The story of a simple employee of the legendary Mediterranean Palace hotel in Thessaloniki, who became the biographer of the most influential artists in Greece.
Cinematography & Sound:
Kostas Sidiropoulos
Editing:
George Dialektopoulos
Research & Directed by
Elias Giannakakis
The title is no doubt pompous, but the exorbitant, bigger-than-life personality of Grosdanis and the unparalleled universe he had created, left me with little choice for a more modest title.
I first heard of Nikos in numerous stories shared cordially by our mutual friend, Pantelis Voulgaris and we eventually met through Pantelis.
Once again, I found myself in Thessaloniki, like with Kanellopoulos, for my second “Paraskinio”.
Nikos, a permanent resident and eternally lovestruck with Thessaloniki, had an absolutely amazing personal history.
A poor boy with limited education, he found himself working in the legendary Mediterranean Palace hotel on the esplanade, which looked like it came out of a Visconti film.
There, he had the chance to meet all the major artists and intellectuals of the country when they visited Thessaloniki for the Festival or any other event.
As he entered their rooms to clean up, he peeked at their personal belongings and got a sense of their soul.
He began gathering material systematically from newspapers and magazines the clients had left behind, and put together makeshift volumes of clippings detailing the life and work of all the prominent Greek artists: Koundouros, Kakogiannis, Xarhakos, Savvopoulos, Mikis Theodorakis, Aliki Vougiouklaki, Yannis Tsarouhis and many more.
With time, that came to light, everybody wanted to meet him and many strong friendships were formed.
The most important of which was that with Manos Hadjidakis; a lifelong relationship that began in 1972 and markedly defined him.
Grosdanis, a somewhat moonstruck man, grew into a fine anecdotal writer and provided me with plenty of material for a passionate documentary.
