Distinguished director, Dimitris Kollatos, has died at the age of 88.
- Written by E.Tsiliopoulos
Dimitris Kollatos passed away at his home on Thursday (30/01) in the afternoon. According to information, in recent years he had been facing many health problems.
Actor Union head Spyros Bibilas said goodbye to Dimitris Kollatos with a post on his personal Facebook account:
“Goodbye, my dear Dimitris.. I loved you as a child and you loved me since you were a classmate of my mother’s brother! How many conversations we had together! How many screenings of your films! How many summers in Aegina at the Greek cinema festival that you organized on your pistachio farm. Dimitris, I will never forget your concern for Alkis! Alexander and all the children will continue your work and remember you with them. Last summer in Aegina you told me next year here again!!! But you traveled… Have a nice trip philosopher, director, writer, traveler of dreams… we will remember you, always Dimitris Kollatos!
Who was Dimitris Kollatos
He was born on June 9, 1937 in Athens. He wrote his first poetry collection in 1956, while he was a high school student.
In 1959-1960 he founded the Experimental Pocket Theatre, staging, in that and the following two theatrical seasons, in a basement on Stournari Street, Ionesco's The Bald Singer, Samuel Beckett's Endgame and Harold Pinter's The Room, William Ing's A Rainy Afternoon, and The Blessed René de Obaldia.
On October 7, 1961 in Paris he staged Euripides' Iphigenia in Tauris, at the Centre Culturel starring: Arlette Baumann, Roger Jandly, Nicolas Ruffieux, M.-F. Bonte, F. Guiman.
The French magazine L'Express described the performance as "a spring in French theater". Arlette Baumann became his wife, with whom he had two sons, Alexander and Alkis.
In 1962 he made his first short film, Athens Xi Psi Xi, which was awarded at the Thessaloniki Film Festival. This was followed by his medium-length film, Olives, in 1964, which was also awarded.
In 1966, his feature film, Death of Alexander, was ignored by the official awards at the Thessaloniki Film Festival, but it won three critics' awards (best film, best screenplay, best music) and was not only an artistic but also a box-office success, after it was shown in Athens cinemas, it sold 29,900 tickets in one week.
Manos Hatzidakis had said: "The most important film that was shown at the Thessaloniki Festival, a truly powerful presence that left me stunned with the courage and power of its conception, was Dimitris Kollatos' film "The Death of Alexander". This is the truly great film of the festival. Dimitris Kollatos is the first Dramatist of Greek cinema".
During the dictatorship in Greece, he settled permanently in France, where he staged 20 theatrical productions, creating the Theater of Art (Théatre de l'Art) in the same building of the Chatelet, in Paris. There he presented, among others, the play Philippe Pétain and his play The Woman of Socrates, a monologue starring his wife Arlette Baumann which he staged at the Theater of Art. The premiere took place on 22 December 1973. It was selected as the best performance of the year, and was presented at the Theatre of Nations in Brussels and repeated in January 1975 and September 1976.
He also made the film Symposium (1972), on the theme of love and homosexuality. In 1974 he staged his play Good Evening, Mr. Chekhov, co-starring Arlette Baumann and Fanny Ardant.
After his return to Greece in 1975, he began to stage a series of performances that were considered by many to be aimed at provocation (such as Sodom and Gomorrah, featuring nudity, which caused a stir at the time) or even political and social activism rather than art, such as The Shipowners, Agios Prevezis, which was also made into a film (1982), and The Doctors.
The film about his autistic son and his wife's suicide
However, he won sympathy with his stance on the rights of autistic children, driven by his personal experience with his son Alkis, and the creation of a special space in Aegina for autistic children. Alkis died in April 2021, at the age of 44.
In the autobiographical film Life with Alkis (1988), the role of the autistic young man was played by his other son, Alexandros Kollatos, who won an award for his performance. Alexandros has since become an actor and director.
Another film, I Plucked Your Red Roses (1993), tells not only about the experience of a parent with an autistic child but also about the suicide of his wife Arlette Baumann.
In his film “Alexander and Aïsé” (1998), again starring his son Alexandros, he approaches the issue of the Muslim minority through a love story. While “The Testament of the Priest Jean Meslier” (2009), returns again to the theme of the
practice and the role of the church.
The TV show and the citizens' movement
He had his own TV show for a year entitled: "Kollatos without censorship".
In 1989 and again in 2013 he ran for MEP. In 2011 he created the "Porta-Porta citizens' association".
In 2014 he made the film Dionysus on the subject of Greece in the crisis, with which he participated in the Thessaloniki Festival.
In 1993, at the 34th Thessaloniki Film Festival, Kollatos was awarded a special award for the subject of his film I Plucked Your Red Rose.
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