THE MAN WITH THE CARNATION (Nikos Tzimas, 1980)
Category: Cinema > Films
| Original title: | Ο ΑΝΘΡΩΠΟΣ ΜΕ ΤΟ ΓΑΡΥΦΑΛΛΟ |
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| Director: | Nikos Tzimas |
| Release date: | 1980 |
| Country of origin: | Greece |
| Genre: | Politics | History | Drama |
| IMDb: | https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085175/ |
Censorship incidents
| 1980-11-13 | Scene and dialogue cuts from the film THE MAN WITH THE CARNATION (Nikos Tzimas, 1980)
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| January 1981 | Army personnel forbid soldiers to watch the film THE MAN WITH THE CARNATION (Nikos Tzimas, 1980)
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Description
In late 1980, THE MAN WITH THE CARNATION by Nikos Tzimas, a film about the arrest, trial and execution of the communist leader Nikos Beloyannis, arrived in theatres. Although thematically consistent with the other political films of the time — a desire to restore history, thorough historical and archival research, a subject chosen for its heavy symbolic burden for the Left — the film nevertheless differed radically from a cinematic point of view. Its style was that of the old commercial cinema in which the director had learned his trade, and thus it addressed a far larger audience. The critics saw it as a film in the mould of American cinema, like a “classics illustrated” for the people, though with “a screenplay based on documents and faithful to the historical events, which recreates the grim aftermath of the Civil War with its military courts and executions ordered by the rabid Right”. The audience loved it: the film remained in the theatres for weeks and sold over 618,000 tickets, with the press describing unprecedented crowds and applause at the screenings.
Although the unimpeded screening of THE MAN WITH THE CARNATION was used by the right-wing government of Nea Dimokratia as proof that there was no censorship of left-wing ideas, the film actually encountered problems with distribution and advertising owing to its subject matter and had been censored as much as other political films. Specifically, in order to obtain a screening permit, all the scenes directly depicting the violence of the post-Civil War state had had to be removed, along with scenes depicting shootings, weapons and violence. According to the Censorship Board documents revealed by the communist newspaper Rizospastis the filmmakers were required to remove and replace several shots and dialogues, including:
“From the scene in which Beloyannis’ presents his defense, the scenes in which he says:
a) “The communists too have sacrificed themselves in great numbers in the recent struggles of our people for their freedom”.
b) “Being a communist means being the first in the struggle, first in sacrifice... to be a candidate for the firing squad as I am now”.
c) The names of Katsareas in the Peloponnese, Sourlas in Thessaly, and Tsaus Anton in Macedonia bring horrible memories to the tortured people of our provinces.
d) The phrase “the Greek communist party” is to be replaced by “we”.
e) The phrase “no, gentlemen, we are communists” is to be replaced by “we are Greeks”.
In January 1981, military police in Komotini stopped soldiers entering a cinema screening THE MAN WITH THE CARNATION, as revealed in a parliamentary question raised by the Greek Communist Party MPs about the incident.
Penelope Petsini
Sources – Bibliography
- Avgi, 3/10/1980.
- Eleftherotypia, 5/2/1981.
- Rizospastis, 14/4/1981.
- To Vima, 25/1/1981.
CIVIL Publications
- Petsini P.,“From the Cooling of Political Passions to Right-Wing Culture: Battles of memory and political censorship in the post-dictatorship period”, Archeiotaxio 22 (November 2020).
