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The Courier Mail (Queensland, Australia)
October 8, 2005 Saturday
Big fat Greek wedding ship
BRIDES (PG)
***
A POPULAR choice as opening-night film at this month's Greek Film
Festival, Pantelis Voulgariss's drama -- his first international
production -- is sure to resonate with mainstream moviegoers simply
looking for a well-acted, well-told adult story.
A box-office hit in veteran Voulgariss's native Greece, the project
attracted Italian-American maestro Martin Scorsese as executive
producer.
Scorsese's personal links to America's immigrant experience no doubt
provided reminders of the Greek experience portrayed here.
While Voulgariss isn't particularly effective at suggesting the
ship's movements for the scenes that provide the bulk of the
locations, interest is held by the human drama being played out on
the S.S. King Alexander in the 1920s.
The ship is carrying 700 passengers -- young women from Greece,
Turkey, Russia and Armenia -- bound for America and arranged marriage
to strangers.
Perhaps looking to broaden the appeal of a story that could have been
treated in documentary fashion, Voulgariss has opted to focus on a
romance that develops between an American photographer, Norman Harris
(Irish actor Damian Lewis) and one of the intended brides, Niki
(Victoria Haralabidou).
She's a dressmaker from Samothrace who is bound for Chicago to fulfil
a marriage contract a younger sister has broken because of
home-sickness.
There's suspense as the King Alexander gets closer to New York. Will
Niki fulfil her heart's desire and accept Norman's marriage proposal,
or will she stay true to her family honour and go ahead with the
planned marriage?
More could have been made of the taxing conditions in third class
where the bulk of the women travelled.
It's left to veteran British actor-director Steven Berkoff to provide
the film's dramatic element as a nasty Russian marriage broker
Karaboulat not beyond trading the innocent young women as sex slaves
during the voyage.
Most of the performances are above-average, with Dimitris Katalifos
as the ship's captain whose mind-set is getting his passengers to New
York with a minimum of fuss, and Andrea Ferreol as a colourful madam
who makes the voyage livelier than the brides, who are kept pretty
much in the background.
October 8, 2005 Saturday
Big fat Greek wedding ship
BRIDES (PG)
***
A POPULAR choice as opening-night film at this month's Greek Film
Festival, Pantelis Voulgariss's drama -- his first international
production -- is sure to resonate with mainstream moviegoers simply
looking for a well-acted, well-told adult story.
A box-office hit in veteran Voulgariss's native Greece, the project
attracted Italian-American maestro Martin Scorsese as executive
producer.
Scorsese's personal links to America's immigrant experience no doubt
provided reminders of the Greek experience portrayed here.
While Voulgariss isn't particularly effective at suggesting the
ship's movements for the scenes that provide the bulk of the
locations, interest is held by the human drama being played out on
the S.S. King Alexander in the 1920s.
The ship is carrying 700 passengers -- young women from Greece,
Turkey, Russia and Armenia -- bound for America and arranged marriage
to strangers.
Perhaps looking to broaden the appeal of a story that could have been
treated in documentary fashion, Voulgariss has opted to focus on a
romance that develops between an American photographer, Norman Harris
(Irish actor Damian Lewis) and one of the intended brides, Niki
(Victoria Haralabidou).
She's a dressmaker from Samothrace who is bound for Chicago to fulfil
a marriage contract a younger sister has broken because of
home-sickness.
There's suspense as the King Alexander gets closer to New York. Will
Niki fulfil her heart's desire and accept Norman's marriage proposal,
or will she stay true to her family honour and go ahead with the
planned marriage?
More could have been made of the taxing conditions in third class
where the bulk of the women travelled.
It's left to veteran British actor-director Steven Berkoff to provide
the film's dramatic element as a nasty Russian marriage broker
Karaboulat not beyond trading the innocent young women as sex slaves
during the voyage.
Most of the performances are above-average, with Dimitris Katalifos
as the ship's captain whose mind-set is getting his passengers to New
York with a minimum of fuss, and Andrea Ferreol as a colourful madam
who makes the voyage livelier than the brides, who are kept pretty
much in the background.