SPOILERS -- Sure, this film has production and script issues, but ya gotta give em credit for even making this back in 1982! Angel meets Mister Muscles, and falls in love. They move in together, pretty daring for those days. Honey-bunch is not a nice guy, and talks him into turning tricks at night, in the rough part of town. Not even sure how anyone would have the energy for all that, but there it is. Army soldier by day, drag hooker by night! A strange scene right in the middle where an old crazy lady interrupts a funeral procession.... turns out that the crazy lady is Angel's grandmother. Spouts and rambles for 15 minutes, but it all has a grain of truth in it... it seems to be Angel's backstory, and why his family is so goofed up. Much tragedy and weirdness, as required in those days. Things get worse and worse for Angel, but will he ever find the strength to get out of this situation? The two leads Michalis Maniatis and Dionysis Xanthos went on to do lots of other roles, but this was a first or second role for both of them. Written and directed by Giorgos Katakouzinos. According to wikipedia, the film was inspired by real events, and even won awards. Another thing I noticed is that IMDb has a run time of 126 minutes, while the version showing on Fandor Channel is only 113 minutes... pretty big difference. Was some editing done? It's not so bad. Was actually pretty daring to make a film about gay issues "back in the day".
6 Reviews
great movie
giasou453 February 2008
Warning: Spoilers
yes of course every north American has a problem with the dialogue. Growing up in north America this might be strange, but i hate Hollywood movies. I have not been to a movie theatre in over 6 years because of this.
The comments do not surprize me, of course. I don't understand what movie everyone else was watching, but it did not portray all gay men as transvestites and psychopaths, there were more normal people in the movie except for the character and his family. If you understood culture at all, you would understand that coming out in Greece at any time would bring 'shame' on the family.
The absolute climax of the film is when the father finds out, and says he wants to commit suicide and keeps saying that 'my son is a faggot' for lack of a better translation, I honestly skipped back just to watch that scene again, SUPERB!!. I was actually impressed with the acting at that point, since the father plays no real major role until the point he finds out his son is gay, and wants to kill himself.watching how he was hitting himself with the roller pin, at that point NOBODY can say it was a bad movie, if you are going to watch it, you will know exactly what point im talking about. It was actually heart wrentching and very moving.
I guess you have to understand Greek culture a bit to know the mannerisms and ways are. Yes in Greece we (they) are used to a slower paced film and movies in Greece are 100% dialogue and contect, perfectly said by the other commenter about European cinema.
I was lauging at some points in the movie, well again if you love Greek cult cinema, you will laugh also. to everyone who also went to the army, hehehe you'll laugh for sure at the army scenes. . just to clear things up also, I am not gay and i loved this movie, was absolutely stunning, and gave a realistic attitude about that time in Greece, and even to what would happen today. So if you actually watched the movie, you would see that the only tortured soul was the main character Angelos and his family who was in poverty. Since when was poverty and the working class a happy thing? only in story books. to all the haters of this movie, go watch the Disney channel, its more to your liking.
The comments do not surprize me, of course. I don't understand what movie everyone else was watching, but it did not portray all gay men as transvestites and psychopaths, there were more normal people in the movie except for the character and his family. If you understood culture at all, you would understand that coming out in Greece at any time would bring 'shame' on the family.
The absolute climax of the film is when the father finds out, and says he wants to commit suicide and keeps saying that 'my son is a faggot' for lack of a better translation, I honestly skipped back just to watch that scene again, SUPERB!!. I was actually impressed with the acting at that point, since the father plays no real major role until the point he finds out his son is gay, and wants to kill himself.watching how he was hitting himself with the roller pin, at that point NOBODY can say it was a bad movie, if you are going to watch it, you will know exactly what point im talking about. It was actually heart wrentching and very moving.
I guess you have to understand Greek culture a bit to know the mannerisms and ways are. Yes in Greece we (they) are used to a slower paced film and movies in Greece are 100% dialogue and contect, perfectly said by the other commenter about European cinema.
I was lauging at some points in the movie, well again if you love Greek cult cinema, you will laugh also. to everyone who also went to the army, hehehe you'll laugh for sure at the army scenes. . just to clear things up also, I am not gay and i loved this movie, was absolutely stunning, and gave a realistic attitude about that time in Greece, and even to what would happen today. So if you actually watched the movie, you would see that the only tortured soul was the main character Angelos and his family who was in poverty. Since when was poverty and the working class a happy thing? only in story books. to all the haters of this movie, go watch the Disney channel, its more to your liking.
This movie is a depressing waste of time.
Havan_IronOak15 July 2001
This movie is a dark depressing waste of time. I cannot understand how it was awarded anything. The main character is a Greek man who is in the process of coming out. This is the kind of self-loathing gay movie that thinks all gay men are transvestites and hustler's.
It doesn't even have the redeeming quality of attractive actors.
The DVD jacket talks of "ground breaking boldly told tragedy of innocence betrayed". The ones most betrayed are the folks that buy this rubbish.
I see nothing bold in portraying gay men as pathetic and unhappy and making sure that at least one dies by the end of the movie. This may be the directors' answer to "The Boys in the Band" (albeit told with less wit and more gloom), but who asked him?
BTW... There are so many movies named Angel that the IM database has the jacket picture for this film on another entry and no picture here. The jacket does show a greek man in a bad blond wig. He's in agony but that's probably because he just finished seeing this movie...
