Greek legend Nikos Panayotopoulos has made some really interesting films, i love his Edge of Night (2000), The Idlers of the Fertile Valley (1978) but Melodrama was my least favorite. Today, the outrageously good weather warranted a marathon of movies with downpour. I had watched Vesper (2022), Nails in My Brain (2020), Ode to nothing (2018) and Saloum (2021) and this gem was next on my list as the image of both Yannis and music teacher Anna standing by the window watching the rain drop down the pane. This scene has been in my memory ever since i watched it long back, it is so vivid and even Anna's monologue about her inner struggle, the calendar flipping scenes, especially the opening and the closing with Cinema reference, the tonal shift of the pastoral setting from Black and white to color. Truly a melancholic piece of work, soothing and peaceful at the same time. This is now my favorite Panayotopoulos, the opinion might change but really loved the experience of revisiting it as the weather accentuated the mood of the film. Loved the way he staged the existential crisis of both the leads with the environment composed of a nothingness, including the dry sex scenes. As the minutes go by and there is a pessimistic character development, even the tape recorder, calendar arrives as an unexpected guest in the narrative. Even the last act, a sort of closure representing the fall of the condemned Yannis to an existence for the cruel gesture is atmospherically shot The burial of his sick mother and the scenes that follow will leave an apocalyptic mood and feels meta as it ends. I would say Cinematically, on the level of sound and image directly, it is one of the best Greek films and will be a captivating watch for those who love slow Arthouse cinema.
