Features did the film become available as a modestly priced video. On its
release in cassette format, the New York Daily News compared it to the work of
John Cassavetes and judged it, " . . . a thoroughly warm and enduring drama that
doubles as an evocative time capsule portrait of l950s Manhattan."
Although his film's voyage to a friendly shore took even longer than the fabled
voyage of Ulysses, Vasili Kyriakis never gave up on filmmaking, going on to a
long and fruitful career as a maker of documentaries. Co-director Metzger
garnered considerable notoriety for a series of erotic films that were financial
plums. Karras, after appearing on the Broadway stage, moved to Hollywood where
he became a fixture in the dance scene as a teacher and film consultant. Ariadne
and Nicholas Zapnoukayas continued to perform in Greek theatrical productions
until the demise of those acting venues in the l960s. Laurence Rosenthal who
wrote the film's compelling film score went on to Hollywood where he worked on
major motion pictures such as The Miracle Worker (Arthur Penn, 1962).
Made at the birth of a new American independent film movement, Dark Odyssey
offers considerable insights into who the Greeks in America were and how they
lived in post-World War II America. The film has begun to be shown at film
festivals and cultural events interested in understanding how the values of
Greek immigrants, their children, and Greek nationals both entwine and compete.
At the turn of the century, a film, which did not immediately find its seat at
the ethnic table, has been rediscovered and recognized as a precious family
heirloom.
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© Dan Georgakas 2000
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