Manos Hadjidakis was 27 years old when he wrote the music for George Tzavella's film "Agni tou limanio".
In the clip of the film that appears, he plays the piano accompanying Mary Portokalli in the song "It's a pity", the lyrics of which are by G. Tzavella himself. This is his unique appearance in Greek cinema, which Finos Film "remembered" to honor his memory.
As Finos Film says on Twitter, in its anniversary post:
"Manos Hadjidakis has never appeared in the cinema except once, in Tzavella's "Agni tou Limaniou". At the age of 27, Manos accompanies Mary Portokallis in the song "It's a pity", with music and lyrics by the composer "Gone" like today in 1994".
The whole scene with the unique appearance of our great composer, below.
The film is about an extradited Trouba woman who tries to take revenge on her father by destroying his stepson, because he had abandoned her. Nevertheless, along the way Agni, "the whore of the port", falls in love with her father's stepson. An innovation of the film was that, for the first time in Greek cinema, the duplicating method is applied, when Eleni Chatziargyri appears in the same scene as Agni and as Maria.
For the role played by Georgios Glinos, Emilios Veakis was originally intended , however he passed away before filming. Furthermore, Philopoimin Finos himself refused (for an unknown reason) the participation of Melina Merkouri in the role of Agni.
Eleni Zafiriou, in the role of Martha, Nikos Rizos in just his second film appearance, Anna Kyriakou, and Alekos Alexandrakis participated. Manos Hadjidakis played the cabaret pianist.
Hadjidakis and Tzavellas then worked together for "Kalpiki Lira". We remind you, of course, that in 1960 Hadjidakis won the Oscar for the song "The Children of Piraeus" from Gilles Dassin's film "Never on Sunday" , a song that will be included in the top ten sales of the 20th century. He himself did not attend the award ceremony in 1961. In his text entitled "The Roman Forum as it gave birth to my songs", among other things he had written:"And the official state celebrated me for the Oscar I received in my absence and outside of my own plans. I fought for years to get this "title of honor" off my back."
In the mid-1970s, Manos Hadjidakis threw the Oscar in the trash and there the housekeeper found it, who gave it to his sister, Miranda. She took the gold statuette to her own home and returned it a year after his death. Today it is in the hands of his stepson, Giorgos Hatzidakis.
Hadzidakis, after all, had declared about film music (CINEMA magazine): "Good film music always brings the image into us. That is, the music of Max Steiner or Alex North has power over the film, dominates the image. Is it possible to conceive of 'Viva Zapata' without the music his? And I'm talking about big films, like Kazan's, not about small films. Is it possible to think about 'Port of Agony' without Bernstein's music? It's genius music".
While at another point he commented: "What is the value of 'Alice in the Navy' now, or 'The Heartbeat at the Desk'? They are nonsense. They may have been good for their time, but they cannot accompany us all our lives. And yet they came out . How to stop this nonsense? You have to make a company to collect all this and I intend to do it, because I am more interested in not existing than in existing as others want.
And if I wrote music in these films, I did it to earn money, but also to learn the art of cinema. And so when I went to Hollywood, I had the technique and could work without complexes.
At the same time that I wrote these pieces of music, I was also writing for the Art Theatre, for the National, I did my real work with all their intensity. I did not imagine that "Alice in the Navy" would come to be presented to me as a play. But I learned cinema from them and I never denied it".
The secret is not to get used to ugliness
And in the same interview, the great Manos Hadjidakis, formulated a phrase that we should never forget.
"It's enough that you never get used to ugliness. I'm telling you. I'm always surprised when I see ugliness. I never got used to it. All the years I've lived in this place. The secret is not to get used to ugliness. From the time you get used to it and reduce its importance, it will say that you start to resemble it. All our resistance should be this:Not to resemble the monsters that surround us. Not to become heroes of horror movies!".
The details of the movie "Agni of the port":
Produced by:Finos Film
Category:Drama
Director:Giorgos Tzavellas
Screenplay:Giorgos Tzavellas
Duration:91΄
First Screening:January 14, 1952
Tickets:165,475
Actors:
Thanasis Tzeneralis, George Glinos, Eleni Chatziargyris, Alekos Alexandrakis, Eleni Zafeiriou, Anna Kyriakou, Smaragda Veaki, Nikos Rizos, Lakis Skellas, Mary Portokallis, Yiannis Ioannidis, Liakos Christogiannopoulos, Costas Karanasos, George Vlachopoulos, George Tzifoutsios , Giorgos Ploutis, Alekos Pavlou
Photo:Aristides Karydis-Fuchs, Yiannis Hatzopoulos
Music:Manos Hadjidakis
Scenography:Phaedon Molfesis
Makeup:Stavros Kelesidis
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