Our next guest is the filmmaker George Arvanitis with his autobiographical book “A Life in the Light”, published by Patakis Editions.

A Few Words About the Author

George Arvanitis was born on February 22, 1941, in the village of Dilofo in the Phthiotis region, just weeks before the German invasion of Greece. During the Civil War, his father was a guerrilla fighter in the mountains, his mother was imprisoned, and six-year-old George was sent to Nea Penteli, where he was raised by his mother’s siblings. After finishing elementary school, he enrolled in the Diplarios Technical School to study as an electrician while also working in construction. At the age of seventeen, he began attending a drama school and worked as a general assistant on a film set. Soon, he became an assistant cameraman, and by the age of twenty-five, in 1966, Finos appointed him as director of photography.  

He worked on major successes of commercial Greek cinema, such as “Blue Beads”, “The Teacher with the Golden Hair”, “The Lady and the Tramp”, and “The Fairy and the Young Man”, among others. In 1968, his collaboration with Theodoros Angelopoulos began, soon earning him his first Best Cinematography award at the Thessaloniki Film Festival for Reconstruction. A few years later, he left Finos Film permanently to dedicate himself to the kind of cinema that suited him best. What followed was his "cinematic coming of age" and a brilliant international career.

A Few Words About the Book

"Where do you want to start?" Arvanitis asked me one morning in June 2019, the moment I pressed rec for the first time. "I have no idea", I replied. Now, as I reach the end, I finally have some idea of what this book truly is. It is not the story of a life; it is the story of an interpretation of living, a personal gaze upon the world. It is a "look".  E. Ch.  

Elisavet Chronopoulou engages in conversation with cinematographer Giorgos Arvanitis, who recounts a life that unfolds like a film—his own life. How, from the ashes of the Greek countryside during the Occupation, he rose to become an internationally acclaimed director of photography. How, starting at Finos Film, where he illuminated the stars of old Greek cinema, he found his artistic purpose in capturing the overcast Greece of Angelopoulos’ films. How, filming across the globe, he met and collaborated with legends of world cinema.