Review of The Man with the Carnation

This movie is about Nikos Belogiannis, the fighter of the Greek Communist Party, with the disarming smile and the carnation on his lapel. After the Greek Civil War (1946-1949), Belogiannis returned to Greece, got arrested and sentenced to death for his political beliefs and actions. Charles De Gaulle, Pablo Picasso, Charlie Chaplin, Jean Paul Sartre, Jean Cocteau, Nazim Hikmet and many others, intellectual persons and artists from all over the world are sending telegrams to the Greek government demanding the cancellation of the sentence. The famous Italian actor Gian Maria Volonte was about to play the role of Belogiannis but due to health reasons he passed the role. Then the director Nikos Tzimas, asked Foivos Gikopoulos to play the role. Gikopoulos had no acting experience. Tzimas had asked him before to translate the scenario in Italian for Volonte, when he noticed Gikopoulos resemblance to Belogiannis. The critics wrote good reviews for Gikopoulos performance but this was only a foray in cinema business for him. He is now a dean at the Aristoteleio University of Thessaloniki teaching Italian literature. The movie is famous for the Greek all star cast including actors like Katrakis, Kazakos, Alexandrakis, Ypsilanti, Fyssoun, Antonopoulos and many others. The famous composer Mickis Theodorakis wrote the music of the film. The director Nikos Tzimas won the Special Diploma at the Moscow Film Festival for this movie.