What had Agatha Christie got against the Greeks?

[Guest FriendofGreece]

I like to read Agatha Christie but she appears to me to have something against the Greeks, because most of the villains in her novels are Greeks. Does anyone else have that impression too? I wonder why.

[admin 31]

Ha ha, never noticed. I had read a few of her books when I was much younger.

[Guest eyoismos]

let me put it this way ... she is a brit - its self explanatory
 

Christie occasionally inserted stereotyped descriptions of characters into her work, particularly before the end of the Second World War (when such attitudes were more commonly expressed publicly), and particularly in regard to Italians, Jews, non-Europeans, and sometimes Americans, the last usually as impossibly naïve or uninformed.

 
let me put it another way.... i have yet to see ANY movie coming from the island that has greeks seen in a positive light
as opposed to american movies overall ... in fact one will really really have to scrutinize and dig about in the American movie industry to find greeks portrayed negatively

[Guest eyoismos]

talking of Agatha Christie ... apparently, and this came as a bit of a surprise to me, we have got our own version
 

Angeliki Nikolouli: The Greek Agatha Christie in Hollywood Exploring Movie-Making Opportunities
 

 

Born in the small Greek town of Pyrgos, Angeliki Nikolouli is Greece’s very own “Agatha Cristi”-only she investigates real rather than fictional murders. Nikolouli has worked for almost 30 years as a front-row journalist at major Greek newspapers, magazines and television channels. She has been the catalyst who set in motion a series of interconnected events that gave a twist to Greece’s journalism for the past three decades .Nikolouli is internationally recognized for resolving mysteries and tracing missing people but this time it was the other way around: The GreekReporter traced the Greek Agatha Christie in Hollywood and she talked exclusively about the reason she’s in L.A.

A Tough Cookie
As a young reporter, tiny framed Aggeliki, dared to work as a crime reporter- in fact she was the first female crime reporter in Greece-although not without encountering resistance. The field of crime journalism-especially for a woman in a country so conservative and narrow minded as Greece was during those years basically resembled a conflict zone. But she never complained-“Yes, it was tough, especially in the beginning, but crime reporting is certainly not for the weedy.” she says smiling. Later, she had to face hostility when she became the first female editor in chief in one of Greece’s major newspapers. As an editor in chief, Aggelikis’ research actually influenced history, or at the least the pace and rhythm of events as she made revelations that crossed the border of the country on high jacking, spying and terrorism. She revealed cases of wiretapping of politicians and other VIPs of the country that were orchestrated by the Greek secret services. The documents she presented led her to the Committee of the Parliament to testify as the major witness. But she wouldn’t stop. Nikolouli is known for being fearless and stubborn. She operates from a sound ethical center (broadly, her ideology amounts to a hatred of bullies). She has a connoisseur’s eye for the flaw in the pretty picture and she does her job with eloquence and wit.

 

Light In The Tunnel
Her current, three hour, live (!) TV show in Greece- Light In The Tunnel- is on for almost 17 years but she still works with the same passion and eagerness as if she was a newbie. Aggeliki doesn’t do mediocre-and neither do her ratings. Every Friday night the show’s ratings skyrocket and Greeks stay tuned to her breathtaking revelations until two o’clock in the morning, driving the advertisers crazy.
Through her show Nikolouli has brought to light numerous cases of murders, rapes and abductions and has traced tens of hundreds people officially reported as missing from the police. She has won countless journalist awards in Greece and she even won a Guinness prize for tracing hundreds of people who were missing for more than fifty years. Aggeliki is known for being hard working, and methodological. She is a quick study, receptive to feedback on what is working and what doesn’t with a stunning grasp of research detail. She has revealed tens of eye-popping murder cases that Greece’s bureaucrats were either unwilling or unable to resolve “It’s frustrating to see that Greek authorities don’t do their job right. Sometimes they do it on purpose others they just don’t care or they haven’t got the know-how to conduct a proper research… There are people who suffer waiting for an answer. Mothers, wives, children, living each day in agony….”.

Research Guru
From Japan to Russia and Italy, Nikolouli has been asked numerous times to offer her expertise in research by national televisions from all around the world. The Japanese National Television made a tribute to her show and Japanese TV executives travelled to Athens to interview her and observe closely her state-of-the-art research methods. The Russian National Television invited her to provide her know-how in order to unite two siblings who had lost each other’s traces. The Italians from ‘Chi l’ha visto’ of ‘RAI TRE’ came to Athens to watch closely the research and the presentation of the TV and so did Dutch journalists from the TV shows ‘SPOORLOOS’ and ‘VERMIST’.

