Photos: Classiq Journal
The humming of cicadas. It’s the sound of summer in Crete, and once you’ve experienced it, it can become the sound of every summer. The continuous noise that comes from the trees that carpet the rolling Cretan hills and interrupts the serenity of the noon is a soothing reminder that you are in the midst of summer. But not just any summer, but an unhurried, far-removed from the pace of everyday life summer. With this humming in your ear, and the high-rise sun in your eye, bouncing its blinding light off the stone-washed traditional cottages, or even off the waters of the sea if you happen to be on a beach sheltered by juniper pines, you feel you’re in a haze.
More than the sound of waves, I will always associate the sound of cicadas with summer, just as I have always done with a favourite summer film. The kind of film that can capture the suspended reality of summer, that can evoke a special childhood memory, that can make you succumb to chance and to the languid summer magic, or that is able to transport you to another time and world. It can be about a place just as much as it can about a mindset. A favourite summer film, just like a sound or song, lingers with you long after you’ve watched it and may even accompany you throughout a lifetime.
Summer is the only time of year when you can sometimes feel like the main character in your own adventure film, roaming the majestic scenery of your most without boundaries side. And watching the shimmering, huge sun dip into the sea, you get a deeper sense of tomorrow and that you can not really know what to expect from it.
Viewing
A few scenic films shot in Greece.
Never on Sunday (1960) is my favourite film set in Greece. It is Jules Dassin’s love letter to Greece. Homer (Jules Dassin himself) is an American scholar who sets about improving a prostitute, Ilia (Melina Mercouri), he is fond of, starting from the premise that he must find out the truth: why Greece, the cradle of civilisation and culture, (and subsequently Ilia, the symbol of Greece to him, beautiful, graceful and intelligent), has given in to a life of pleasure. The truth is a little different than his perception of life, and than the American way of thinking and seeing the world. Melina Mercouri is superb in the film (she won the Cannes Film Festival for her role and was nominated to the Academy Award). She holds the screen, such is her magnetic presence. The setting is the picturesque port of Piraeus, the music is traditional bouzouki music, the cast and crew are almost entirely Greek, and the whole atmosphere is authentically Greek.
The Two Faces of January (2014), featuring a wonderful trio, Kirsten Dunst, Viggo Mortensen and Oscar Isaac, with its underlying tension, ever-twisting emotional dynamics and that beautifully built contrast between a sun-drenched backdrop and a dark plot that takes us to Athens, an island or the coast line. It’s the story of a holiday gone wrong.
The Lost Daughter, one of the best films of last year, Maggie Gyllenhaal’s adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s novel by the same name and which has as center character a terrific Olivia Colman as Leda, a middle-aged university professor while on a work holiday on a Greek island. In my interview with costume designer Edward K. Gibbon, we have talked about the costumes as part of the gateway to the character, a fundamental yet subtle and gentle piece to put the story on.
For Your Eyes Only (1981), because it’s a Bond film, because of its locales, which are very much a part of the allure of a James Bond film – Greece, as well as Italy and The Bahamas – but also because it was the first Roger Moore film that was shaped as a more serious and realistic spy thriller anchored on a young woman, Melina Havelock (Carole Bouquet), being also the first time when we are reminded of Bond’s personal story at the very beginning of the film when Bond goes to the grave of his wife – that was a first in the history of the Bond films. But what makes For Your Eyes Only stand out even more though is that they put a bit of edge on Roger Moore’s Bond.
Une femme à sa fenêtre (A Woman at Her Window), 1976, is based on the 1929 novel Hotel Acropolis, written by Pierre Drieu La Rochelle, which tells the story of a woman who helps a union leader sought by police in 1930s Greece. The woman, an aristocrat married to her husband in name only, is Romy Schneider, which is why I set out to watch the film in the first place. Romy was nominated to the César Awards and, fortunately, the film, which also stars Philippe Noiret, makes up in scenery (beautiful tennis clay court included) for what it lacks in plot.
