The Gambler Lady

Aleka cannot stop playing cards. Once she sits down at the table she forgets the time, the money and the house. Her husband does everything he can to end the habit, and none of it works. The balance at home breaks because of it and the thing turns into a contest of stubbornness between the two of them. Giannis Dalianidis's film is a Greek comedy out of the middle of the star system of its period; Rena Vlahopoulou plays Aleka and Labros Konstadaras her husband. The telling treats the addiction as comic material rather than as an illness, which from here looks like making light of it. On the other hand the film does not punish its heroine, and she is not the only one being laughed at. It is one of the well-liked examples of Greek cinema in the sixties.