The Long Absence (Une Aussi Longue Absence)

In collaboration with the Plein-Air Festival by the French Institute of Greece.

The movie will be screened with greek SDH subtitles for deaf and hard-of-hearing people.

Entrance with free-admission tickets, distributed one hour before the screening.

Director: Henri Colpi
Starring: Alida Valli, Georges Wilson, Charles Blavette
Runtime: 90'
Year of Production: 1961
Language: French
Subtitles: Greek

As the end of the season approaches, Therese, owner of a small Parisian bar, plans her summer holiday with her lover. But a part of her still mourns the loss of her husband, who disappeared after being captured by the Germans during World War II. As she becomes more and more emotionally distant from her lover, her interest turns to a clochard who often passes in front of her shop. One day she invites him for a drink, only to discover that he is suffering from amnesia. Therese continues to watch him and comes to believe that her beloved one has returned...

The ex aequo Palme d' Or awarded to "The Long Absence" at the 1961 Cannes Film Festival somehow marks the moment when classic cinema hands over the baton to the modern. That is because the other half of the Palme d'Or went to Buñuel's certainly more acclaimed "Viridiana", unlike Colpi's unjustly forgotten film. Which of course can be proud to bear one of the most modern signatures of the world's intelligentsia, since Marguerite Duras and her partner wrote the screenplay. Contrasting a dead-end desire nestled in the past with a symbolic as well as literal memory lapse, Duras refers to a world that on the one hand resents to regain what it has lost and on the other prefers to forget everything that connects it to the darkest page of its history.

In Colpi's hands, however, "absence" becomes a psychological state that manifests itself impetuously on the screen with the charm of an undisputed classic, through a brilliantly staged drama, punctuated by precious details and unexpected shooting angles. In front of the lens, Alida Valli and Georges Wilson uniquely fill in the blanks, portraying with unique sensitivity two heroes doomed to a never-ending quest. An exploration of time and memory rendered with touches and prying glances at details etched on their faces. Cracks in time, ready to welcome whatever version of history seems the least painful. Ilias Dimopoulos