Kostas Gousgounis

Kostas Gousgounis (Greek: Κώστας Γκουσγκούνης; born 21 March 1931) is a Greek pornographic actor. He considered a legendary figure of 1970s and 1980s Greek pornography.

Kostas Gousgounis
Born
Konstantinos Gousgounis

(1931-03-21) 21 March 1931
Larissa, Greece
OccupationActor, porn star

He has appeared in films such as O Idonoblepsias (The Peeping Tom), the award-winning Nikolas Triantafyllidis film Radio Moscow, The Overcoat (1996) and Mavro Gala (Black Milk, 2000). He has also made a guest appearance in the popular Greek comedy series Tis Elados Ta Pedia (Greece's Boys). Gousgounis was the individual honoured at the 3rd Festival of Cult Greek Cinema, on 14 February 2005.

He has been described as semi-divine, the "king of the 1970s," the "master of Greek porn," and as "the man who deservedly won the throne of the most erotic Greek actor". He is also considered a legend of surrealist sexual comedy. Gousgounis is considered an "emblematic figure who left his mark on cult [film]".

Life and career

Gousgounis was born 21 March 1931 in Larissa, Thessaly to Mimis, a photographer.[1] His father taught him photography and he worked as a photographer in Thessaly before deciding to go to Athens. In Athens he started appearing in various films playing small roles. In 1952 he appeared in the film Agne of the Port, subsequently appearing in surrealist sex comedies, the exception being the film Peeping Tom, his only hardcore film.[2]

He was not particularly handsome, and his acting ability was average, but his comedic and surrealist approach to acting made him a sort of avant-garde actor in Greece in the 1970s and 1980s. His appeal was widespread among the Greek social strata, ranging from students to members of the upper classes who went to see his films attracted by their comedic appeal. His career lasted from the early 1970s to mid-1980s.[2]

His films did not follow the formulaic approach or artistic pretensions of similar Greek films of the era, and although these were primarily low budget productions,[3] he managed to attract a large popular following and set new cinematic trends. The directors of his films allowed him the freedom to improvise during his performances.[2]

The screening of his films created the first traffic jams in Thessaloniki, and his audience in Athens, mainly university students, after their chemistry labs, walked through the streets to the Hellespontos cinema in candlelight processions. Once at the cinema, the audience participated in the performance by lighting cigarette lighters and reciting parts of the film's dialogue, occasionally shouting Axios, Axios ("Worthy" in Greek).[2]

He has appeared in films such as O Idonoblepsias (The Peeping Tom), the award-winning Nikolas Triantafyllidis film Radio Moscow, The Overcoat (1996) and Mavro Gala (Black Milk, 2000).[1] He also made a guest appearance in the popular Greek comedy series Tis Elados Ta Pedia (Greece's Boys).[1] Gousgounis was the individual honoured at the 3rd Festival of Cult Greek Cinema, on 14 February 2005. In a 1971 film, titled Sex 13 Beaufort, he co-starred with Lykourgos Kallergis.[4] He has been described as the "king of the 1970s," the "master of Greek porn," and as "the man who deservedly won the throne of the most erotic Greek actor".[5] Gousgounis is considered an "emblematic figure who left his mark on cult [film]".[6]

Despite the success of his films, and the adoration of his fans, Gousgounis stayed away from the Greek star-system and avoided publicity.[2]

Theatre

In the early 1980s, Gousgounis performed in a theatrical play in Athens. His premiere was at the Star Theatre with subsequent performances at the Elite Theatre in Athens. The title of the play was Gousgounis and the Tribe of the Lost Amazons. It was about a character similar to Odysseus who is shipwrecked, along with his companions, in the land of the Amazons. The encounters of Gousgounis and his comrades with the tribe of the Amazons, depicted in the play, were a source of amusement for the high-school students of that decade. The show was very successful.[7]

