BLACK OUT
ps. Red Out

Trailer

Trailer

Black Out strikes at both the mind and feelings with it’s intricate masterful structure. It is about the most modern film in the competition program of the XXI Moscow International Filmfestival with its most radical and pioneering style, the most metaphysical one with the most ambitious direction we have seen in the festival.

Victor MATIGAN

Newspaper “NOVIYE ISVESTIYA” , Moscow 29-7-99

The Greeks won (front page)

The Greeks hit the headlines leaving far behind all contestants in the XXI Moscow International Film festival with a contemporary radical film, an exceptional mixture of drama, psycological thriller, mysticism and sensuality.

Newspaper “VITZERNAYA MASCVA” , Moscow 29-7-99

It’s a fascinating film.

“CRONICLES OF THE XXI MOSCOW International Film Festival” , 30-07-99

It has simply riveted me. This is a film which has roused my envy.

GABRIEL RETES  

CRONICLES OF THE XXI Moscow International Film Festival , 29-07-99

The movie, being quiet out of the Greek filmmaking tradition, is classic European avant-garde. The director pays special attention to the visual stylistics mostly characteristic of the post-modernistic hi-tech mass media. The intrigue is full conformity with the historic epic film, featured by such titles as Pele the Conqueror and The Feast of Babetta.

“CRONICLES OF THE XXI MOSCOW International Film Festival”, 30-07-99

Rom is now widely regarded as a turning point in the history of Greek documentary, one is tempted to claim that Karamaghiolis’s achievement is to have produced a genuine postmodern film in Greece, where, as yet, postmodernism in cinema is rare occurence; a radical, pioneering film on the model of the classic European avant-garde cinema.

KATERINA ATHANASIADOU

“CRITICAL GUIDE TO EUROPEAN DIRECTORS”, Wallpaper publication, 2000

“It is one of the best and most impressive films the Greek cinema has ever given us”

N.F. MICHELIDES

Newspaper “ELEFTHEROTYPIA” , 19-11-98

However, the most important thing is that all foreign distributors are now offering director Menelaos Karamaghiolis without any reservation in so far as what the subject he may choose, concerning his next film. Because of the wonderful film Black Out a star is born! Let’s hail him!

VASILIS VASILIKOS Ambassadeur of Unesco in relation to the screening of Black Out

Newspaper “NEA” , 16-2-99

I have rarely come across such an exciting and structured script as Black Out. A single theme launches such a tremendous sequence of juxtaposed melodies

MALVINA KARALI

Magazine “CLICK” , February 1999

“It’s a varied and multifaceted game open to many interpretations. The audience with abandon themselves to the rhythms of the game, the thriller’s atmosphere, while the heroes’ itineraries are followed with unremitting interest to the startling finale, a real sting in the end.”

M. KATSUNAKI

Newspaper “KATHIMERINI” , 19-11-98

“At last a Greek film which stirs the stagnant waters… An ambitious production of international possibilities. A film which escapes from the Greek confines and the wretchedness of Greek production. A complex but thoroughly controlled screenplay, admirable direction, extraordinary editing, magnificent photography, very good acting.”

S. KERSANIDES

Newspaper “THESSALONIKI” 19-11-98

“For the hundred and sixty unrelenting minutes Menelaos Karamaghiolis sweeps the entire F.I.R. together with the history of modern American movies in his wake!”

D. DANIKAS

Newspaper “NEA” , 19-11-98

“What is amazing about Karamaghiolis is the fact he manages to apply Hollywood performances in Panepistimiou Street… The Athenian George Lucas.”

D. DANIKAS

Newspaper “NEA”, 27/11/98

“Karamaghioli’s narrative gift is unquestionable: He is one of the best directors of the new generation”

D. KANELIS

Newspaper “ETHNOS” , 6-12-98

“An exquisitely charming game with time in which the logic of flash back is literally subverted… We watch Karamaghioli’s ability to set up narrative and thematic extremities while manifesting the power of plasticity”

O. ANDREADAKIS

Newspaper “AUGI” , 4-12-98

“The apocalypse of a Creator, whose talent by far exceeds that of any other. The film offers us images full of power and cohesion. Karamaghiolis impresses us with his many and diverse virtues as a director playing with colour, time cinematic, styles, breaking up his story only to re-assemble it with astonishing easa, as if it were a puzzle, interchangeably playing with black and white and colours, reverting the condition according to which the past is rendered in black and white.”

