Directed by Dinos Dimopoulos.
Written by Ilias Lyberopoulos. Cinematography by Nikos Kavoukidis, Music by Stavros Xarhakos
The film stars Jenny Karezi (The Red Lanterns) as Lola. Karezi is like a combination of Anne Francis and Bettie Page, and you can't take your eye's off her. Nikos Kourkoulos as Aris Lola's boyfriend,
Dionysis Papagiannopoulos as gangster Stelios, Pantelis Zervos as Lola's Father, Nikos Fermas as Pareas , Spyros Kalogirou as Mavros, Carol Riva (playing herself) as the stripper, with Giannis Vogiatzis, Lavrentis Dianellos and the real Piraeus red light district Trouba.
Story
Aris the "sharpest knife in Trouba" does a three year stretch in prison taking the fall for a smuggling rap on a job pulled by Stelios and his gang. It's been rumored that Stelios ratted on Aris when the police were getting to close. Stelios also wanted Lola, Aris' girlfriend for himself.
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| Nikos Kourkoulos as Aris |
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| Trouba - the fleet is in.... (not from the film) |
From a Greek Tourist Guide webpage: "Apartment buildings rose up among the brothels and cabarets. Cabarets such as the famous “John Bull” or “Black Cat” promised all kinds of pleasures to hungry seamen. The brothels of the area made many panderers rich and generated folk-lore stories of suffering prostitutes with hearts of gold." The guide even mentions these films.
Back to Aris...
In the whole three years he was in the slammer Aris never heard anything from Lola his hooker / entertainer girl friend, nor anything from Stelios. He does find out that Lola is still working for Stelios from Saris, a Trouba hood he knows who just arrived at the prison. Aris' only real friend is a fatherly guard who takes a liking to him. He shares with Aris his cigarettes. We find out later why.
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| Pantelis Zervos as Lola's Father |
With his time done Aris finally gets out. We get the usual prison visuals, locks, bars, keys, the screws, etc., etc. The guard hands Aris the picture of Lola that he left in the cell. Aris tears it up and throws the pieces on the floor. The guard tells Aris that he is also leaving the prison since he's about to retire. The guard tells Aris to look him up sometime at the bar he hangs out in, They say goodbye and Aris heads out of the prison door and into Athens.
As Aris walks we get a little POV camera work as we see Aris feet, shoes and his pinstripe pants and his legs walk him back out into the world, Aris makes his way down towards the port of Piraeus and back to Trouba.
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| The prison |
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| Stelios' Cabaret |
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| Dionysis Papagiannopoulos as Stelios |
We see Stelios watching the number. Then we cut to one of Stelios' goons at the entrance who catches Stelios' attention. Somethings up.
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| Relias - Anestis Vlahos? |
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| Jenny Karezi as Lola |
What's up is that through their underground grapevine a lookout Liakuras saw Aris in Omonia Square he was let out of prison early and he is heading this way. A curtain parts and we see Lola watch Stelios go over to his henchman Relias. Relias tugs his head in the direction of the office.
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| "He's out" |
She finds out that Aris is out of prison and heading to Trouba. Stelios tells Relias to place Slim down at the corner to watch for Aris.
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| Me? Want what? |
We cut to Aris as he walks down the busy Trouba block of cabaret's, hotels, and bordellos.
Aris (V.O.): In Trouba Nothing has changed. As much as I was different... but just being back here is building up my confidence. Most of them knew me i used to be Trouba's sharpest knife. But they didn't know that I was noe sick of this world, and that the only thing that brought me back here was my hurt pride. I'm not telling you the truth. I wasn't just my pride...it was her. I came back for her. To see her. three tears in jail and I never stopped thinking of her. She was in my eyes.. In my blood...
There is no start... My tears are like rain...
There is no end to the sky. My soul is heavy.
Who will be there? To tell me where to stand. To tell you why to leave.
For just a kiss there is no start. There is no end to my thorn, The pain is bitter.
The world is small.... For a kiss for a bitter kiss. My tears like rain. Why did you leave?
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| I want Lola |
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| Send Marianna |
Marianna: Hello gorgeous!
Aris: Hello and split.
Marianna: I beg your pardon?
Aris: I said split!