Aggeliki in Hollywood
After working hard for 30 years, instead of taking a sabbatical she’s working non-stop on her next project: movies. She wants to dramatize her most profound cases and turn them into movies and documentaries. Being the perfectionist that she is, went to the place she knew she could find the best to work with: Hollywood. “I’m still in the preparation mode. I’m looking into different directors, production companies, doing a bit of research, looking at my options… I think that some of the cases we’ve resolved in the show could make really good documentaries. But such a project requires both time and effort. I need to find the right people….Professionals who can properly handle the complexities of such a task,” she says. And given her accomplishments and her stubbornness she’s destined to succeed.
 

[Guest FriendofGreece]

Wow, looking forward to her movies!

 

Weird that British movies portray Greeks in a negative way. They gain nothing by being biased. I stopped liking Agatha Christie once I realized her bias towards the Greeks. I don't watch much British movies.

[Guest eyoismos]

unfair choice

 

there is the good with the bad and there is the bad with the good

 

strangely enough christie movies are quite popular in greece, last i heard

 

but then greeks always loved stories .... made up - hell..... look at greek mythology alone

 

hahahahahahaha

[Guest FriendofGreece]

Unfair choice? No, I did not feel like to, it turns me off, that's all.

[Guest eyoismos]

one enjoys a good yarn every now and then, .... for the yarn itself

[Guest FriendofGreece]

I like Sherlock Holmes too. 

[Guest eyoismos]

i couldnt but notice the "too" reference

having said that .... there you are then ... we all enjoy good bullshit stories

[Guest FriendofGreece]

Yeah, just as good as any other stories. Although nowadays, I don't read much, just a little bit of Greek philosophy and religion. I don't seem to have any more patience to read novels or fiction.

[Guest eyoismos]

you prefer the synoptic version - aka movies, right?

 

 

i still like to devour books though..... like about one a week

hey! i gotta make time for my movie addiction, ok!

[Guest FriendofGreece]

No, not at all, I actually prefer to read a book before watching a movie, to see the acting if it is done good or no. I am reading - very slowly - "To kill a mockingbird now", a friend has lent it to me two months ago, will watch the movie with Gregory Peck after I finish the book.

[Guest eyoismos]

the problem with movies is that they try to squeeze a whole book in an hr and a half, and invariably do no justice to the book

often in fact .... its like another story altogether which bares resemblance to the original

[Guest FriendofGreece]

Yeah, sometimes books are much better than movies. Like, for example, I found "Gone with the wind" is much better in the book version.

[Guest eyoismos]

sometimes?

 

i beg to differ

[Guest FriendofGreece]

OK, I have not watched too many movies. 

[Guest]

Have you heard of Tintin?

The vilain in the stories goes by the name Rastapopoulos.

Talking of stereotypes!

[Guest FriendofGreece]

Yes, of course, Rastapopoulos, the ever changing villain. It has been a while since I read Tintin and I did not pick that up. I think it is because in Tintin, it is just the same Greek villain, while in Agatha Christie, most villains are Greeks without any reason really. 

 

Apparently, according to wiki, Rastapopoulos was an Italian with an invented Greek surname:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rastapopoulos

 

"The name "Rastapopoulos" had been invented by one of Hergé's friends; Hergé thought it was hilarious and decided to use it.^[3] He devised Rastapopoulos as an Italian with a Greek surname, but the character fitted anti-Semitic stereotypes of Jews; Hergé was adamant that the character was not Jewish.^[4]"

 

The Tintin cartoon series are great because the settings are in different countries, much like James Bond. I think the one I liked the most was the one where Tintin went to the Moon, even before Apollo 11.

[Guest eyoismos]

could the english speakers even pronounce any name longer than 4 syllables before they get tongue-twisted?

 

(yes i know Hergé was a belgium, but dont deny my the opportunity to mock the english native speakers with their holier than though attitudes to names not of their own "language" and culture - they so frigging easily cock up with greek names ....can you imagine how they battle with lets say indian names ?(fuuuucckkkk ... now those can be really longgggggg) so we have to dumb it down for them, and shorten them ...for their convenience, until they can get their minds around the concept that many greek surnames and even christian names are "long" (?) and its about time the get their shit together and deal with it and make the flipping effort)

 

but the dont seem have a problem with supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

 

go figure

 

[Guest FriendofGreece]

It is true that Indian names are long. I do shorten Indian names sometimes too, easier to remember. In Canada, we are multicultural, so we have different nationalities and ethnicities here. Shortening names to remember is not really disrespect, it is just difficulty to pronounce foreign names.

[Guest eyoismos]

do you mind?

 

i am having a rant moment about the brits

 

and please dont tell me you cant pronounce Schwarzenegger

 

oh wait ...that is 4 syllables .....well within the mental capacity of the english

 

sorry ... my bad

 

[Guest FriendofGreece]

Are you kidding? I have trouble just pronouncing Schwarz!

[Guest eyoismos]

just say Arnold then

 

[Guest FriendofGreece]

That's how I call him.