It doesn't even have the redeeming quality of attractive actors.
The DVD jacket talks of "ground breaking boldly told tragedy of innocence betrayed". The ones most betrayed are the folks that buy this rubbish.
I see nothing bold in portraying gay men as pathetic and unhappy and making sure that at least one dies by the end of the movie. This may be the directors' answer to "The Boys in the Band" (albeit told with less wit and more gloom), but who asked him?
BTW... There are so many movies named Angel that the IM database has the jacket picture for this film on another entry and no picture here. The jacket does show a greek man in a bad blond wig. He's in agony but that's probably because he just finished seeing this movie...
This is a true story
Rita_Z4 August 2008
I would like to write that the people that say this movie is really bad well they are wrong.!!! This is a true story , and Grecce at that time was very back (culture wise)in time it was like the 50ies for the States .... I was here when this happened (in Greece) and I'm very sorry to say that the people who watched this has no idea how the life in Greece was then. As for the Film well have you seen any Greek movies that were made good . Of course not cause Greek film is not the top ten, the States are . Im sorry to write that if you do not know the language and the culture then don't watch it as for the previous person I totally agree with him.
I'm ashamed of my country's 80's movie productions...
Aldrahn_IMDB14 February 2005
I totally agree with the previous post.I watched the movie yesterday with my girlfriend and we both agree it was a total waste of time! It was garbage, to say the least!
First of all, the script was SO badly written! The dialogues are pompous and totally unreal.The main character is one of the most passive characters I've ever seen portrayed in a film. Apart from the final solution, his actions are never explained on a serious basis.
Then it's the pace of the movie. I mean it's the directors choice but I find that he sticks with certain scenes without reason and he fast forwards whenever he should be explaining the characters, their actions etc.
But the most frustrating fact about the movie I find it's the main character's acting performed by Maniatis.It is a very demanding role and he is bad enough to make the movie even worse than the script has destined it to be..
Other bummers are the sometimes unnecessary nudity scenes, the down-to-the-ground-LOW production "values" and the frequently asychronized dubbed dialogues.
A VERY BAD MOVIE, IN TOTAL! (and this is a Greek viewer's piece of mind..)
"Whatever! I'll do what I want!" -Eric Cartman, South Park.
First of all, the script was SO badly written! The dialogues are pompous and totally unreal.The main character is one of the most passive characters I've ever seen portrayed in a film. Apart from the final solution, his actions are never explained on a serious basis.
Then it's the pace of the movie. I mean it's the directors choice but I find that he sticks with certain scenes without reason and he fast forwards whenever he should be explaining the characters, their actions etc.
But the most frustrating fact about the movie I find it's the main character's acting performed by Maniatis.It is a very demanding role and he is bad enough to make the movie even worse than the script has destined it to be..
Other bummers are the sometimes unnecessary nudity scenes, the down-to-the-ground-LOW production "values" and the frequently asychronized dubbed dialogues.
A VERY BAD MOVIE, IN TOTAL! (and this is a Greek viewer's piece of mind..)
"Whatever! I'll do what I want!" -Eric Cartman, South Park.
Athens
as it once was.
Glifada13 October 2012
I saw "Angelos" at a film festival in the 1980s, and watched it again on the web after almost three decades.
This movie has two essential qualities: courage and honesty. It was not easy to introduce viewers to this topic in 1982, and particularly not in such an open and "picturesque" way. Life on the margins has always existed, but the eyes of the (Greek) public were mainly closed. Most people did not want to see and acknowledge it. Therefore, the appearance of this movie caused such a big shock and reluctance.
On the other hand, the movie honestly shows that a bitter subject it engages with permeates various social milieus and communities, in this case the environment of poverty and despair. The scenes of "weird" transvestites' night life in Athens of the 1970-80s reflect the real situation on spot at the time, but such things have probably changed since then (have they really?), taking at least a different form.
One can discuss about the "external" qualities of this movie and acting (excluding excellent supporting roles of Angelos' sister and mother), but this does not diminish its overall result – a contribution to the cognition that there is no much choice when people are trapped by distressed life circumstances. However, we all have a right to life regardless if we did or did not choose by ourselves a certain kind of existence. We all pay at the end, one way or another. And, this is the main point of "Angelos".
Maybe not great, but this is a very good movie, and Greek cinema should not be ashamed of it. Quite the contrary!
This movie has two essential qualities: courage and honesty. It was not easy to introduce viewers to this topic in 1982, and particularly not in such an open and "picturesque" way. Life on the margins has always existed, but the eyes of the (Greek) public were mainly closed. Most people did not want to see and acknowledge it. Therefore, the appearance of this movie caused such a big shock and reluctance.
On the other hand, the movie honestly shows that a bitter subject it engages with permeates various social milieus and communities, in this case the environment of poverty and despair. The scenes of "weird" transvestites' night life in Athens of the 1970-80s reflect the real situation on spot at the time, but such things have probably changed since then (have they really?), taking at least a different form.
One can discuss about the "external" qualities of this movie and acting (excluding excellent supporting roles of Angelos' sister and mother), but this does not diminish its overall result – a contribution to the cognition that there is no much choice when people are trapped by distressed life circumstances. However, we all have a right to life regardless if we did or did not choose by ourselves a certain kind of existence. We all pay at the end, one way or another. And, this is the main point of "Angelos".
Maybe not great, but this is a very good movie, and Greek cinema should not be ashamed of it. Quite the contrary!
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