In Greece, movies still have intermissions

At first I was startled when, during a screening of Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet), halfway through the movie, the screen went dark and a blue “intermission” sign (in Greek and English) flashed as the house lights came up. This wasn’t that long of a film, was it? To tell truth it provided an opportunity to escape the screening. I’m here in Athens and attended Anatomy because I knew it was in three languages including English. I was a bit skeptical of just how much English would be spoken and hoped for subtitles accordingly. I had reason to be. Rather little, it turned out, and the subtitles were only in Greek. The film is also a court drama and I’m not turned on much by courtroom procedurals. But I used the handy intermission to escape, not after taking a few photos of this classic Euro theatre, which looked like it had the same signage since the 1950s. That’s one thing I like about Europe – the old cinemas haven’t closed, there are still plenty of them in the city centers and people of all ages attend. At Anatomy perhaps half the crowd was 60-plus…..While I walked out of Anatomy, the other night I attended May December, Todd Haynes’s latest take on ennui and mental illness and starring previous collaborator Julianne Moore. Moore as Gracie is a sex offender implicated in the seduction of a 17-year-old, some twenty years later and now husband Joe (Charles Melton). (The plot is roughly based on a true story, that of teacher Mary Kay Letourneau.) Just as she was in a previous Haynes’s film, Safe (1995) outwardly Moore’s character is upbeat and together but underneath seething is disassociation and trauma. Playing opposite is Natalie Portman, an actress, Elizabeth Berry, who wants to portray her story and is doing research. Why Gracie would allow such a thing is beyond me but the irony of her interrogating Berry on being an actress, as per the real Portman,

isn’t lost. The film, set in Savannah Ga., is visually filmed through a southern summer haze, and really doesn’t come to a conclusion about anything. But the theatre I saw it in, the Ideal, is Athens’ oldest, dating from 1921 and hosting the largest screen (top photo) in Greece. And did I mention there also was a 10 minute intermission, as the film was cut right in the middle of a scene (a car travelling along a highway)?…..And last night, I walked a few kilomtres along Leoforos (boulevard) Vasilissis Sofias, past the first modern-era Olympic stadium (1896), the city’s massive art museum, its giant concert hall, its under-renovation iconic Hilton, and yes, even the American Embassy, to see Napoleon (Ridley Scott). Now, Napoleon is almost three hours long. What did I think of it? The battle scenes are among the very best ever filmed, the period settings fantastic. As for Joaquin Phoenix as N? Well, let's say we'll just stick to the sweeping history.  And of course this theatre, the Athinaion (second photo), had an intermission. At first I thought these Greek cinema intermissions were a throwback and kind of bizarre. But then I got it. They provide the perfect opportunity for the audience to order another snack (the theatre makes money) and go to the restroom. In North America we would have to leave the film and miss part of the movie. These Europeans are smart!