Marianna: Aren't we all serious! I'll pass.
Marianna takes off and Aris call back the waiter. He asks him if he speaks Greek? Then tells him to send out Lola. The waiter tells him that "baldhead" (Stelios) told him to send out Marianna because Lola was busy. Aris tells the waiter to tell Stelios he's got ten minutes to send out Lola.
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| Aris says you have ten minutes to send out Lola |
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| Don't forget that you belong to me. |
Lola walks out into the cabaret sees, Aris. hesitates and then finds the courage to go and sit with Aris. He calls a waiter for another glass and pours her a whiskey. He lights a cigarette out of a pack and passes it to Lola's lips. He tells her it's her brand. (subtext it any way you want ;-)) He tells her Cheers Lola, lets toast to your boss.
Aris: You haven't changed a bit Lola
Lola: Neither have you.
They make some small talk until a loudly banged table swings out attention to a husky, bald, Mr. Madakakis, seated at a table along a wall who "wants" Lola. The waiter explains that she's "taken" for now.
Madakakis: Tell her to leave him. I've spent a fortune for her.
Waiter: I can bring you Marianna. She is more...
Madakakis: I don't want her. You have her. I said I want Lola. [leans over and looks towards Aris] Who is that jerk with her?
Waiter: That, is the sharpest knife in Trouba. It's Aris.
Madakakis: Ok send Marianna.
Aris: Where you you "pocketing" (screwing) the fat guy lately?
Lola: I kept him company a couple of times here.
Aris: Here's to you Lola. We'll drink for three years tonight. And we'll make up for three years. Can you look at me in the eyes, like back then?
Lola: What do you think?
Aris: Nothing. I'm waiting for you to look at me.
Lola: Not now Aris not here.
Aris: Why?
Lola lifts her head and gazes past Aris. Aris turns and sees Stelios watching them. Aris grabs the tablecloth and pulls it off. A drum rolls the lights dim and Carol Riva a french stripper does a reverse strip routine.
Carol Riva
After Carol Riva's striptease Aris calls the waiter over again. The waiter brings another bottle and Aris asks for the check. When hands it to Aris Aris hands it back tells him to give it to Stelios and tell him he want's his 20,000 drachmas and the lady's coat.
Meanwhile Stelios is already plotting against Aris. It all goes Noirsville when Stelios instructs Ivan another of his goons to go and find "Black" an assassin for hire.
Stelios gives the waiter the 20,000 out of the safe. The waiter brings it to Aris and Lola. They get into a cab outside the cabaret.
Aris: Tzitzifies, Rigas.
And they head to another night club where we get a song by Panos Gavalas and Ria Kourti.
Noirsville
Troumba’s heyday peaked in the 1960s when the number of prostitutes reached 3,000 (though the official number was 500). Apartment buildings rose up among the brothels and cabarets. Cabarets such as the famous “John Bull” or “Black Cat” promised all kinds of pleasures to hungry seamen. The brothels of the area made many panderers rich and generated folk-lore stories of suffering prostitutes with hearts of gold. The 1963 movie “The Red Lights” is a good depiction of Trouba and the characters who inhabited it.
TROUMBA IN PIRAEUS
(from TALES OF THE SEA TOLD BY THE SEAMEN (Sea stories)
Author: KYRIAKOS TAPAKOUDES
Piraeus by night, with its dives, cabarets, brothels, coffee shops, hash dens, the bullies and the lads, the singers of “rebetika” Greek songs, the lady boys, the pickpockets and the harbour thieves. All concentrated together in one neighbourhood close to the harbour on Troumba street and surrounding areas.
In 1832, with the creation of the Greek state and the naming of Athens as the capital city, the harbour was brought back to life and developed into the largest port of the country. To facilitate the ships and their supply with water, they dug a well on the dock in 1860 and installed a pump (in Greek slang: “tromba”) for supplying the ships with water. The area was named Troumba because of this pump (tromba).
Troumba was the area of ill repute of Piraeus and, during the time of the American presence in the area, it enjoyed its heyday due to its prostitution and lawlessness, the cabarets, prostitutes and pimps. Every time an American vessel of the 6th Fleet docked in the harbour, the residents and people from the surrounding areas came up with ways to get their hands on the Americans’ money.
