Interviews

Under fragrant cedars and pines on Mount Lykavitos, a few steps from the paved paths, one still comes upon flower-covered slopes blue with grape hyacinths or sprinkled with cow vetch and tiny pinks. Were it not for the constant din of Athens traffic rising from below, one might imagine it to be the countryside, and contemplate what it must have been like before the encroachment of apartment buildings which now cover Lykavitos’s flanks almost to the top.

YOU ARE not enjoying yourself enough — have more fun!’ director Jules Dassin calls out to his leading lady, Melina Mercouri. They are filming a dream-nightmare sequence on the set of their latest film, a modern-day story juxtaposed against the ancient tragedy of Medea.

I breathlessly dumped my clutch of dog-eared books into the author’s receptive lap. In confusion I said, ‘If you do sign my books I won’t tell you I read them as a little girl.’ Whereupon the author rejoined, ‘Very well, so long as you didn’t bring me my brother’s books to be autographed!’ Immediately he inscribed the first one, ‘To The Ideal Fan, by Larry Durrell, Athens, 1975’.