Such Is Life (1931) Review: A messy, fascinating slice of early Greek cinema

If you are the kind of person who gets excited by dusty film archives and crackling audio, Such Is Life is a weirdly charming watch. But if you cannot stand slow, silent-era acting and melodramatic sighing, you will probably want to turn this off after five minutes. 🎞️

It is a Greek film from 1931, a time when cinema was still trying to find its feet over there. The plot is your basic tragic love story, full of rich people being miserable and poor people being slightly less miserable but much more dramatic.

I stumbled onto this one late at night, expecting something like the grand Hollywood dramas of the era. Instead, it feels much more like a home movie made by people who owned very expensive outfits.

Lola Papas plays the lead, and she has this incredibly intense way of staring just slightly to the left of the camera. It makes every emotional scene feel like she is trying to read a cue card that is way too far away.

There is this one scene in a garden where two characters talk for what feels like ten minutes without actually saying anything. The camera just sits there, completely still, like the cameraman fell asleep in the Mediterranean sun. ☀️

The print I saw was incredibly rough, which honestly added to the vibe. You get these massive scratches running down the middle of the screen during the most dramatic arguments.

It lacks the smooth, tragic grace you find in something like Blood and Sand, where every movement feels choreographed. Here, people just kind of bumble into the frame, look shocked, and then stumble back out.

And yet, there is a strange honesty to it all. You can feel how hard they were trying to make something grand with almost no resources.

My favorite part is a random dog that wanders into the background of a very serious breakup scene. No one shooed it away, so it just sniffs a bush while the actors cry their eyes out. 🐕

The music is also incredibly loud, sometimes completely drowning out whatever emotion the scene is trying to build. It feels like the organist was getting paid by the note.

It is definitely not a masterpiece, and the writing by Orfeas Karavias is as predictable as a rainy Tuesday. But for a quick glimpse into Greek film history, it is a fun little time machine.

Just do not go in expecting anything polished. It is clumsy, it is noisy, and it is absolutely worth a look if you are curious.