Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

To all those who have watched it: I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

sketch of portrait. superficial, pathetic, protected by music by Vangelis and the customs. each of the last represents the virtue of film who saves it to be a fiasco. in fact, only sin is the ambition to create a memorable film about the most important Greek painter from art history of Spain. the theme is generous, the possibilities to define Domenikos Teotokopoulos as hero of his period - too many. but the script is just a collection of clichés. the choice of Manichean way is far to be inspired. the use of ambiguity and inaccuracy not serves the cause in better manner. the dialogs are , in many scenes, fake. the speeches of El Greco front of his judges is far to be convincing for public. something essential missing. a pillar, maybe an axis. and except Sotiris Moustakas as Titian, nothing does the film to be more than cold dish. the desire of actors to give coherence to roles is closed by the not most inspired script and the director who choose a sketch not a portrait.so, poor El Greco !

Hailed by the Greek Film Industry as a masterpiece and having received so many prices, I was rather disappointed. Based on a biographical novel by a Greek writer of the 20th century, El Greco's life is very much fictionalised and a tad distorted. The entire plot is misleading from facts right from the beginning: it starts in a prison cell, where El Greco is writing down his life whilst awaiting a Spanish Inquisition hearing after being apparently of blasphemy.. But, this never happened. The painter has never been accused by the Tribunal of the Holy Office, but he was invited a few times as a translator to Greek prisoners. Which obviously makes sense as El Greco made Toledo, Spain, his home until his death, where he produced most part of his work, inclusive so many with religious themes. He would have never been able to do so if he would have been in conflict with the Grand Inquisitor of Spain, Nino de Guevara. This historical and biographical inaccuracy made me already so angry that I might be a bit biased in judging the rest of the movie. The movie is very slow and although I normally like voice overs, this actors intonations are blunt and dragging. We learn about El Greco's cretan origins; his fleeing from a rebellion to Venice; his meeting of Titian; some interactions with existed real life characters, and ultimately his settling down in Toledo, Spain; his relationship with Jerónima de Las Cuevas, his common law wife and the mother of his only son. It looks that these biographical facts are accurate. This is a pompous romantic costume drama with some action for sure, which was the part I liked best, but not enough paintings elaborated. The soundtrack by Greek electronic composer Vangelis creates a modern atmosphere which again, gives the movie a rather HBO-series effect than a big screen Film Festival favourite. All in all, B+ for effort only … but could have been much better. Should have been much better! What a genius of a man, with a very interesting life as it is, to make a movie about his life if they only would stick to the true story and use his colours and lights and many many of his paintings!

Honestly i was expecting something much better. El Greco is one of the most important painters of Renaissance so, a film about his life should stress that importance. Instead ,we see a poorly written ,poorly acted film whose main focus is the costumes and the scenery. Almost all the actors have a terrible accent, which is understandable for their characters as they are Greeks/Spaniards/Italians etc. But then we have an El Greco, a Greek person mind you, who has a perfect British accent! Casting was poorly done and i'd rather see a Greek actor play El Greco. All in all, the film is watchable, but with all the money put into it, you'd expect something much, much better.

First of all, I don't think it is at all a DVD movie but an enjoyable film to watch at the cinema. The aesthetic of the film captures the audience's attention throughout the film. I personally think that the photography is excellent in the film as well as the direction. It tends to be a bit slow and without a lot of action but the audience understands that the film is not about action as it is an artistic and cultural film that tries (successfully) to bring out the souls of the characters to touch the audience. I agree that Dimitra Matsouka's performance was not strong enough but the performance's of Nick Ashdon, Laia Marull and especially Juan Diego Botto are well appreciated. The scenery and costumes are an accurate capture of the time period and beautiful to watch on screen. The plot is original as there are certain twists that one would not expect (for example El Greco's relationship with women)and the music is exceptional. The film is generally a great attempt on showing the potential quality of the Greek film industry throughout Europe. I think that there must be a good reason for 'El Greco' already winning 8 awards including best director in the Thessaloniki film festival!!