The Ogre of Athens — The Ogre of Athens(Blu Ray)
The Ogre of Athens is a 1957 crime drama from Greece directed by Nikos Koundouros (Young Aphrodites, 1922 and The River). The film stars Dinos Iliopoulos (The Wise Guy, Radio Moscow and Oi Kyries tis Avlis), Margarita Papageorgiou (Windfall in Athens, The Magic City and The Happy Beginning), Giannis Argyris (I Am Innocent, Dating Agency and Love and Blood), Thanasis Vengos (It’s A Mad, Mad Vengos, The Charlatan and Ulysses’ Gaze) and the enchanting Marika Lekaki in her only film role.
Shy, quiet Thomas (Iliopoulos) has never really found his place in the world. He is something of a loner, who longs for friends and a woman to love. One New Year's Eve, this all changes, as he falls victim to an episode of mistaken identity. Thomas is mistaken for the nefarious criminal mastermind, the Ogre. The change is profound; suddenly he is treated differently by everyone he meets, men show immense respect to him, while beautiful women begin to show an interest in him, both dancer Carmen (Papageorgiou) and her co-worker Roula (Lekaki) who ends up spending time with him. Meanwhile, local mob boss, Fatman (Argyris) wants Thomas, as “The Ogre” to plan his next heist. Eventually, Thomas is arrested by the police, who quickly realise they have the wrong man and set him free, meanwhile, the gang prepare for the heist, fully expecting him to escape and join them. What happens next, I will keep to myself for those not wishing to read spoilers.
Outwardly, The Ogre of Athens is an interesting take on the idea of mistaken identity. The power and status that comes to the shy and quiet Thomas just from being thought of as “The Ogre” is life-changing. He even starts to believe it himself to an extent; the change in his character when he is released from police custody is huge, he even tells Roula that he feels born again. However, there is also a deeper subtext about Greece itself and the civil war that ripped the country apart and caused deep division and a lack of trust among its citizens. That mistrust and paranoia can be felt right through this movie, and actually the film was critically panned when originally released and many Greeks hated the movie, probably because of its critical stance on Greek politics. It has since become known as one of the finest examples of Greek cinema and rightly so.
The movie itself is well written, with a great script by writer Iakovos Kabanellis, however, it is the performance of leading man, Dinos Iliopoulos which stands out. He is outstanding as Thomas, both as the shy, unassuming, gentle man who lives a peaceful, lonely existence and as the post-deception version who seems to grow in confidence before our eyes. The rest of the cast are good, with both female leads and Argyris as Fatman being worthy of mention.
The new Blu-ray from Radiance presents the movie in a nice HD transfer with an introduction from author Jonathan Franzen, as well as interviews with Christina Newland and Dimitris Papanikolaou.
Overall, this is an amazing film that deserves to be cherished and seen by more people, and thanks to Radiance, that is hopefully what will happen. If you enjoy a good noirish crime drama with music and dance (which works superbly well, to be fair) and a good Hitchcockian twist or two, then you will probably love this absolute gem of a movie. Thank you, Radiance for bringing this masterpiece into my life.