Attended by VIPs including the President and Prime Minister of Greece and Queen Sophia of Spain, the official Athens premiere of Iannis Smaragdis’ film “El Greco” took place at the Pallas Theatre a few days after the Greek premiere in Heraklion.
The film was seen by President Karolos Papoulias, Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis and his wife, Minister of State Thodoris Roussopoulos, Culture Minister Michalis Liapis and Aris Spiliotopoulos, as well as Queen Sophia of Spain and former French Culture Minister Jack Lang.
The film opens in 1566 in Chandax (modern Heraklion), where Domenikos Theotokopoulos (Nick Ashdon) is learning to paint. El Greco tries to reconcile his Cretan descent with the magnetism of Venetian culture. He travels to Italy to work in the studio of the great Renaissance artist Titian (Sotiris Moustakas). The film centres on the loves of the great artist and his friendship with Spanish Inquisitor Nino de Guevara (Juan Diego Botto), and El Greco’s struggle against institutions such as the Inquisition.
There was also an exhibition of props and costumes from the film in the Syntagma Metro Station. You could see costumes such as the red outfit of the Inquisitor de Guevara, the stunning dress worn by Francesca (Dimitra Matsouka), baggy Cretan trousers and velvet gowns. About 15 copies of El Greco paintings used in the film were also on display, along with the artist’s easels, brushes and paints.
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