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MODERNA STAHTOPOUTA Director: Alekos Sakellarios Cast: Aliki Vougiouklaki, Dimitris Papamichael, Stavros Xenidis, Aris Malliagros, Christos Parlas, Despoina Nikolaidou, Kostas Doukas, Nikitas Platis, Babis Anthopoulos and Nikos Tsoukas When a poor young girl, desperately needing work, in order to support her little siblings and grandmother, hears that a wealthy businessman has retrenched his personal secretary, she enters his office and manages to get the position. In short time she wins his trust and accompanies him to almost all his business meetings and trips. During a trip to Rome, she undergoes a transformation from non descript girl in rags to a beautiful and elegant young woman. Could her employer now fall in love with her? This film is a social comedy of 1965 with leading actors, Aliki Vouyiouklaki and Demetris Papamichael. A husband and wife team in real life, together they where to form one of the most successful movie partnerships in Greek cinema history. Writing: Alekos SakellariosOriginal Music by Stavros Xarhakos Cinematography by Nicos Gardellis Film Editing by Giorgos Tsaoulis Art Direction by Petros Kapouralis and Haris Milonas Production Management: Vion Papamihalis and Yannis Petropoulakis Sound Department: Nick Despotidis Biography for Aliki Vouyiouklaki Born on 20 July 1934, Maroussi Attikis, Greece Aliki Vougiouklaki was born in 1934 (or 1933, according to some sources), in Maroussi Attikis, Greece. She studied at the Drama School of the Greek National Theater and made her stage debut in a 1953 Athens production of Molière's "Le malade imaginaire". Around the same time she made her movie debut in Pontikaki, To (1954). The late 1950's was her breakthrough period: she starred in a successful revival of George Bernard Shaw's "Pygmalion" (as Eliza Doolittle) and took the leading part in a very popular movie, _Ksilo vgike apo ton paradiso, To (1959)_ . She instantly became Greece's most popular star, created her personal stage group (with a repertory including Aristophanes' "Lysistrata", Tennesse Williams' "Sweet Bird of Youth" and Sophpoles' "Antigone") and starred in many films, light comedies and melodramas (in many of them she co-starred with Dimitris Papamichael, who was her husband and theater partner during 1965-1974). Her film Ipolohagos Natassa (1970) has been the biggest moneymaker in the history of Greek cinema. Trivia for Aliki Vouyiouklaki Sister of Takis Vougiouklakis Her first theatre performance as a star, was a Bernard Shaw play, called Anthony and Cleopatra, but it was a commercial disaster, although a critical victory for the star. She left Filipoimon Finos for Karagiannis Karatzopoulos films in the late 60s, she produced 3 films there, all commercial successes (but critical failures). When she returned to Finos Films, the producers increased her salary. Her salary for each film was 1.000.000 drachmas and share of future profits of her films, when the basic salary in Greece per month was 2.000 to 5.000 drachmas. She starred in Lysistrata and Antigone in the ancient theatre of Epidaurus, both productions were massive commercial successes, but created great controversies. The last year of her life she starred in a commercial theatrical hit, named 'The sound of music', disregarding all of these people that thought that she was old for the basic role. She won the first female performance prize back in the 1960 for the film Madalena, directed dy Dimopoulos, in the first Thessaloniki Film Festival, which now is international. A doll and a pastry was named after her, and she usually starred in commercials in the beginning and during her career, for beers or car-help companies. Lawrence Olivier called her portrayal of Evita Peron in the Rice-Webber musical Evita, in 1981, as "the best Evita I have ever seen." She was planning to stage Sunset Boulevard and play fading star Norma Desmond. It would have been her second portrayal of an aging actress after Alexandra De Lago in Tennessee Williams's Sweet Bird of Youth. When asked which international actress she admired Aliki described English actress Maggie Smith as "a gifted actress and a rare talent". Her 1973 movie Maria tis siopis, I (1973) (Maria of silence) is in reality a remake of the 1948 Jean Negulesco film Johnny Belinda. The part of Belinda (Maria in the Greek version), the deaf mute rape victim had been played by Jane Wyman. Her 1969 movie Neraida kai to palikari, I (1969) (The fairy and the lad) is in reality a comic version of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Her last movie Kataskopos Nelli (1981) was a strange mixture of two of her biggest theatrical hits Cabaret and Evita. Shooting originally begun in 1979 and was to be called The Girl At The Cabaret but due to copyright problems (she was not granted permission to use the original songs of the musical) the movie was shelved. Shooting was resumed in 1980 with a different storyline and new songs and the movie was released in 1981. Her 1980 movie Poniro thiliko, katergara gynaika (1980) (A cunning woman) that was to mark her comeback at the silver screen after a seven year absence was based on the Somerset Maugham play Theatre, a theatrical hit for her in 1973. She went through an audition in London in order to get the rights to play the title part in the Rice-Webber musical Evita even though she was the number one box office star in Greece and had acting experience of twenty-five years. Her 1963 movie, Ktipokardia sto thranio, ("Heartbeating in High School") was shot simultaneously in Greek and Turkish, with two different casts, one Greek, one Turkish. The Turkish version was called Siralardaki heyecanlar. One son, Giannis, born 1969. She was very interested in foreign languages from a young age. She was fluent in English, Italian and French. Was good friends with French actress Yvette Etiévant Personal quotes for Aliki Vouyiouklaki "Glory! What is glory really? It's just stress and nothing more. The proof is Garbo, Monroe and many others who just couldn't deal with it. Hayworth had become an alcoholic, Bardot has locked herself in a house. What kind of glory is this anyway?" (1982) "If I die tomorrow the exact same thing that has happened to Marilyn Monroe in the U.S. will happen to me too: for as long as she was alive and well people looked down upon her and considered her some sort of an inferior "product". The moment she died, scenes from her movies were spliced together and everybody said "look, what an amazing phaenomenon, what a great actress she was." (1976) "Sometimes I get enormously scared and see everything pitch-black. But then I turn and look at the sun and I shout out loud: I'm with you. C'mon,let's start all over again." (1995) "Yes, I am very scared of death and loneliness. I am scared of death because I love life too much, because it's impossible for me to accept the concept of the inevitable ending. I am scared of loneliness in the sense of the ultimate isolation." (1994) |
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