Origins
The film “Mal Du Depart” was started in October 2008 and was finished in February 2009.
It's about a noir short film of Black B Production production under Manolis Fraggidis main direction. Fotini’s Xristodoulou remake cover music. Harris Papadopoulos at first role.
The film constitutes shot for shot transfer of the homonym history of the comic “Mal Du Depart” of Manolis Fraggidis, which was in turn based on the work of : N.Kavadias (Mal Du Depart), The Doors (Spanish Caravan) and K.G.Karyotakis (Optimism).
The music set of the film is a remake of the song Spanish Caravan (The Doors) from Fotini Xristodoulou.
The bulk of production was at Digital Backlot.
Noir
The term Noir (in French, black), was first used by the French critic U. Frank in 1946 to describe the stylished, dark, black-and-white aesthetics of movies that were filmed in the decades 1940 and 1950 with roots in German Expressionism or going back to the masters of Italian Renaissance but also the posterior mannerists in the “chiaroscuro” technique.
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Black B Productions
Anestis, Foteini, Georgia, Manolis, Triantafylos and Vasiliki met for the first time in March 2008. As students of the of "Advanced Computer and Communication Systems - Information Technologies and Communications of sound and image", Interdepartmental Post Graduate Programme, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh), Greece. They decide to establish the production company for filming "Mal Du Depart". The productors came together at October 2008 for starting the film and they still together....read more
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Manolis Fraggidis
Frangidis Manolis was born in Thessaloniki in 1980. He was in Siena, Italy at 1998 studying at Medical School, in 2007 distinguished graduate of the "Fine Arts, Department of the Faculty of Fine Arts, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki" and at year 2008 is student of DDPMS, Polytechnics School at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Greece.
He has organized and participated in art exhibitions, comics, concerts, performances, theater and film productions in Greece and abroad....read more
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Harriton Papadopoulos
He is a graduate student of the School of Fine Arts of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, School of Drama stage-design direction. He's participated in a group facility under the supervision of Apostolos Vettas the scope Kodrou (2005) and the World Stage Design Exhibition in Prague Quadrenialle stage proposals for Babel (2007). He has attended courses with lighting Freedom Deco. Curated lighting in performances Sparagmata Agamemnon, directed. D. Konstantinidis (School of Drama A.U.Th) The Certificate, directed. Maria Barbatsalou, Talk Radio, directed. Elias Papadopoulos, which also curated the scenery and costumes.^ top
Shot for Shot
This the term is used to describe the production of an image that is transferred from it's original form to an almost identical one, but without all the details. This term is generally used in the film industry to describe the production of a film based on a comic book or a graphic novel. Every scene of the movie is an exact copy of the original image.
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Comic
Manolis Fraggidis was the comic writter of "Mal Du Depart". First was published as a part of collection “Emergency Exit”, publications "inkorrekt, ISBN: 978-960-243-634-9" ...read more at blog link
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Nikos Kavadias
Was born in 1910 in a small town in Manchuria near Harbin, by Greek parents. He wrote his first poems as a pupil at the elementary school.
At first he wanted to become a captain, but the wireless operator's diploma was the quickest way out.
After the end of the World War II, he embarked and travelled continuously, as a wireless operator, all over the world, until November 1974 - just three months before the fatal stroke he suffered on February 10, 1975.
Vardia, his only novel, was published for the first time in 1954. His collection of poems Marabou was published in 1933, Pousi in 1947, and Traverso in 1975.
His short stories Li and Of the War/On my Horse were published in 1987.
"Li" was produced as a film in 1995 with the title "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea".
The poem Mal Du Depart is a part of collection Marabou, which was published in 1933.
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The Doors
Were an American rock band formed in 1965 in Los Angeles, California by vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, drummer John Densmore, and guitarist Robby Krieger.
The Doors' music was a fusion of psychedelic rock, hard rock, blues-rock, and acid rock.
They were considered a controversial band, due mostly to Morrison's cryptic lyrics and unpredictable stage persona.
