Les Couleurs de l'iris

Although the Kafkaesque-existential central motif known from Blow-Up may evoke the appearance of the depth of human existence, drowned four meters from the beach, this film is rather a sharp Ionesco-like parallel, which with its light-footed absurdity much better captures the tragicomic nature of modern Europe, which has rid itself of the shackles of dictatorships to dissolve in the sea of ​​advertising, virtual, political-media simulacra. It is crucial that the film was made in 1974, the year when Greece rid itself of the right-wing military dictatorship - this film is not a pathetic lament over the remnants of the past, but from the first minute of the new era, it does not hesitate to attack the new social regime, where there are no clearly defined enemies, where the hostile "power" (whoever it may be!) no longer needs to steal the object tangible as in Blow-Up because a disc with recorded material of a person's disappearance is worthless in itself: the only important thing is its context, manipulation of public opinion, which shapes reality. It is fascinating that such an "artistic comedy" was created in 1974, which does not hesitate to attack the living without any sentiment. The state and the police as a department of the advertising company Helas Ltd. ("Greece Inc."), whose privatized share was received by every citizen in the coupon privatization... (30/03/2024)