AthenaStreet Car-Free! AIFF presents two enchanting midnight screenings in the heart of the city
The Athens International Film Festival in collaboration with This is Athens - City Festival, organized by the City of Athens are celebrating World Car Free Day and are transforming Athinas Street into an open air cinema for a special evening with two back to back midnight screenings in the heart of the city, overlooking the Acropolis.
On September 21, from 00.00 to 04.00 A.M., we invite you to enjoy two masterpieces of classic cinema in a spectacular double screening with free admission: Charlie Chaplin's CITY LIGHTS accompanied by live music composed by Alexandros Livitsanos & Wim Wender’s WINGS OF DESIRE.
Saturday, September 21
00:00 – 01:30
CITY LIGHTS| 1931, 81’
Director: Charlie Chaplin
Accompanied by live music by the composer Alexandros Livitsanos
As a social allegory and a touching love story, Chaplin's "Lights" still shine. In his indisputable masterpiece, which ranks among the ten best films in cinematic history, the director created a formula, bringing together chance, melodrama creating an entire world - a mirror image of the harsh post-war era (the Great Depression) which everyone, regardless of gender and race, identified with, was moved by and inhabited. And the cinematic worlds one inhabits are the most realistic.
The screening will be accompanied by live music from the composer, orchestrator and pianist Alexandros Livitsanos.
A few words about Alexandros Livitsanos
Composer, orchestrator and pianist Alexandros Livitsanos, recognized for his musical stylistic range, made his debut in 2016 with the album, “Circular Argument”, which was released by Decca. Since 2015 he has collaborated with artists like Alexandre Desplat, the Canadian Brass, Michel Legrand, King’s Singers, Alain Trudel, Onassis Foundation, Athens State Orchestra, HBC’s Musical Ensemble, Stavros Niarchos Foundation, Greek National Opera, El Sistema Greece Youth Orchestra and the Greek Youth Symphony Orchestra, as well as important orchestras throughout the world, as arranger and composer. In 2023 he created with Yiannis Niarros «Spirtokouto: The Musical» (2023), for Onassis Stegi, as well as the soundtrack for the movie “Brando With A Glass Eye” by Antonis Tsonis, which he recorded with the City of Prague Symphony Orchestra. In 2024 he composed part of the soundtrack for Yannis Economides’ “Spasmeni Fleva”, while also creating the music for Miguel Angel Jiménez’s “The Birthday Party”, starring Willem Dafoe.
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01:45 – 04:00
WINGS OF DESIRE | 1987, 128’
Director: Wim Wenders
Invisible guardian angels are roaming around Berlin, listening to the thoughts of mortals from the roofs of buildings and dreaming about briefly living as humans. In his most poetic and philosophical creation, with the help of evocative B&W photography, Wenders delivers an expressionistic, profound and mystical metropolitan symphony, transforming the German capital into a universe that magically binds the tangible with the ethereal.
A few words about ATHENASTREET CAR FREE
The busy Athinas Street, from Evripidou Street to Ermou Street, will be empty from 8 p.m. on Saturday, September 21st to 8 p.m. Sunday for a 24-hour long day of events, music and cinema.
The full schedule can be found here.
The full program of the 30th Athens International Film Festival will be announced during the Press Conference on Wednesday, September 25th 2024, at 18:30, at the "Auditorium Theo Angelopoulos" of the French Institute of Greece in Athens.
The Athens International Film Festival, sponsored by Nova, will take place from October 2nd to 14th. The venues that will host this year's event are: DANAOS I & II, CINOBO OPERA I & II, ASTOR, ASTY, FRENCH INSTITUTE OF GREECE, MEGARON ATHENS CONCERT HALL and PALLAS.
For constant updates and more information about the Athens International Film Festival tune in to our sites aiff.gr and cinemagazine.gr and our social media pages: Facebook AIFF, AIFF Instagram, Cinemagazine Instagram, TikTok, Twitter.
