Vassilis Georgiadis is the Greek director who had the pleasure -shared by all Greeks- of seeing two of his films being nominated twice for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film (The Red Lanterns and Blood on the Land), as well as once for the Golden Globe Award (Girls in the Sun). He was also fortunate enough to see the theaters filled to capacity when his films were being shown, and television ratings climb whenever one of his series was on. Finally, he has gone down in the history of Greek cinema as the director who successfully attempted to innovate the genres of films produced in Greece, going as far as introducing elements from the epic and the western.
In 1956, he made his first film, Experts on the Football Field, about the daily life of soccer stars, in which he applies the teachings of Italian neorealism. His second feature, Karaghiozis (1958), is followed by two comedies, The Wandering Jews (1959) and Vacation in... Kolopetinitsa (1959). In the films Krystallo (1959), The Sacrifice (1961) and The Mother's Curse (1961), Georgiadis attempted to innovate the Greek "foustanella" genre (typically, love stories set in rural Greece during the 19th century), enriching it with elements from western films. By the time he films Rage (1962), he has mastered the narrative of film, the use of drama and psychology, the creation of atmosphere, the movement of individuals. The year 1962 also sees the release of the comedy Don't Fall in Love on Saturday.
But it was 1963 that marked the creation of his masterpiece, The Red Lanterns. Combining realism and poetry, Georgiadis immortalized the red-light district of Troumba through a tragedy. In Blood on the Land (1965), the creative intervention of the filmmaker on both time and place is definitive, almost poetic. Georgiadis let his artistic instinct lead him to the denouement, free of any historical co-ordinates.
Between The Red Lanterns and Blood on the Land, Georgiadis made Marriage Greek Style (1964). Here, in order for the marriage to assume an identity, it is naturalized Greek, and the ordeal begins, until it ends, happily ever after.
A year after the ambitious, by Greek standards, production of Blood on the Land, Georgiadis limited himself to more modest goals, which, as such, were realized without any losses to his reputation. The Seventh Day of Creation (1966), made in collaboration with Iakovos Kambanellis, is a simple, moderately commercial film, which is not to underestimate its importance, in that it practically exhausts the teachings of neorealism. Next came the romantic adventure Blind Date (1968), and the comedy The Bluff (1969). Girls in the Sun (1969) is one of the sweetest memories Greek cinema has to offer. It was followed by Love Forever (1970), the war adventure Hell in the Aegean (1970), the love story of That Summer, and the spy thriller Dubious Agent (1979).
Meanwhile, Georgiadis had also crossed over to television, where he created some of its most memorable hours.
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