Giorgos Arvanitis in “A” / Wherever I go the cinema chases me

“A life in the light.” A book chronicling the life of a light meter could not have a more fitting title. THE George Arvanitis these days he returned from France, where he has been living for the last few years, following the release, next Thursday, of his biography, by Pataki publications, and its presentation a few days later (16/4). “At the age of 83 I decided to publish myself” he says with a smile about Elisavet Chronopoulou’s book “Giorgos Arvanitis. A life in the light.” As he remembers the past and is surprised by the present, the famous cinematographer turns pages from his fictional life, lets us share moments filled with light and cinema, and confides how he fell in love with the camera at first sight. And yet his life was not always bright. From childhood, those “dark years of the Civil War”, to the sets of some of the greatest moments of international cinema, his life is a constant exercise in light. After all, for him, “the light is in the soul”, that’s why in his work he doesn’t photograph faces but characters. As we talk, he shows me photos from filming. With Fanny Ardan in “Australia”, for which she was awarded at the Venice Film Festival, with Marcello Mastroianni, from “The Beekeeper” by Angelopoulos, with Jeremy Irons, with Elia Kazan in New York, with Ellen Burstyn in “Cries of women’ by Dassin, with his beautiful house in France. “Life is unpredictable, maybe it’s a miracle” he says. His own life has so far included 112 films, eight awards, countless trips and a look that constantly searches for the light in the soul. “I will never forget the first time I saw a movie, perched on a tree” he says and we immediately understand how a child from a mountain village, without supplies, without money, came to conquer a magical world, without losing humanity, compassion and his incredible sense of humor. “The camera is my mistress, but please don’t let my wife know,” he confesses. He speaks with respect and gratitude about his art and the people he has met along this fascinating journey. And at the end of the conversation he disarmingly admits: “Ultimately I can’t escape the cinema, wherever I go the cinema chases me”.

“A life in the light” is the name of your biography. Is this ride exciting?

It was exciting because I discovered so many things, I discovered mainly how light affects people’s lives and character. For me, there are three kinds of light on the planet, they are the Mediterranean light, the Northern light and the Southern light. Traveling around the world I found out why northerners are more closed people. I remember when I first went out of Greece and found myself in Belgium. I lay for a while in the hotel staring at the ceiling. Three hours passed and I found myself left thus apathetic and without energy. There was a diffused, gray light outside the window that seemed to hypnotize me. I came out of the hotel and saw people walking slowly, talking more softly. I found myself in a cafe and it was quiet. I did a flashback to our country with the Mediterranean light, where in cafes you can’t hear your neighbor over the noise. The Mediterranean light takes you out of your home, while the Northern light closes you home, to yourself. In cinema, I don’t light faces, I light characters. I am fascinated by this process of discovering the shades of a person’s character with only light as a guide. Starting to work in film started this exciting journey.

How did it start?

My awakening took place after my journey to Finos Film, a journey between feathers and feathers, in fancy colors and musicals. It happened when I met Theodoros Angelopoulos and we started filming “Representation”, in a village in Zagoria. There I met the light of my childhood in my own village, Dilofo Fthiotida. In Zagoria I found that I know this light very well, because in the difficult years of my childhood I do not remember any sunny day. They were all gray like the landscape of Angelopoulos.

Why was your childhood so gray?

Because it was gray in those years. The years of the Civil War were dark both in my village and throughout Greece. I lost my father when I was 6 years old and since then I met my mother again when I turned 15 years old. My father was in the Democratic Army and my mother imprisoned in Averof prison. The darkness of the first years of my life led me to make these images in the films of Angelopoulos. When we were filming “Thiasos” I was surprised. Images came from when I was little. Images that were left in my childhood soul and then I relived them.

Is this one of the elements that connected you with Angelopoulos?

It can. Angelopoulos and I bonded so much that from a certain point on we didn’t need to talk about the film we were shooting. I understood what he had in mind and he knew that the light he wanted would be there. Let’s not forget that at that time, the late 60s, within the Junta, we did not have the technical capabilities to immediately see the result of the image as it happens today. We were shooting “Thiasos” with a 7-page script, because Theodoros was afraid that the Security would discover the text. From 7 pages we had to make a 4 hour film. So when I watched the rehearsals he did with the actors on the set, I had the feeling that I had experienced this scene before.

Are there many such stories in the book?

Too many. I remember shooting a movie in the Sahara desert, with that merciless light. To find some shade I had to work very early in the morning, when the sun has not risen high and some shadows can be seen on the sand dunes. There I found that when the space was flattened by the abundant light, the people walking in the desert seemed to be slowly disappearing, as if they were being swallowed up by this light. Talking to a local, he told me that in Europe you have the clocks but we in the desert have the time. This made me realize how similarly the light in the Sahara and the light in Northern Europe affect people and their lives. Both bright light and too little closes the man in his shell.

