The Rehearsal

As the resistance against the junta was gathering momentum, Jules Dassin and Melina Mercouri, exiled from Greece for a number of years, continued their anti-dictatorial campaign in Europe and America. Made in 1974, this impossible-to-categorize film essay on popular uprisings by Dassin depicts the rehearsals and the shooting of a film about the Athens Polytechnic uprising in 1973 and the torture of people who opposed the regime. Dassin combined documentary, re-enactment, Brechtian structure, prose, music, and his own thoughts and experiences in a film bursting with energy, pain, and hope. Theodorakis and Markopoulos performed their songs live, and Melina Mercouri read The Star Lantern from Odysseas Elytis’s poem To Axion Esti, while other artists read poetry, prisoners’ letters, and other documents, interspersed with newsreels and testimonials. The Rehearsal was completed just as the junta collapsed and never found theatrical release, forever remaining an artistic and political riddle.

---

Direction: Jules Dassin

Script: Jules Dassin

Cinematography: Alan Metzger

Editing: Suzanne Bauman

Sound: Bill Daly

Music: Mikis Theodorakis

Actors: Melina Mercouri, Mikis Theodorakis, Yannis Markopoulos, Renos Mandis, Stathis Giallelis, Robyn Goodman, Steve Inwood, Olympia Dukakis, Jerry Zafer, Yiannes Iordanidis, John Moratus, Dmitri Hadjis, John Randolph, Jerrold Ziman, Louis Zorich, Salem Ludwig, Steve Karp, Lou Tiano, Tom Eleopoulos, Phyllis MacBride, Aristedes Philip DuVal, Stephen Diacrussi, Giorgos Panousopoulos, Michael Hardstark, Michael Mullins, Sarah Cunningham, James Dukas, Greg Antonacci, Elena Karam, Brenda Currin, Vera Lockwo

Production: Nike Films

Producers: Melina Mercouri

Sets: Danny Quinn

Format: DCP

Color: B&W

Production Country: UK, Greece

Production Year: 1974

Duration: 88'

Contact: Hellenic Film Academy

Jules Dassin

Filmography

1944 The Canterville Ghost (fiction)
1948 The Naked City (fiction)
1950 Night and the City (fiction)
1955 Rififi (fiction)
1960 Never on Sunday (fiction)
1964 Topkapi (fiction)
1970 Promise at Dawn (fiction)
1974 The Rehearsal
1981 Circle of Two (fiction)