The remaining members of the band dissolved it in March 1973,short of two years after Morrison's death on July 3rd 1971.
Despite a career that barely totaled eight years, The Doors still enjoy a huge cult following as well as status in the mainstream music industry as being hugely influential and original.
According to the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), they have sold over 32 million albums in the US alone.
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Kostas Karyotakis
Is a Greek poet influenced by the 19th-century French Symbolist poets.
He born in Tripolis at 1896 and died in Preveza at 1928. Κaryotakis spent most of his lonely childhood in Crete.
He read law at Athens and won a prize for poetry in 1920.
After obtaining his degree he worked as a government clerk in Athens, where he developed a friendship with the young poet Maria Polidouri.
Later he was transferred to Preveza, where he shot himself (July 20, 1928).
Karyotakis' two volumes of poetry show the influence of the New School of Poetry of Athens, founded in about 1880 by Kostis Palamas, which revolted against Katharevusa, the stilted and archaic official language of Greece, and against the emotionalism of the Romantics.
His poetry also reveals the Symbolist influence in addition to the loneliness and despair of his childhood.
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Optimism (poem of K.G.Karyotakis)
Let us assume that we still haven’t reached
the black blind alley, the abyss of the mind.
Let us assume that trees came
with imperial addiction to morning triumph,
with birds, with the light of the sky,
and the sun that will pass through them.
Let us assume that we are there,
in strange countries, in west, in north,
while we through away our coat in the air,
strangers are looking curiously, seriously.
In order to be accepted tenderly by a lady,
she turned away her servants all day long.
Let us assume that hat’s brim
suddenly widened, but they have been constricted,
our trousers are sticky and, by the command of
the spour, thousands of horses are moving
We march on – flags are waving –
heroes crusaders, saviors of Savior.
Let us assume that we still haven’t reached
through hundreds of roads the line of the silence,
and lets sing – the song must seem like
victorious tucket, burst of scream-
the rusted demons in the bowels of the earth,
and, aloft, the humans make merry.
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Spanish Caravan (a song by "The Doors" )
A song from the "Waiting for the Sun" as "The Doors" third studio album. It was released in 1968. It's basic flamenco track is an established form of flamenco music known as Granadinas.
Its basic flamenco track is an established form of flamenco music known as Granadinas. According to Robbie Krieger, guitarist for the Doors, the beginning riff was taken from Asturias, a classical piece of music by Isaac Albeniz.
It also borrows a similar sounding riff from Malaguena. According to Robbie Krieger, guitarist for the Doors, the beginning riff was taken from Asturias, a classical piece of music by Isaac Albeniz.
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Foteini Christodoulou
She is a graduate of the Department of Music Studies, School of Fine Arts of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and in 2008 is a postgraduate student of the Department DDPMS HMMY of AUTH. He has taken part in concerts and choral music festivals in Greece and abroad. From 2003 he worked as a piano teacher in music schools..........read more
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Digital Backlot:
Is a term (also known as a virtual backlot)used to describe motion picture sets that have neither genuine location shoots nor practical (i.e. hand-built) sets on the soundstages; the shooting takes place entirely on a stage with a blank background (often a greenscreen) that will have an artificial environment put in during post-production.
It is often used in futuristic films to achieve what would otherwise be too expensive to build as a real set.
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Mal Du Depart (poem of N.Kavadias )
Always the perfect, unworthy lover
of the endless voyage and azure ocean,
I shall die one evening, like any other,
without having crossed the dim horizon.
For Madras, Singapore, Algeria, Sfax,
the proud ships will still be setting sail,
but I shall bend over a chart-covered desk
and look in the ledger, and make out a bill.
My friends will think I've forgotten at last;
my mother will be delighted: she'll say
"A young man's fancy, but now it's passed."
But one night my soul will rise up before me,
and ask, like some grim executioner, "Why?"
This unworthy trembling hand will take arms
and fearlessly strike where the blame must lie.
And I, who longed to be buried one day
in some deep sea of the distant Indies
shall come to a dull and common death;
shall go to a grave like the graves of so many.