Melina Mercouri
1920 - 1994As an actress she made her film debut in Stella (1955) and met international success with her performances in Never on Sunday, Phaedra, Topkapi and Promise at Dawn. She won the award for Best Actress at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival, and she was also nominated for an Academy Award, three Golden Globe Awards, and two BAFTA Awards.
A political activist during the Greek military junta of 1967–1974, she became a member of the Hellenic Parliament in 1977 and the first female Minister for Culture of Greece in 1981. Mercouri was the person who, in 1983, conceived and proposed the programme of the European Capital of Culture, which has been established by the European Union since 1985.
She was a strong advocate for the return of the Parthenon Marbles, which were removed from the Parthenon and are now displayed in the British Museum, to Athens.
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Στέλλα
Mihalis Kakogiannis
Melina Mercouri, George Foundas
The story of a young,wild woman who doesn't want to compromise and settle down. Stella is a restless, rebellious Greek woman who plays with men and enjoys her life as much as she can. But when she meets a young football player, things get mixed up. She loves him but she loves her freedom too. So it's about time she made an important choice.
Stella
Celui qui doit mourir
Jules Dassin
Jean Servais, Carl Möhner
Greece, in the 1920s, is occupied by the Turks. The country is in turmoil with entire villages uprooted. The site of the movie is a Greek village that conducts a passion play each year. The leading citizens of the town, under the auspices of the Patriarch, choose those that will play the parts in the Passion. A stuttering shepherd is chosen to play Jesus. The town butcher (who wanted to be Jesus) is chosen as Judas. The town prostitute is chosen as Mary Magdalene. The rest of the disciples are also chosen. As the movie unfolds, the Passion Play becomes a reality. A group of villagers, uprooted by the war and impoverished, arrive at the village led by their priest. The wealthier citizens of the town want nothing with these people and manipulate a massacre. In the context of the 1920s, each of the characters plays out their biblical role in actuality.
He Who Must Die
Μελίνα στοπ καρέ – Αναζητώντας τη σύγχρονη ελληνικότητα
Manos Karatzogiannis
Melina Mercouri, Lena Papaligoura
Through thirteen images and an equal number of stories, little Melina-Amalia, the teenager, the woman, the fighter, Blanche, Stella, Ilya, Phaedra, Medea, Clytemnestra, Minister of Culture, the stoic Melina in Memorial Hospital, all aspects of the "last Greek goddess". Shot on the stage of the National Theater Rex - Marika Kotopouli, it captures, balancing between theater and cinema, important historical events that make the myth that surrounds the glamorous protagonist even more powerful and charming.
Melina Stop Frame - In Search of Modern Greekness
Topkapi
Jules Dassin
Melina Mercouri, Peter Ustinov
Arthur Simon Simpson is a small-time crook biding his time in Greece. One of his potential victims turns out to be a gentleman thief planning to steal the emerald-encrusted dagger of the Mehmed II from Istanbul's Topkapi Museum.
Topkapi
The Rehearsal
Jules Dassin
Melina Mercouri, Míkis Theodorakis
An indictment of the Greek military junta of 1967–1974. The film tries to give a reconstruction of the events during the students' uprising in the Athens Polytechnic (November 1973) by documents, rehearsals, interviews, songs and poems.
The Rehearsal
Phaedra
Jules Dassin
Melina Mercouri, Anthony Perkins
A retelling of the Greek myth of Phaedra. In modern Greece, Alexis's father, an extremely wealthy shipping magnate, marries the younger, fiery Phaedra. When Alexis meets his stepmother, sparks fly and the two begin an affair. What will the Fates bring this family? Alexis's roadster and the music of Bach figure in the conclusion.
Phaedra
Κραυγή Γυναικών
Jules Dassin
Melina Mercouri, Ellen Burstyn
Melina Mercouri plays Maya, a jet-setting Greek actress who returns to her homeland to undertake the role of Medea. Searching for inspiration and clues as to how a mother could kill the children she loves, Maya discovers Brenda (Ellen Burstyn), a bible-spouting American woman serving time in an Athens prison for that very crime.
A Dream of Passion
Il giudizio universale
Vittorio De Sica
Alberto Sordi, Vittorio Gassman
The Last Judgement (Italian: Il giudizio universale) is a 1961 commedia all'italiana film by Italian director Vittorio De Sica. It was coproduced with France. It has an all-star Italian and international cast, including Americans Jack Palance, Ernest Borgnine; Greek Melina Mercouri and French Fernandel, Anouk Aimée and Lino Ventura. The film was a huge flop, massacred by critics and audiences when it was released. It was filmed in black and white, but the last sequence, the dance at theatre, is in color.
The Last Judgment
