Adieu Jules

As a memorial to Jules Dassin, American director and philhellene, who passed away last week, the Greek Parliament's tv channel showed "The Rehearsal" last night. I have never been able to catch it from the beginning on Greek public television or track it down at the video store. It is a uniquely staged documentary (filmed entirely in a New York warehouse) depicting the events of the Polytechnic uprising of November 1973 during the the Greek junta. Sir Laurence Olivier, Maximilian Schell, Aurthur Miller, young Olympia Dukakis and of course his wife, unforgettable Melina Mercouri and others make up the cast. It is a powerful film, splendidly directed by Dassin, who once said he was most proud of this movie out of all his works.