And a few summer favourites we look forward to each year: Jurassic Park, because we have the biggest seven-year-old dinosaur lover and true connoisseur in the house and we never get tired of watching Jurassic Park with him. And yet, the film is that good. We have also watched Jaws with him recently. “It’s good, but not as good as Jurassic Park,” was the verdict. Arguments ensued, each held their ground. And… the Hitchcock initiation has finally happened, with The Birds. And let me just say that we might have a movie buff on our hands. On a side note, I still very much believe that Rod Taylor is just as underrated as Tippi Hedren and her place among Alfred Hitchcock’s heroines is.
Reading
Billy Idol’s Dancing with Myself. He is the first big rock musician I have been to see in concert. The impact was huge, and his music has stayed with me. And it’s his love of music – not just punk, but the early rock ‘n’ roll, “the forward momentum of music that is meant to be danced on” and music in general, because he would “incorporate the energy and spirit of punk into many different musical settings” throughout his career – that you truly get to take a taste of in the book. From the kind of musician who believed in the power of song, and sincerely believed in his music, creating an audience where none had existed before. It’s so far away from today’s uneasy, disturbing lack of authenticity.
Cultivating Conversations, a monthly interview series with people doing interesting work within the bounds of community, nature, and sustainability.
“We wanted to create a new optimism
rather than continue to wallow on self-pity.
We were young and idealistic!
We believed in the healing power of music
and its ability to challenge society.”
Listening
Billy Idol: Billy Idol, Rebel Yell and Devil’s Playground.
Dickon Hinchliffe for The Lost Daughter should be the soundtrack of every road trip.
The Jurassic Park main theme, because isn’t it a great way to start a summer day, ripe for adventure, especially for children?
Making
Their art is olive oil. Presiding from the top of the hills over millennial olive trees on the north-western tip of Crete, the Astrikas Estate Biolea makes single estate, stone milled and cold pressed organic olive oil sourced from their 3,000 trees. Owned by two brothers, Biolea is a sincere and attentive family business that strives for excellence by combining innovation and tradition, remaining environmentally accountable, and promoting sustainable tourism. They don’t export their products, which is another identity-defining element that, frankly, makes the visit to the estate that much more special, as you can only procure their products, such as olive oil, hand-made soap and citrus balm, in their on-site shop. It’s a living space where one can find shelter from the blazing sun under the shade of olive trees, where people can meet and take their time, or an entire afternoon, to talk or simply unwind while enjoying a cold orangade (best refreshing drink), Greek coffee (so close to what I make at home) or a glass of wine at the outdoor wine bar.
Exploring
The island of Crete. And the best guideline for that are the words of Alberta Galla and Michele Buonsanti, who explored the Cretan shoreline by foot or by hardly accessible roads and wrote the book The Most Beautiful Beaches in Crete: A guide to hidden, picturesque locations along the Cretan Coastline. “You will need a good map, an adventurous spirit, a strong desire to go and explore the island”, because the aim is to avoid “doing it the easy way”, never giving in to the temptations of standard, sterile tours that are what tourists look for but also what keep real travelleres off from their destination and deeper experience. But these are guidelines to be applied to discovering the entire island, not just its beaches, with its hidden gems, sun-drenched tavernas and picturesque villages scattered along winding mountain roads lined by olive trees that end with grand vistas of the sea, rocky inlets or out-of-the-way gorges.
And always take up on the word of the locals, who, if you are lucky enough, can be your own hotel hosts. That’s how you get to discover the still authentic sides of the place and you might just find out that you prefer the rawness and simplicity of a rocky strand shaded by tamarisk trees with a beautiful position overlooking the sea to any other white-sand, picture-perfect, crowd-pleaser beach. What’s the point of going on an island if you don’t look for off-grid places that can kick off that feeling of pure freedom?
The regulars: The interviews, newsletters and podcasts I turn to every week and/or every month because they are that good. Craig Mod’s newsletters: Roden and Ridgeline. Soundtracking, with Edith Bowman. Alicia Kennedy’s newsletter. The Racquet magazine newsletter. The Adventure Podcast: Terra Incognita. The print magazines Monocle and Sirene.