So, during these times of poverty where people did not even have a place in the sun, Troumba ended up being a lawless place, with its own unwritten rules.
Every Wednesday when I was a child, I remember Leonidas’ cinema where I paid half a shilling and watched Greek films. Through them I learnt about this place of ill repute and its tough life. I got to know the hard character of the people through actor Giorgos Foundas who played the honest but tough man, the sneaky and unscrupulous snitch played by Stephanos Stratigos and, through the unique acting of the immortal Effie Economou, I got to know about the nasty prostitutes and the honest women who stooped to such level either because they were drawn into that sort of life or were forced to do so by poverty and bullies. These scenes affected the viewers and drew their minds into experiencing imaginary adventures. These were otherworldly stories, about the past, successfully presented by Greek cinema. These films presented the poverty that ravaged Greece after the war. When poor beautiful women would come to Piraeus with the excuse of looking for work; where even married women resorted to selling their body. A subterranean unlawful world full of mystery and fear which scared the law abiding, peace loving citizens.
As I was in Greece, it was natural for me to think of visiting the notorious neighbourhood. They had changed its name in an attempt to change its history. It was the period between 1973 and 1978, and they succeeded in changing nothing. This was still an area full of pimps, homosexuals, prostitution and erotic cinemas. A hedonistic world, where seamen and other customers partied with female companions in the cinemas, eateries and coffee shops all day, while during the night, they watched strippers in the cabarets in the company of pimps and bouncers who stood in the side-lines, discretely watching and ready to intervene, where necessary.
In the beginning, influenced by the films I had watched which showed the dangers that lurked in the partly lit darkened depths of these dives, I did not go into cabarets. I passed my time lounging in the coffee shops “Hellas” or “Voskopoula” which were the usual haunts of sailors but mainly of Cypriots who were walking the Piraeus coastline looking for work on the ships. I did prefer, however, going into the two cinemas on the coast which showed back to back adult films. It was the era when the public showing of pornography had just been allowed and this resulted in the cinemas filling to bursting point with insatiable viewers. It was something new for Greece after the fall of the military junta that had ruled Greece for seven years.
I had just been discharged from the ship. I remember I walked down to Piraeus and, on entering the coffee shop “Hellas”, fell onto an old friend from my village, my best friend Andreas with whom I grew up and who was my buddy, in everything good, and everything bad. He was studying to be an aircraft engineer.
Together with my friend and two more lads from Kalamata, we decided that this was the day to celebrate. Being alone and feeling lonely in foreign lands, we decided to seek female company and entered a cabaret. It was early evening; the customers were few and the prostitutes were plentiful. In the dimly lit place smelling heavily of incense, there were half-naked women all looking beautiful and desirable. We were welcomed and taken to a corner at the back of the room, an area a little secluded and a little raised from the floor. We sat on comfortable couches and in a very relaxed atmosphere we watched beautiful girls dance only for us. We ordered drinks for us, and also for the girls. I didn’t enjoy drinking, I always had just one or two. That night, I wanted to be in control and not become giddy, so I decided I would only have a beer. I was worried, afraid we might get involved in unpleasantries with the pimps, the thieves and robbers. I guess I was still influenced by the films with Foundas and Kourkoulos.
I cannot remember ordering a second or third drink that night, I cannot remember many things at all, only that I had a good time. I had flashbacks of hedonistic and pleasant moments with the gorgeous girls, touching me, caressing me, kissing me sweetly.
With no further memory the next day, I woke in the old hotel, lying on the old bed, alone. On my back and looking at the ceiling, cigarette in hand, I tried to remember what happened the night before. All I recalled were flashing memories of pleasure and sensuality, visions of bare-breasted girls in the bar touching and fondling me.
With dread I reached out and pulled my clothes towards me, certain about what I would find. I looked in the pockets. A large sum of money I had withdrawn the previous day was gone, nothing was left. All was spent on prostitutes. I needed to get up early and go to the company to draw on account of my next commission’s wages. I could not continue living on shore for more days, I had spent all my money in one night. It seems the waiters, the women, the cabaret owners had their ways and used incense and other substances to relax the customers into spending their money with ease. This was probably what happened to us. However, I was not really upset, for me, that was a new and relaxing experience.
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