Nikos Foskolos ( el, Νίκος Φώσκολος; 26 November 1927 – 30 October 2013) was a Greek screenwriter and director. He is one of the most commercially successful screenwriters of Greek cinema. He has been called the "Goldfinger of commercial shows". He has been described as "the ''maître'' of exaggeration" and "the king of TV shows". His film ''

Ipolochagos Natassa ''Ipolochagos Natassa'' (Greek: ''Υπολοχαγός Νατάσσα'', ''Lieutenant Natasha'', also known outside Greece as ''Battlefield Constantinople'') is a 1970 Greek film. It starred Aliki Vougiouklaki as Natassa, Dimitris Papamichael as ...

'' kept the most commercially successful film record for almost three decades from 1970 to 1999.

Life and career

Foskolos was born in Athens on 26 November 1927. He studied Political Science at the University of Athens but did not graduate. From the age of 17, he started writing successful radio plays with both a historical and modern background. His radio series ''Police Stories'' were the most popular radio series for three years. In the 1960s, he worked as a theatre critic and also wrote plays for the theatre and radio. He wrote screenplays for over 70 Greek films, mostly working for

Finos Film Finos Film (Greek: Φίνος Φιλμ) is a film production company that dominated the Greek film industry from 1943 to 1977. It was founded by Filopimin Finos in 1942 during World War II. It was the biggest film production company in Greece at ...

. He introduced

Spaghetti Western The Spaghetti Western is a broad subgenre of Western films produced in Europe. It emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's film-making style and international box-office success. The term was used by foreign critics because most o ...

s to Greek cinema. His TV daily serial ''

Lampsi Lampsi (Greek: ''Η Λάμψη'', English: ''The Shine'') was the longest running series in Greek television, among the most famous in Greece and Bulgaria. It was aired for more than 14 years by the Greek television station ANT1 nearly every day ...

'' was a huge success and ran for 14 seasons getting into the Guinness World Records in 1995. He gained another entry into the Guinness World Records for writing two daily TV series, ''Lampsi'' and ''Kalimera Zoi'', for ten years. ''Lampsi'' was shown for 13 years from 1991 to 2005 with a total of 3457 episodes produced. In the 1970s, his TV serial ''Agnostos Polemos'' (Unknown War) broke the record of TV ratings with 92% of Greek households tuning in to the show. Foskolos has been described as an "important screenwriter", a "talented director", a "wonderful human being" and "the father of TV-serials and films". '' Ta Nea'' refers to him as "hyperproductive". The same paper also calls him ''polygrafotatos'' translating as "a prolific writer".

Interview

In a 1999 interview to the '' Vima'' newspaper, Foskolos said that he wonders if the political reality in Greece has surpassed even his own screenplays and said that he thinks that Greek society has "fallen into a vertical aquarium of corruption". He said than in one scene of his film ''Koinonia, Ora Miden'' (Society, Hour Zero) a corrupt politician offers millions to

Nikos Kourkoulos Nikos Kourkoulos ( el, Νίκος Κούρκουλος; December 5, 1934 in Athens, Greece – January 30, 2007) was a highly respected Greek theatrical and film performer, one of the most talented and recognizable actors in Greece of modern tim ...

, who was playing the role of the honest hero of the film, to buy his silence for a crime committed by his cohorts. The politician told the hero that the price they had to pay was selling their conscience for their livelihood. Foskolos then remarked that the story he wrote for the film turned out to be prescient in the years that followed.

Awards

Foskolos has received awards for ''The Asphalt Fever'' (Πυρετός στην άσφαλτο), and ''The Ruthless'' (Οι αδίστακτοι). His film ''

Blood on the Land ''Blood on the Land'' ( el, Το χώμα βάφτηκε κόκκινο, To homa vaftike kokkino, The earth was painted red) is a 1966 Greek western drama film directed by Vasilis Georgiadis. Its subject is conflict between landowners and agricul ...

'' (Το χώμα βάφτηκε κόκκινο) was an Academy Awards Best Foreign Film nominee in 1965. He also received three awards and a state award for ''Concert for Machine Guns'' (Κοντσέρτο για πολυβόλα).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Foskolos, Nikos 1927 births 2013 deaths Greek film directors Greek screenwriters Film people from Athens