LIFE & CULTURE
XpatAthens
Friday, 13 July 2018 17:13
July Screenings - Athens Open Air Film Festival 2018
The beloved film-loving summer date, the Athens Open Air Film Festival, in collaboration with the City of Athens Cultural, Sport and Youth Organization, returns in its 8th edition with magical screenings from June to August. Special city corners, archaeological monuments, parks, squares, beaches and some of the most beautiful museums and sites in Athens transform into an open-air cinema with free entrance to the audience.
This article outlines all of the screenings for July so keep scrolling for full program info...
Wednesday, July 4th / French School at Athens
Three Colors: Blue (Trois Couleurs: Bleu, 1993) by Krzysztof Kieślowski
Screening in collaboration with the Plein Air Festival of the French Institute Julie’s husband Patrice – a famous music composer – and their little daughter, Anna, die in a car crush. Faced with this immense loss, she tries to make a new start and chooses loneliness. No matter the cost. Even if it means sacrificing her great love for music. When a music critic suspects she is behind her husband’s scores, Julie denies any part of the past that might threaten her newly found freedom. Julie’s return to life becomes in the hands of the great Polish director a cinema tale which gradually incarnates the grief of loneliness into a divine praise for love.
Starring: Juliette Binoche, Benoît Régent, Emmanuelle Riva, Florence Pernel, Charlotte Véry
Duration: 98’
Starting Time: 21h30
Friday July 6th / Cine Riviera
This article outlines all of the screenings for July so keep scrolling for full program info...
Wednesday, July 4th / French School at Athens
Three Colors: Blue (Trois Couleurs: Bleu, 1993) by Krzysztof Kieślowski
Screening in collaboration with the Plein Air Festival of the French Institute Julie’s husband Patrice – a famous music composer – and their little daughter, Anna, die in a car crush. Faced with this immense loss, she tries to make a new start and chooses loneliness. No matter the cost. Even if it means sacrificing her great love for music. When a music critic suspects she is behind her husband’s scores, Julie denies any part of the past that might threaten her newly found freedom. Julie’s return to life becomes in the hands of the great Polish director a cinema tale which gradually incarnates the grief of loneliness into a divine praise for love.
Starring: Juliette Binoche, Benoît Régent, Emmanuelle Riva, Florence Pernel, Charlotte Véry
Duration: 98’
Starting Time: 21h30
Friday July 6th / Cine Riviera
The Sleeping Car Murders (Compartiment Tueurs, 1965) by Costas Gavras
On a night train from Marseilles to Paris, six passengers share the same cabin, but at the end of the journey one of them will be found dead in her bunk. The case is assigned to the Parisian police to solve, but the mystery grows bigger as the fellow passengers of the victim wind up, the one after the other, also dead.
Influenced by Jean Pierre Melville’s devout noir cinema and with a remarkable cast, Costas Gavras’ directorial debut enlivens in the big screen screen Sébastien Japrisot’s first mystery novel, a writer who would soon become renowned in the French crime fiction.
Starring: Yves Montand, Simone Signoret, Catherine Allégret, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Michel Piccoli
Duration: 95’
Starting Time: 21h30
Wednesday, July 11th / City of Athens Technopolis
The Royal Tenenbaums, 2001 by Wes Anderson
The «Royal Tenenbaums» is Wes Anderson’s best film. And that is because, on a rare occasion, the director’s flamboyant and fetishist stylizations serve a «down-to-earth» story and are used to offer a tender and affectionate touch to a whole gallery of eccentric characters, who by the end of the film have been humanized and have become extremely likable.
Starring: Gene Hackman, Anjelica Huston, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Stiller, Bill Murray, Luke Wilson
Duration: 110’
Starting Time: 21h30
Friday, July 13th / Petralona Park
The Haunting, 1963 by Robert Wise
Tribute «Classics Illustrated: Reading on the big screen» in collaboration with the British Council and the Athens & Epidaurus Festival. A lonely and sentimentally fragile woman accepts to become the fourth member of a research team which undertakes the task of investigating whether a gothic residence, which is burdened by supernatural stories from the past and morbid rumors, is indeed inhabited by ghosts. What follows is one of the ten best horror films in the history of film and its screening celebrates the 55 years from its first
release in the movie theaters.
Starring: Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, Richard Johnson, Russ Tamblyn, Fay Compton
Duration: 112’
Starting Time: 23h00
Saturday, July14th / Railway Carriage Theater To Treno sto Rouf
Weekend, 1967 by Jean-Luc Godard
Screening within the framework of the French National Day.
