Ellie Lambetti's performance in "A Girl in Black" is one of the greatest performances by an actress in all of cinema and yet hardly anyone has seen it. Michael Cacoyannis made this film for virtually nothing on the Greek island of Hydra after achieving international success with "Stella". It's a beautiful looking film, (the great Walter Lassally was the photographer), and the simple island setting suited the simplicity of the style perfectly. Early in the film one of the character says that everything is exposed by the light, even men's sins and that is the theme of the film.When two strangers arrive on the island their presence arouses passions among the locals that were always there but kept simmering just below the surface. Eleni Zafiriou is the widow who bestows her favours a little too freely, (the islanders are a very unforgiving lot), Lambetti is the daughter tainted by her sins, Anestis Vlachos is the son who is shamed by her, the better-known Greek actor Georges Foundas, (he was in "Never on Sunday"), is the fisherman who wants Lambetti and Dimitri Horn, the man from Athens, who gets her. It's a contemporary Greek tragedy on a small, but no less terrible, scale and it's heartbreaking. In America the film won the Golden Globe but it is seldom revived. See it at all costs.
“What is there to say?“Anything. About your life. Your dreams. You must have dreams.”“I’ve learnt not to.”“You’re too young to be so bitter. ““If we could live without fear. For a day. Just enough for a walk.” 2026 Watch Series: Around the World in 365 Days: Entry 324 (Greece 🇬🇷 Film #4)Before Mihalis Kakogiannis made Zorba the Greek, A Girl in Black (Το Κορίτσι με τα Μαύρα) struck upon the very same themes that he would address surrounding the character of Irene Papas’s widow. When our story begins, two visitors from Athens arrive on the island of Hydra. Visitors, who are not played by non-Greek actors like in Zorba the Greek. Rather, Dimitris Horn (Pavlov) and Notis Peryalis (Antonis) are full-blooded Greeks in a Greek story. One Kakogiannis fosters over time from their perspective as they discover what Hydra is about, and that of a girl in black, Marina (played by Elie Lambetti), who through no fault of her own nor her mother’s until hope arrives to sweep her off her feet. But Pavlov’s actions set off an explosive reaction in their small port town that has already been simmering for years. Gangs of leery-eyed males tailing Marina and refusing to leave her alone. Underhanded comments from average passersby. Marina and her mother (Eleni Zafiriou), who have already suffered from the loss of the former’s father and sister, cannot escape social disgrace in their home. Marina, herself, closes herself off from the world, encouraging others to stay away from her while secretly wishing for an escape.FROSO: “I’ve shamed my own children.”MARINA: “If only I could go away.”The weariness in the steps she takes in and out of shadow and her despairing gaze from her window puts even the coldest and most distant of viewers into what a woman’s circumstances are like in a ruthlessly patriarchal world. Widespread persecution from top to bottom of society where with every new threat comes another. Like the ‘hydra’ from which the island takes its name This is the status quo, one broken by Pavlov, who falls head over heels in love with Marina and vice versa. Peryalis and Horn are excellent screen partners, bouncing off of Lambetti, who is a sensation unto herself - an Aphrodite if ever there was one. An Anna Magnani - but whose spirit is clearly enlivened by their presence. It’s very hard to avoid making a film of its kind misery porn. But both Lambetti and Horn reject these terms, delivering roles that do exist in the 1950s style of cinema of tender romance, neorealist style filmmaking but simultaneously feels real and nuanced. Pavlov, especially cements his part in the narrative, acting as a window to another world for both himself and others around him. The child prodigy with a gift who now gives his gift to others. He truly sees something in Marina. What’s more Pavlov believes whole heartedly that everyone has sinned and that there is no reason to be afraid of what others think. PAVLOV: "They should mind their own business. I don't know about you but I've so many weaknesses I've given up judging others. Don't let me start counting them. Your hair will stand on end. Truly! I don't approve of me at all!"He feels emboldened to tangle with the gang. But there are consequences to good men doing good things, and the weight of Pavlov’s goodness comes crashing down upon him not once but twice.The scene where they surround him in the water is startlingly captured by cinematographer Walter Lassally, and it is crafted with highly focused editing, claustrophobic handheld shots. But it is nothing compared to the finale where they put their plans of vengeance into real action. Kids are in danger because the animosity the local gang nurses towards Pavlov has reached fever-pitch proportions. The scene of near death for Pavlov and disaster for the kids is filmed with a hectic camera as he hurries, fruitlessly, to scoop water out of the boat before telling them to jump. Soula stays in the boat and refuses to get out. Bawling. The moment is sustained with horrifying realism as we see kids sinking beneath the waves, the dead silence when the camera glides past the anxious women waiting for news from the rescue teams and the horrible keening of the mothers as they clamber over one another and wring their hands when the boats return. The moment we see here reminded me of a scene from Larisa Shepitko’s Ascent where the camera hovers on the faces of tired, exhausted and suffering war refugees in the forest. These are the faces of humans who’ve lives have been torn apart in an instant. However, while their suffering is totally understandable, I also took away from the sequence the cold truth that in the townspeople’s desire to find blame in another, particularly an outsider, it only further highlights the reality that very often, human beings would rather blame someone else than realize that they themselves are at fault. The silhouette of Marina walking astride the church before reaching the barren rocks, and eventually the thin and narrow walkway to the mountains is a true masterpiece of an image. One of the best silhouette shots I’ve ever laid my eyes on. It’s a moment that you feel may make or break her, but as we see a few minutes later, Marina finally develops the courage needed to face up to her fear and the men who have turned her life into a living nightmare. She berates the gang, and her brother, Mitso, stating, “I thought I was dealing with men.” They are no men. They are monsters. The men and the village alike. Monsters who have refused, as V. Lepistö writes, “to look into the mirror.” MARINA: “You destroyed lives for a laugh but I won’t let you destroy his.” MARINA: “I’ll go down to the port. I’ll shout so everyone will hear. You destroyed lives for a laugh but I won’t let you destroy his. Yes, I love him and I don’t care who knows. I love him and I want him to leave with an easy mind.”MARINA: “There is no shame in love. Shame is lying and being afraid.” How can one survive or measure up to the expectations society has of you in a city with foundations so old? Where walls have ears, your passage is passed by word of mouth… Kakogiannis’s camera makes good use of the island landscape, dramatizing it and breathing life into a labyrinth of cobblestone streets, stairs going up and up, citizens riding astride donkeys, unique architecture and nighttime exteriors. Where even a child seeing you in love can be dangerous. There is a song in this film that speaks to the moment and to how joined Pavlov and Marina have come. The singer sings of Thalassa (θάλασσα), which means sea and in this story, the sea took both Marina’s sister and the children who Pavlov tried desperately to save. But the sea also brought these two souls together. I find myself thinking about a scene from Game of Thrones where Grey Worm tells Daenerys that he was a slave when he was freed, and it is for that reason why he chooses to keep his name rather than revert to the name he had when he was enslaved.Life is full of irreconcilable paradoxes. In so contrasting moments of brutal patriarchal reprisals and frowns with beats that remove the shroud obscuring our tourist-tinted eyes, Kakogiannis does a great service to the world and for Greek cinema. There is just enough hope to make this a multifaceted Greek tragedy. Truly outstanding. A shock it is virtually unknown and took ages to actually find. Not to mention one in good condition. With a little restoration work, better marketing, films like A Girl in Black, can live in the limelight once again. Why is it only available as a part of the World Classic Cinema package and not Criterion?