How did you decide to remember your life?

A friend, Elisavet Chronopoulou, director and writer, had stunned me by telling me that I should write the story of my life. I didn’t think my life had any interest. There are people with far more exciting lives than mine. But he persisted. I asked her why she was so interested in my life and she replied that she wanted to know how a child from a mountain village in Greece, with no education, no help, managed to make this journey. She convinced me, I told her about my life and at 83 I decided to extradite myself…

The people who defined you?

I owe what I am today to two operators, Giorgos Kavagia, who entrusted me to work as his assistant for the first time, and Nikos Gardelis, who after him I started working as a director of photography. Those two defined me. The directors I worked with, Thodoros, Voulgaris, Giorgos Karypidis and so many others, but also Jules Dassin, Jean-Jacques Adrien, Wolfgang Schlendorf, Marco Ferreri, Bellocchio, etc. the actors Marcello Mastroianni, Clive Owen, Leonardo DiCaprio, Jeremy Irons, Bruno Gans, Fanny Ardan, Sam Sheppard, Vengos, Katrakis, there are so many and I feel happy to have met and worked with them

Are there any moments from this journey that are not easily forgotten?

A lot. I’ll never forget the first time I saw a movie, perched in a tree. I was around 12, I lived with my uncles in Penteli, because my mother was imprisoned. Then the first summer cinema was built in the neighborhood. Of course, I had no money, but I wanted to discover what they call cinema. I climbed a tree and saw the screen for the first time and my first film, which was “Sicilian Evening”, I don’t remember the director. I was enchanted. When I finished primary school I enrolled in a technical school to learn the trade of electrician. When, after four years of study, I got my diploma, I happened to meet an electrician who worked at the cinema and asked him if I could work there too. That’s how I got into film, as a jack of all trades. I was making the coffees, collecting the cables, cleaning the set and I fell in love with the camera. The sequel was written on the screen.

Have you ever regretted that love affair with the camera?

No, never, I feel that this love was mutual, because, in the 112 films I’ve made so far, I don’t feel the camera as a machine. The camera is my mistress, but please don’t let my wife know.

How did you meet Angeliki?

On the set of “Megaleksandros”, in 1979. We have completed 45 years together and he still tolerates me.

Are there things you want to forget from this trip?

I lived and live with my good and my mistakes. But I always make sure to recognize my mistakes so that I don’t repeat them. Life is unpredictable. I too wondered what life is when, 38 years ago, I was in Ethiopia, in the great famine, for a documentary for UNICEF. There I filmed at least 100 people a day, walking down the street and in three seconds falling dead in front of me. When this 15 day adventure was over I returned to Athens and after five days my second son was born. I was with my wife in the delivery room, holding her hand and in three seconds I had my life in my hands. So there I did this route from Athens to Ethiopia and I wondered what life is after all. It might be a miracle. But I always think why we need hatred in our life, why we want to conquer so many things which are useless. They all say they are Christians. Who remembers that he who has two tunics must give one? You do.

Why;

Because the passion for money has taken over us. Man has fallen into the trap of consumption and forgets these three seconds that I met in Ethiopia. Let my fellow men fall before me dead of hunger. Every time I return to Athens, the city where I grew up, I think about this strongly, that is, how much nowadays we have forgotten the human soul, and I am surprised. I find it increasingly ugly, the people darker, walking the streets and feeling that something has swallowed their soul. And I wonder why. Why Tempe, why precision, why fires and floods, why wiretapping, why so many women killed

What are your answers to these whys?

I cannot give the answer myself, because I am too few. The one who must give the answer is the Greek people. Yesterday I went to the supermarket and a lady in front of me, at the checkout, when the bill came out, started removing things from her basket. I was shocked.

How would you illuminate today’s Greece?

The Athens that I knew in the 1950s, 1960s, with the neoclassical buildings, with the gardens, with the courtyards with the palm tree and the well, with the neighborhoods where everyone knew each other, no longer exists. It has been transformed into an ocean of cement. Well, how can you lighten this up? It doesn’t light up, it’s a flat, colorless, odorless thing. It doesn’t light up. Just as the world we live in today, with wars, with inequalities, which seems to be spiraling into an absurdity, is not enlightened either. I try sometimes to discover the light of the Greek and I do not succeed.

In addition to your book, which will be presented in the next few days, you are also in Greece for the Francophone Film Festival. The French honor you.

Yes, the French Institute did me the honor of assigning me the presidency of the Jury, since I have also served French cinema for 35 years, with more than 60 films. Maybe they recognize my offer. The day before yesterday, my latest film was shown, “The child who measured the world” by Takis Kandilis, son of the famous architect and Le Corbusier’s assistant. In the end I can’t escape the cinema, wherever I go the cinema follows me.