Tasos Meletopoulos

Biography

Born in Athens, Greece. Studied at the Lycée Léonin of Athens and in the Theresianische Akademie in Vienna. One of the pioneers of Greek cinema, he worked as art director in Dimitris Gaziadis' Astero (1929) and Orestis Laskos' Daphnis and Chloe (1931) on the side of Dimitris Meravidis, and had a small role in Ahilleas Madras' The Wizard of Athens (1931). He directed two feature films, Open Sea (1954) and Elsewhere the Cackling (1960), and two short documentaries, Sophocles' Elektra (1938, National Theater, by Dimitris Rontiris and Kos, to nisi tou Ippokratous (1958). In 1955 he founded the Ancient Drama Film Organization, intended to produce and distribute film versions of ancient Greek tragedies. In the same year he adapted Sophocles' Oedipus the King for the big screen. Filming started in 1959, with Dimitris Myrat as Oedipus and Aleka Katselli as Jocasta but the film was never completed. He was a regular columnist in the 'Nea' newspaper (1929-1932) and in the 'Parlan' and 'Protoporoi' magazines. In 1931, he has assigned director of the Athens press office of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. He had an important career as a theatrical photographer. His love for the art of photography is dated to the mid-20's. As the first photographer of National Theater, he contributed with irreplaceable aesthetic documents from shows of the state theater, as well as from independent companies, for more than two decades (1932-1955).