Through a nightmarish weekend that a completely alienated bourgeois couple has during its trip from Paris to the blood-painted roads of the French countryside, Godard spreads the defeat and collapse of western civilization into a politically charged, poisonously funny, incessantly teasing and revealing landscape of chaos and fear, which consecutively plays with the conventions of the cinema medium, the audience’s tolerance and its own self. With the impact of an artistic grenade and the force of an angry manifesto, Godard’s toxic masterpiece breaks the rules and the taboos like a road roller, it contains snapshots of remarkable virtuosity (like the extensive long shot-achievement in the view of a congestion) and causes shock up until today, testing the tenacity of those who believe they have seen everything in cinema.
Starring: Mireille Darc, Jean Yanne, Jean-Pierre Kalfon, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Anne Wiazemsky
Duration: 105’
Starting Time: 21h30
Monday, July 16th / 260 Peiraios
Surprise - Film
In collaboration with the Athens & Epidaurus Film Festival.
With the memories of its adventurous premiere in the movie theaters being still fresh, the most discussed in our country creation of the last three decades, is screened again for the first time after 30 years, without censorship. Do not miss the one and only opportunity to watch it (or re-watch it) in the big screen.
Duration: 164’
Starting Time: 21h30
Wedsday, July 18th / National Archaeological Museum
The Remains of the Day, 1993 by James Ivory
Tribute «Classics Illustrated: Reading on the big screen» in collaboration with the British Council and the Athens & Epidaurus Festival. By masterfully transferring on to the big screen the awarded novel of the Japanese origin (and holder of a Nobel Prize in Literature) Kazuo Ishiguro, the director of the films «A Room with a View» and «Howards End» managed to be nominated for 8 Oscar awards. A masterpiece of screenplay adaptation, classical filmmaking, outstanding performances and exceptional aesthetic quality, Ivory’s film converts into a unique drama the story of a disciplined and exemplary butler who backtracks his life, at an advanced age, when he realises that he has sacrificed any personal desire and happiness of his in the name of duty.
Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson, James Fox, Hugh Grant, Christopher Reeve
Duration: 134’
Starting Time: 21h30
Wednesday, July 25th / Lycabettus Theater Courtyard
Fight Club, 1999 by David Fincher
The paradox story of a repressed man who is looking for a way out in his life and finds it in the illegal (and progressively all the more indecent) actions of a secret fight club. As the 90s were coming to an end this provocative film appeared out of a big Hollywood studio and was meant to become an object of adoration, hatred, zealotry and meticulous study. «Fight Club» constituted the electrical self- psychoanalysis of the socially castrated Gen-X-er who saw the revolution he always dreamed of for himself, taking place as a figment of his imagination. Starring: Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, Helena Bonham Carter, Meat Loaf, Jared Leto
Duration: 139’
Starting Time: 21h30
Friday, July 27th / Agios Kosmas Beach
Boogie Nights, 1997 by Paul Thomas Anderson
A young Californian finds the family he was always looking for in a porn films production house. In it he is re-baptized as Dirk Diggler and starts his meteorite course as one of the «biggest» stars in the field. The more abrupt, however, the rise, the more painful the fall and the landing in the conservative U.S. of the 80s. Taking advantage of a restless camera and an unbeatable cast, Anderson widely opens the doors to the backstage of the porn industry. Behind it he discovers a parallel world of idealists who are fighting to keep their moral values intact faced with a suffocating reality.
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Julianne Moore, Burt Reynolds, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Heather Graham, John C. Reilly
Duration: 155’
Starting Time: 21h30
On a night train from Marseilles to Paris, six passengers share the same cabin, but at the end of the journey one of them will be found dead in her bunk. The case is assigned to the Parisian police to solve, but the mystery grows bigger as the fellow passengers of the victim wind up, the one after the other, also dead.
Influenced by Jean Pierre Melville’s devout noir cinema and with a remarkable cast, Costas Gavras’ directorial debut enlivens in the big screen screen Sébastien Japrisot’s first mystery novel, a writer who would soon become renowned in the French crime fiction.
Starring: Yves Montand, Simone Signoret, Catherine Allégret, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Michel Piccoli
Duration: 95’
Starting Time: 21h30
Wednesday, July 11th / City of Athens Technopolis
The Royal Tenenbaums, 2001 by Wes Anderson
The «Royal Tenenbaums» is Wes Anderson’s best film. And that is because, on a rare occasion, the director’s flamboyant and fetishist stylizations serve a «down-to-earth» story and are used to offer a tender and affectionate touch to a whole gallery of eccentric characters, who by the end of the film have been humanized and have become extremely likable.
