In Athens, one cinema is keeping alive a dying, and deeply human, tradition.
Virginia Axioti’s art studio occupies a corner of her living room in her apartment in Athens, Greece. This is convenient, unless she is painting a poster for a thriller or horror movie. “With the movie It, it was not easy. [The poster] was six feet long, and it was looking over me. Those yellow eyes were glowing in the dark, and I was like, Oh fuck! Those times, I don’t fall asleep on the couch.”
Axioti, 42, is the last Greek producer of a dying art form: hand-painted movie posters. For the past five years she’s been the main artist for the Athinaion Cinema, which opened in Athens in 1960 and remains one of the oldest cinemas in the city, located in the central neighborhood of Ambelokipi. The 830-seat movie theater was founded by Axioti’s grandfather and great uncle, and is still a family business. Each Wednesday, after the evening’s last show, the staff install the hand-painted billboards onto the marquee, advertising Greek and Hollywood films like Avengers: Endgame, A Star Is Born, and Little Women.
Last year, Axioti officially took over for Vasilis Dimitriou, now 84, a former boxer who lived through Greece’s Nazi occupation, military junta, and the civil war. He was a tremendously active artist, painting thousands of movie posters for the cinema for more than 40 years. As Dimitriou’s health began to falter a few years ago, Axioti slowly took over, the pair alternating weekly painting schedules. Axioti didn’t study under Dimitriou; she was already an established artist in her own right. She grew up in the cinema world and attended the Athens School of Fine Arts, where she learned to draw freehand and paint. Applying her skills to the posters was a natural progression.