This is a Greek, Spanish, Dutch, and UK co-production, in English and Spanish (and a little Greek), with a cast from many countries, headed by Willem Dafoe as a Greek tycoon.
It opened theatrically in the USA today, as well as on streaming services. It has already been released in several countries, but did nothing at the box office. The international box was about $100,000. I’m guessing that it cost about ten million to make, but much of that was offset by funding from regional and national film funds, including the Greek Film Center, EKOME (Greece), ERT (Greece), ICEC (Catalunya, Spain), the Netherlands Film Fund, and the U.K. Global Screen Fund.
IMDb: 5.1
Tomato Meter: 45%
The story is set in the late 1970s somewhere in the Mediterranean, where Marcos Timoleon, an Aristotle Onassis-like tycoon, is throwing a lavish, extravagant birthday party for Sofia, his daughter and sole heiress, on his exclusive private island. The party is a perfect excuse for various people in his life to approach him with their own agendas. But Marcos, who is used to ruthlessly controlling everything and everyone around him at whatever cost, is also secretly plotting a big decision on his daughter’s behalf. Sofia, however, has come to share some important news of her own. As guests start pouring in and night falls, the party grows rowdier and more decadent, while the inevitable clash between Marcos and Sofia reaches a heartbreaking climax.
Willem Dafoe, from Appleton, Wisconsin, and Vic Carmen Sonne from Copenhagen, Denmark play the Greek father and daughter. At least they didn’t try to affect Greek accents when speaking English.
Hey, maybe Anthony Quinn was kind of a hammy actor, but at least he was credible as a Greek. Willem Dafoe can’t even convince me that he’s an American. I’m pretty sure he really comes from the same distant planet as Anya Taylor-Joy and Pete Davidson.
I couldn’t get into the movie at all, and I can’t imagine why national film societies would subsidize a film that is basically an R-rated episode of Dynasty, with the same 1980s vibe, but the nudity is also at the 1980s level, and that’s more than anything we see in American theaters today.
Vic Carmen Sonne
Maria Pau Pigem
Nata Kas (real name Natalia Zakharova)
Another EU movie with female full frontal nudity destroyed only in American and British reviews, this is now the norm. Meanwhile, another US made crappy HBO series, Lanterns, is getting rave reviews from critics because it features no female nudity, only male. Honestly, if the US and UK didn’t exist, the world would be a better place.
It got destroyed because it is a shallow, generally poor movie, roughly as good as a single episode of a mediocre nighttime TV soap opera, except that TV shows in most countries employ competent actors, while this film seems to be performed by actors in a school play.
Some of the casting is hilarious. Vic Carmen Sonne’s character is supposed to be turning 25 years old, but she’s in her 30s and looks even older.
In addition, she’s supposed to be Greek, but speaks English with some weird accent that is clearly not Greek.
You’ll notice by the box office that nobody was interested in it anywhere, and the 5.1 rating at IMDb probably includes no Americans, since people in the USA haven’t seen it yet.
Maria Pau Pigem looking sexy as hell at nearly 60. Great bush!
I thought she was the best thing in the movie. Quite the silver fox!
Pushing 60? Shut the front door, that does not look like an Ass of A Certain Age.