Starring: Gene Hackman, Anjelica Huston, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ben Stiller, Bill Murray, Luke Wilson
Duration: 110’
Starting Time: 21h30
Friday, July 13th / Petralona Park
The Haunting, 1963 by Robert Wise
Tribute «Classics Illustrated: Reading on the big screen» in collaboration with the British Council and the Athens & Epidaurus Festival. A lonely and sentimentally fragile woman accepts to become the fourth member of a research team which undertakes the task of investigating whether a gothic residence, which is burdened by supernatural stories from the past and morbid rumors, is indeed inhabited by ghosts. What follows is one of the ten best horror films in the history of film and its screening celebrates the 55 years from its first
release in the movie theaters.
Starring: Julie Harris, Claire Bloom, Richard Johnson, Russ Tamblyn, Fay Compton
Duration: 112’
Starting Time: 23h00
Saturday, July14th / Railway Carriage Theater To Treno sto Rouf
Weekend, 1967 by Jean-Luc Godard
Screening within the framework of the French National Day.
Through a nightmarish weekend that a completely alienated bourgeois couple has during its trip from Paris to the blood-painted roads of the French countryside, Godard spreads the defeat and collapse of western civilization into a politically charged, poisonously funny, incessantly teasing and revealing landscape of chaos and fear, which consecutively plays with the conventions of the cinema medium, the audience’s tolerance and its own self. With the impact of an artistic grenade and the force of an angry manifesto, Godard’s toxic masterpiece breaks the rules and the taboos like a road roller, it contains snapshots of remarkable virtuosity (like the extensive long shot-achievement in the view of a congestion) and causes shock up until today, testing the tenacity of those who believe they have seen everything in cinema.
Starring: Mireille Darc, Jean Yanne, Jean-Pierre Kalfon, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Anne Wiazemsky
Duration: 105’
Starting Time: 21h30
Monday, July 16th / 260 Peiraios
Surprise - Film
In collaboration with the Athens & Epidaurus Film Festival.
With the memories of its adventurous premiere in the movie theaters being still fresh, the most discussed in our country creation of the last three decades, is screened again for the first time after 30 years, without censorship. Do not miss the one and only opportunity to watch it (or re-watch it) in the big screen.
Duration: 164’
Starting Time: 21h30
Wedsday, July 18th / National Archaeological Museum
The Remains of the Day, 1993 by James Ivory
Tribute «Classics Illustrated: Reading on the big screen» in collaboration with the British Council and the Athens & Epidaurus Festival. By masterfully transferring on to the big screen the awarded novel of the Japanese origin (and holder of a Nobel Prize in Literature) Kazuo Ishiguro, the director of the films «A Room with a View» and «Howards End» managed to be nominated for 8 Oscar awards. A masterpiece of screenplay adaptation, classical filmmaking, outstanding performances and exceptional aesthetic quality, Ivory’s film converts into a unique drama the story of a disciplined and exemplary butler who backtracks his life, at an advanced age, when he realises that he has sacrificed any personal desire and happiness of his in the name of duty.
Starring: Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson, James Fox, Hugh Grant, Christopher Reeve
Duration: 134’
Starting Time: 21h30
Wednesday, July 25th / Lycabettus Theater Courtyard
Fight Club, 1999 by David Fincher
The paradox story of a repressed man who is looking for a way out in his life and finds it in the illegal (and progressively all the more indecent) actions of a secret fight club. As the 90s were coming to an end this provocative film appeared out of a big Hollywood studio and was meant to become an object of adoration, hatred, zealotry and meticulous study. «Fight Club» constituted the electrical self- psychoanalysis of the socially castrated Gen-X-er who saw the revolution he always dreamed of for himself, taking place as a figment of his imagination. Starring: Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, Helena Bonham Carter, Meat Loaf, Jared Leto
Duration: 139’
Starting Time: 21h30
Friday, July 27th / Agios Kosmas Beach
Boogie Nights, 1997 by Paul Thomas Anderson
A young Californian finds the family he was always looking for in a porn films production house. In it he is re-baptized as Dirk Diggler and starts his meteorite course as one of the «biggest» stars in the field. The more abrupt, however, the rise, the more painful the fall and the landing in the conservative U.S. of the 80s. Taking advantage of a restless camera and an unbeatable cast, Anderson widely opens the doors to the backstage of the porn industry. Behind it he discovers a parallel world of idealists who are fighting to keep their moral values intact faced with a suffocating reality.
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Julianne Moore, Burt Reynolds, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Heather Graham, John C. Reilly
Duration: 155’
Starting Time: 21h30
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Sunday, 17 June 2018 16:15
''Ergotaxio Loula Anagnostaki'' by Roula Pateraki
The Athens - Epidaurus Festival continues with a special tribute to the great Loula Anagnostaki.
A number of people, actors and musicians come together to create a world made up entirely from her 12 works, all through the eyes of those who saw her, met her or just imagined how she was.
