ISSN: 2241-6692

BLOG - Gender

Music, dance and seduction in the tavern table

Being synonym for the tavern, the table in the Old Greek Cinema allows us to explore gender identities in mid-1960s. The table does not only decorate the tavern film set nor is it just the place for the food and drinks to be served; it also becomes a prop for the leading roles. The protagonists dance with the use of it or on it while the viewers/tavern customers sit at their tables and watch them like as if they are judges in a show. The way people act and behave around the table reveals important information about social relationships in Greece, as it will be explained in the following film analyses. ... More


There is no better way to explore Greek Cinema than looking into dinner and lunch times around tables in filmic representations. Taking into consideration that Greek Cinema flourished during the 1960s with the rise of the Old Greek Cinema, this article aims to investigate how people connected and evolved in relation to a piece of furniture, the table, during a period characterized by identity crisis, social and political instability, but, also, a developed cinematic phase. The table is used as a symbol for a better understanding of femininity, masculinity, gender relations, customs, values and traditions as well as a modernized lifestyle. Table rituals and food manners reveal the national traits of Greek society in this specific time period. ... More


Papakaliatis’s An…/ What If… (2012) belongs to a trend identified by Skopeteas (2005: 147) as ‘postmodernist mainstream Greek Cinema’, which involves the use of intertextual allusion (Skopeteas 2005: 129), while it is also characterized by nostalgia, identified by Tziovas (1993: 259) as one of the characteristics of Greek postmodernism. In What If… both these elements serve a conservative/reactionary ideological function, especially in the way gender relations, but also class and the Greek crisis are represented in Papakaliatis’s film. ... More