G. CRASAKOPOULOS

Magazine “CINEMA”, December 1998

“The film is a unique experience… It aims straight for the heart, it seems to ignore the term Neuralgic Emotional Control and swims with passion and vehemence in the deep waters of love, burrowing right into the black silt of desire… It will take you long to see this particular Athens he chooses to depict in another movie…”

A. SOTIROPOULOU

Magazine “EXODUS”, 10-12-98

“It is beyond the shadow of a doubt that the film will create many and sundry reactions… The film is made up from a puzzle of images which will not fail to impress… Karamaghiolis is masterful when dealing with Baroque scenes…”

B. AKTSOGLOU

Magazine “ATHENORAMA” , 10-12-98

“Everything is set within M. Karamaghioli’s subtly worked out of puzzle revealing themselves before the flabbergasted spectator in a chain like order. The director pieces together all this diverse material through compact suspense and the most impressive photography we have ever enjoyed in Greek cinema”

T. IOANNOU

Magazine “VOTRE BEAUTE” , January 1999

“In the antipodes of the Bad Greek Movies shown during the 39th Thessaloniki Film Festival we hopefully had Karamaghioli’s Black Out… Well done Menelaos for having worked with heart and soul in this so diametrically different film. His intentions are set out explicitly from the very beginning: He knows exactly what he wants and and the means to get it. Hanna Schygullas’ dynamic presence is, indeed, noteworthy… Within the film’s virtues we have to list the DTS sound, the enviable -for the Greek cinematic reality- special effects and Kypurgos’ enchanting soundtrack”

A. L. LIZARDOS

Magazine “HARPER’S BAZAAR” , January 1999

“Don’t let the long duration of the film deter you. Nor take occasional negative reviews by critics opposed to all Greek ventures seriously. Let your eyes feast on it. On this superproduction. It’s breezy. And a different kind of Greek movie altogether.”

A. PYRIOHOS

Magazine “TELERAMA” 12-12-98

“The Greek cinema rediscovers its senses.”

 

Black out is beyond the shadow of a doubt a charge of talent. The director knows how to “steer” the spirit in such a way that not only does it not lose its rhythm but on the contrary the more the puzzle unfolds the more it secures its dynamics together with the audience’s unremitting interest… It helps in the contemporary Greek movie’s rebirth from its own ashes by finally suggesting something different, some optimistic sign about its future. After many years of inertia, the Greek cinema is about to take off. Fasten your seatbelts, then, and let yourselves be carried away.”

D. STAVROGIANNIS

Magazine “OZON” , January 1999

Impressive shots, a variety of sets and decors. With his first fiction film, the director makes an impressive entrance to a genre that one rarely finds in Greek cinema: a big production.

M. KATSOUNAKI

“KATHIMERINI” , 4-12-98

A film made with care and real passion… a story that Karamaghiolis tells through impressive and thrilling artistic scenes.

N. F. MIKELIDIS, 4-12-98

The adventurous shooting, the great cast, the high-end infrastructure, the romantic plot that becomes a search and the solving to the mystery, the powerful and “raw” director’s approach, are the elements that feature a new cinematic view. Black Out p.s. Red Out inaugurates a new chapter for Greek cinema.

E. NEOFOTISTOU

“NIKI” , 4-12-98

…it proves that its director is an authentic talent in cinema, with a deep knowledge in story-telling, aesthetics and culture; he is aware that he has something to say and he does say it through a script, a story, dialogues and characters …

I. TRIANTAFYLLIDIS

“ADESMEUTOS TYPOS” , 4-12-98

I saw an exciting film whose plot reminded me of Shakespeare’s Othello.

Nikita Mikhalkov

“Chronicles of the XXI Moscow International Film festival” , 30-7-1999

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