In just two incredible plays, the public will have the chance to enjoy ''The White Performance'' in space B of Peiraeus, which will cover the works of Loula Anagnostaki as a standard psychoanalytic writing and ''The Red Performance'' in space E, which observes her work from a standard political writing point of view.
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Sunday, 17 June 2018 14:06
Acropolis Museum
Critically acclaimed as one of the best museums in the world and with a collection spanning over 1,500 years, the Acropolis Museum with its stunning architecture opened its doors in the summer of 2009. The museum provides visitors with a comprehensive image of the Acropolis and its finds within the comforts of a modern building.
Along with a panoramic view of the city, visitors can admire an extraordinary collection of artifacts dating back to Archaic Greece to the Roman times, especially the display of the Parthenon sculptures in the glass gallery of the museum.
The Acropolis Museum is one of the best things Athens has to offer, providing rich history, a mindblowing view and a refreshing dining area to the public.
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Sunday, 17 June 2018 13:46
Athens Conservatoire
The Athens Conservatoire has been serving the theater and music scene in Greece for almost 150 years. As a non-profit arts institution, it plays a significant role in the advancement of those studies among young people.
Internationally acclaimed artists have graced Conservatoire's Music and Drama Schools, either as students or members of the faculty, inlcuding Maria Callas, Gina Bachauer and Mikis Theodorakis.
It works as a major cultural center in the heart of Athens, participating in a variety of artistic events and projects, such as theatrical productions, music events, workshops and conferences.
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Sunday, 17 June 2018 00:36
Benizelos Mansion
The Benizelos Mansion has been recorded as one of the oldest houses in Athens. It belonged to Angelos Benizelos, born in 1490 and a student of an important philosopher of the time. At the time, he was elected as a represantative of the Greeks living in Venice and was also a teacher, just like his father.
The mansion was then a home to the daughter of Angelos Benizelos, Regoula Benizelou, who in the 16th century became a nun and died after the Turks tortured her for her Christian works.
Today the house stands as a place to visit and admire. Visitors can also enjoy events, such as theatrical plays, photography exhibits and classical music concerts.
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Sunday, 17 June 2018 00:05
Ancient Theatre Of Epidaurus
For several centuries, the theatre of Epidaurus has been home to the theatrical arts, offering audiences ancient drama plays and comedies, as well as performances of opera, dance and classical music.
Just two hours away from Athens, it receives thousands of tourists every year who can only admire the fantastic architecture of the theatre and its unbelievable acoustics.
In close vicinity to the ancient theatre of Epidaurus also lies the 'Little Theatre of Ancient Epidaurus.' The theatre was used for seven centuries, but was only discovered again in 1970 and excavation works have revived this little gem, where you can also enjoy events and film festivals!
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Saturday, 16 June 2018 15:28
EMST - National Museum Of Contemporary Art
The National Museum of Contemporary Art, also known as EMST, began its operation in 2000 and has since embarked on a great journey to preserve and present a rich collection of modern art pieces.
The museum is formed around nucleus works from Greek and foreign artists aiming to promote contemporary art in the country even more.
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Friday, 15 June 2018 23:58
National Archaeological Museum Of Athens
Athens is a city thriving with world famous museums and ancient sites, including the National Archaeological Museum. Located in the center of Athens, the museum is the largest archaeological museum in Greece and has devoted itself to the preservation and display of precious Greek art.
The museum facilitates over 11,000 exhibits that offer a panorama of Greek civilization, including a prehistoric collection dating back to the 6th millennium BC, ancient sculptures and many statues and precious figurines.
Whether a local or a tourist, it is considered vital that you pay this global point of interest a visit and take a journey through time, from prehistory to Late Antiquity!
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Friday, 15 June 2018 23:27
Peiraios 260
Peiraios 260 is an alternative cultural venue that is situated in a building complex in a former industrial area. The site is a contrast between old and modern and is the location for part of the Athens Festival, which offers a wide variety of events for a wide range of age groups.
From fascinating tributes and theater plays, to dance displays and film festivals, be sure to add Peiraios 260 to the list on your next night out!
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Friday, 15 June 2018 18:06
Odeon Of Herodes Atticus
The Odeon of Herodus Atticus goes as far back as 161 AD as a majestic stage, hosting plays and performances that would captivate the crowd in its spectacular ancient surroundings.
Sitting beneath the slopes of the Acropolis, this open-air theater was renovated in the 1950s in order to be able to facilitate the needs of the hundreds of events it offers every year, especially since it is the prime location for the Athens and Epidaurus Festival.
From classical music and Opera concerts, to famous Orchestras and ancient Greek theater plays, this magnificent venue covers all tastes!
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