Bordel (film, 1985)

Crete Island, 1897. During the Cretan uprising, the Allied fleets (France, Italy, Russia and England) arrive on the island with a peacekeeping mission. At this time, Rosa, a former prostitute from Marseille , with twelve girls disembarks in the port of Chania and opens a brothel in an old mansion. Many different personalities gather in her brothel: English, Russian Italian and French officers, secret agents and diplomats, merchants and speculators, revolutionaries and partisans. Mosaic of languages, costumes and intrigues between East and West ...

The real historical background

The character of Rosa Wonaparte is a depiction of the last character of the Greek “ Zorba ” novel by Mamdam Hortense, who, as indicated in the note to the novel, had a prototype of Adeline Gutar (Adeline Gutar, 1863-1938), a French fashionista from Toulon who arrived in Greece in the city Ierapetra held a hotel called France.

• Marina Vladi - Rosa Wonaparte
• Alexandra Pvlidu - Anita
• Eleanor Statopoulou - Sarah
• Vasilis Lagos - Vasilis
• Aris Retzos - Omir Stratakis
• Vladimir Smirnov - Semenov
• Fanis Khinas - Captain Mason
• Antigoni Amanitu - Ibrahim Ezat

Variety Magazine called the film a colorful, splendid chronicle of Crete at the turn of the century. ^[1] In the production of the film, the influence of the theatrical past of the director is noticeable:

Kunduros began his career in the theater, and the influence of his stage past is felt in the film. ... The plot is rich, but the magnificent costumes and posturing of the actors make it more valuable as a spectacular annals of the era than as a study of characters or stories.

Original text

Koundouros began his career in the theater and strains of his stage background are detectable in Bordello. ... The plot is rich but the sumptuous costumes and the posturing of the actors make it more valuable as a spectacular chronicle of a period than as an exploration of characters or history

- film historian Peter Covey ^[2]

Criticism noted that the film was the result of the director’s disappointment in the ability to change the nature of people and the course of history through revolution:

If surrealism has always been hiding in the background of his chamber work in his other films, then with the film Bordello (1985) Kunduros entered the visual universe, permeated with a complete lack of credibility or any kind of photographic presentation. Bordello is an unclassified film, partly a collective nightmare and partly a personal fantasy; ultimately, this is a film exploring the phenomenality of surfaces, lack of desire, lack of will to create. The most important aspect of the film is the repulsive dark, liquid and murky colors that dominate the frame. They advocate an embarrassed state of mind and the deep disappointment that overtook the director after the inability of the Socialist Party to bring real changes to the country after 1981. This is his dialogical response to the films “ Satyricon ” by Federico Fellini (1969) and “ Fat, or 120 days of Sodom ” by Pierre Pasolini (1975) - the films are united by staging a bizarre brothel in the labyrinth: the nightmare of history and the destruction of human communication.

Original text

If surrealism was always hiding in the background of his camerawork in his other films, with the film Bordello (1985) Koundouros entered a visual universe permeated by the complete absence of verisimilitude or of any kind of photographic presentationalism. Bordello is an unclassifiable film, partly collective nightmare and partly personal fantasy; ultimately it is a film exploring the phenomenality of surfaces, the absent desire, the lack of the will to create. The most important aspect of the ... film is the alienating dark, fluid and muddled colors that dominate the frame. They stand for the confused state of mind and the deep disappointment that overtook the director after the failure of the Socialist Party to bring real change to the country after 1981. This is his dialogic engagement with Federico Fellini's Satyricon (1969) and Pasolini's Salò, or 120 Days in Sodom (1975). Set in the labyrinth of a bizarre brothel, the film brings together. The nightmare of history and the destruction of human communication.

- Vrasidas Karalis - Realism in Greek Cinema: From the Post-War Period to the Present

The surreal extravaganza of Bordello by Nikos Kundouros explores the world of irrational impulses and suppressed desires. There is no atonement in the labyrinth of history, except for that which comes through the explosive liberation of desires - only through perversion and excess can human history and nature be understood. In this film, which takes place during the Cretan Revolution of 1897, the angry romantic Kunduros reduces the story to the elementary sources: desire and death.

Original text

The surrealist extravaganza Bordello by Nikos Koundouros explored a world of irrational impulses and repressed desires. In the labyrinth of history, there is no redemption except the one that comes through the explosive liberation of desires — only through perversion and excess can human history and nature be understood. This film, set during the Cretan Revolution of 1897, showed Koundouros as an angry romantic reducing history to its elemental beginnings: desire and death.

- Vrasidas Karalis - History of Greek Cinema