Twenty five years ago a group of old classmates and dear friends, published a Catalogue Album of the Cinema Painted Giant Posters: posters from cinemas in Athens and the rest of the country, which we had accumulated in the 1950’s. Most of these posters had already been used in the central cinema halls in Athens, and had then travelled to scores of cinemas outside the capital, decorating the façades of indoor or open-air cinemas (which would often screen re-runs).

In this journey, we met, became acquainted, and spoke with many people – perhaps even, too many: famous and everyday people. In our 1994 Publication we thanked most of them. Today, when these “acquaintances” of ours have turned into hundreds, we have come to realize in a different way, what this is all about: a mosaic of inspired and committed fans, leading up to the compilation of a fascinating Collection with unique items; a mosaic of posters initially created and produced for the sole purpose of making a living, but expressing, at the same time, the inner world of restless artists.

I never met George Vakirtzis in person. The poet Kostis Velmyras (1898-1960) was the first to describe with unreserved enthusiasm his impressions of Vakirtzis’ “décors”at the entrance of the various cinemas on Panepistimiou street, or the ATTIKON on Stadiou street, which he, along with many other intellectuals of his time, admired.
But I loved his work and I speak with him every day – though I scarcely know where he is at a given moment – through his Warlock, his Clowns, his Othello, his Aliki in the Navy, his Electras, not to mention the “Folk Signs” he photographed all over Greece, his “Theofilos” engraving, the bloodied “Iron gates of the Athens Polytechnic”, the golden body of “Heleni”, the “Anthivola from Chioniades” he brought to Kessariani, his “Monologues”…

Αnd I made a hero of the man: from the memories of Memas, Marios, and his Aliki, from Andreakos’s bitterness, Kouzounis’s egoism, Linda’s nostalgia, Papastamos’s question marks, Dimakopoulou’s respect, Koundouros’s admiration, I conjured up the man who presided over two generations of Cinema and Painting… For the sake of this prolific “expressionist”, the magician handler of the fish-glue paint-brush, who surpassed his own teacher, Almaliotis, I myself had to make sacrifices related to my professional career, my finances and –most importantly– my personal relationships. I relished the cinema directors of my youth, the ones Rivellis is now‘reconstructing’ for younger generations, in the dark cinema theaters, the “magical” theaters that painter Fassianos describes. At the time, there was a constant flow-projection of films in various cinemas and some of my favourite screenings were: the 4-6 pm at theASTY, the 6-8 pm at the ATTIKON, the 8-10 pm at the PANTHEON and the Monday morning 10-12 am atREX, IDEAL and TITANIA. There were also the 2-4 pm or 10-12 Sunday night screenings at the KOTOPOULI, while one could catch the 6-8 or 8-10 pm each Saturday, alongside the young ladies of the time, at the upscale MAXIM and PALLAS.
A more undercover such operation could be pulled through at MONDIAL, ROSIKLAIR, ALASKA and STAR. What was also memorable, though, was the cinema “décor”, those murals painted by the Michelangelos of the cinematic ’50s and ’60s: Stefanos Amaliotis, George Vakirtzis, the brothers Kostas and George Kouzounis, Nikolaos Andreakos, Panayotopoulos, Fainos and, towards the end, Memas Touliatos and Marios Hondroyiannis, who inspired Gavras’s illuminating confession:

…I have always believed that it would be a lot more fun to visually re-create a film inside a painter’s atelier than to actually set it up on a film set…

My fascination with the crumpling Giant posters or the smaller posters displayed on street corners or window panels in Kypseli, Exarchia and Koumoundourou led me, in turn, to the engravings, the lithographs, the woodcarvings and the postal stamps and then paved the way to the drawings, the watercolors, the ink drawings and all the preparatory small-size works of those larger-than-life creators of great surface paintings

Τhus, later in life, when I became close with Nikos Koundouros, I too was flooded by “the River called G.Vakirtzis”. His Escape made us wonder: …can this world prophecy destruction, indulge in self-destruction, and all the while be happy?…
His Clowns brought tears to our eyes; and at the sight of his Monologues, we were overcome by the feeling that our own lives were being captured in celluloid. And it was as a tribute to Cacoyannis’ and Vakirtzis’ Stella that “our” Melina, Melina Merkouri, supported our efforts to acquire, conserve, catalogue and publish the collection of our nearly two hundred – hand painted – Giant cinema Poster

When Vangelis, Spyros and I collected and brought together the Giant cinema
posters, we also stumbled upon an important archive, part of which documented our first Collection – the HELLAFFI – and the rest, with their consent, became part of my “folly”, which gradually increased to a dangerous degree… The STARLETS Collection was then born, enriching our objects of study.
I then “surrendered” the material to Irene, Costas, Manolis and Dimitris: It was their turn to enjoy it as they prepared the publication which is now in your hands.
I want to extend a heartfelt “thank you” to all those I met in my great adventure
with the Giant cinema poster and the lithographic cinema poster, created by Greek painters and, not least among them, George Vakirtzis.
His Alice, George and Heleni, along with Memas and Marios, provided a valuable connection to his memory.

George Vakirtzis painting for the Cinema keeps the cinematic memories of all who love this great art form alive forever.
Thank you to those who have already left us – to whom I do not say ‘goodbye’ –
and to those who continue to pat me on the back.
And the ones I am forgetting – could they be many more?

Christos Ph. Margaritis