Honor to Philopoimenas Finos with the unveiling of the bust: The man of Finos Film who sealed the golden age of mass Greek cinema [videos]

The unveiling of the bust of the “patriarch” of Greek cinema, of the leading Greek film producer and founder of Finos Film, Philopoimenos Finou, were made today by the Minister of Culture Lina Mendonis and the Mayor of Athens Haris Doukas, in the park of the Larissa station, as informed by the announcement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The project was financed by the Ministry of Culture and created by the sculptor Vangelis Ilias.

In her greeting, the Minister of Culture, after noting that today the honor is being given to Philopoimenas Fino belatedly, praised his passion for cinema, recording the milestones of his thirty-year creative path which goes hand in hand with the history of Greek cinema.

“It is really extremely difficult,” he said, “to summarize, in a few lines, the course of Philopoimenas Fino. To restore his contribution and influence to their true dimensions, contemporaneously and later. Fino’s films have a decisive influence on the way in which we perceive Greece today in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Quotes from these films are, even today, a point of reference in all our discussions, friendly and more formal, having even infiltrated in our public discourse. On the other hand, it is necessary to honor his work calmly and fairly, away from inevitable nostalgic moods and idealizations of a Greece that no longer exists, the one that was forever captured by the frames of his films. How many people, in truth, had such a great and long-lasting influence on Greek society, without being, except rarely, in front of the public spotlight?

Philopoimin Finos was born in Kato Tithorea of Lokrida in 1908. His father, a doctor, became a theater manager, turning theaters into cinemas. The young Filopoimin loves “machines” and the technique of cinema. He studies law in Athens, political science in Germany, but cinema wins him forever.

“In 1939,” notes Lina Mendoni, “he filmed “The Song of Separation”, the first and last film he directed. His decision to make this his last film shows his maturity. He had realized early what his inclinations were, his creative power, his gifts. Perhaps the great secret of Fino’s success lies precisely in this: He realized, this great lover of cinema, that he was not cut out to be a director and decided to serve his great love from another position and to become – and remains to this day – the greatest Greek producer of all time, a rather unrepeatable phenomenon”.

Philopoimen Finos built an empire within three decades. It highlights a multitude of actors, directors, screenwriters, technicians who will mark a meteoric course, having passed through the “school” of Finos Film. “He stamps”, notes the Minister of Culture, “like no one else the golden age of Greek mass cinema, which is essentially born and dies with him”. Actor Yiannis Vogiatzis and cinematographer Nikos Kavoukidis, who worked at the Finos Film studios, spoke about F. Finos, as well as many other people from the cinema.

The event was attended, apart from the mayor of Athens, Haris Doukas, the former mayor of Athens, Kostas Bakoyannis, with whose cooperation this initiative was undertaken, as well as representatives of the film world.

With information from APE-MPE/E.M.
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