Literature

The comedy component of Gousgounis's films is alluded to in Maclean J. Storer's 2008 book: Forward O Peasant, where the author mentions: "It didn't really matter to him if she acted like someone out of Boat Bangers III, or perhaps more accurately, given the comedy aspect, like someone in a Costas Gousgounis film".[8]

He is featured in the book by Giannis Soldatos The History of Nudity in Cinema.[9]

Awards

Gousgounis has received the Grand Prize of the 3rd Greek Festival of Cult Cinema and was the Person of Honour at the Festival. In a press release by the Festival it was mentioned that the Festival itself has "reached the peak of its luminosity by giving him the award" and he was called "the unsurpassed, legendary Gousgounis," as well as "an unsurpassed sex-symbol" and the "greatest cult hero of all seasons".[10] He has also starred and participated in multiple yearly events of the Greek Festival of Cult Cinema.[11][12] During the festival he also participated in live interviews where he answered questions from the audience.[13]

Fan club

In the book Greece in Modern Times: An Annotated Bibliography of Works Published in English in 22 Academic Disciplines During the 20th Century it is mentioned that in Athens there is a fan club dedicated to Gousgounis named the Gousgounis 300. Their meeting place is the Esperia Cinema in Athens where they meet every Monday at 6:00 p.m. to watch his movies. The meetings include rituals such as candlelight processions and singing before the show starts. If the fans consider the film to be mild, they start shouting that they want to see tsonta, which in Greek means that they demand that the projection engineer add frames from another, more hardcore, film to the ongoing film projection.[14] Similar processions in honour of Gousgounis also happened during the 1970s.[15]

Legacy

Gousgounis is considered a legendary[7][16][17][18] figure of 1970s and 1980s Greek pornography.[19] He has been described as semi-divine.[17] He is also considered a legend of surrealist sexual comedy.[2] According to writer Petros Tatsopoulos, in an interview published in the Greek newspaper To Vima, Gousgounis is more recognisable in Greece among youth, than even past prime ministers and academics such as Georgios Athanasiadis-Novas,[20] and was one of the greatest stars of the 70s in Greece among the youth of the era who enjoyed the humour of his films.[21]

His role as the security guard in ERT TV series based on Nikos Kazantzakis's Christ Recrucified is included in a list of One Hundred Moments of Greek Television by To Vima.[22]

I Kathimerini mentions that Gousgounis was the idol of the Greek youth of the 1970s, who "deified" him, and that a university research paper analyses the impact of stars like him, and their films, on Greek society.[23] Gousgounis's charm has been described as "satanic".[24]

Gousgounis was a symbol of cultural resistance during the dictatorship of the Colonels in Greece. During the showing of a film, students protested that they would rather watch Gousgounis than the film.[25]

Greek MP Liana Kanelli has declared that if she had to choose between the subtext of the Sarkozy-Merkel alliance, which supports Berlusconi on one hand, and Gousgounis on the other, she would choose Gousgounis even in his old age.[26]

In the critique of the film Iron Man in the newspaper To Vima one of the leading actors is compared to a "caricature of Gousgounis with a beard".[27]

See also

References
  1. "Κώστας Γκουσγκούνης". Retrodb.
  2. "Κώστας Γκουσγκούνης: ευτυχώς που πέρναγα 60 χρόνια από το ντεμπούτο του θρύλου της σουρεαλιστικής σεξοκωμωδίας". Athens Voice. 7 September 2012. Archived from the original on 9 September 2012.
  3. Chrēstos Vakalopoulos (2005). Η ονειρικ́η υφ́η της πραγματικ́οτητας : κέιμενα για την επικοινων́ια και τον πολιτισμ́ο. Βιβλιοπωλέιον της Εστ́ιας. pp. 237, 582. ακόμη και ο Γκουσγκούνης θα μπορούσε να κάνει τέσσερεις ...
  4. "Come to Greece για να τη βρεις". Lifo.
  5. "Κώστας Γκουσγκούνης: "Ο Τσίπρας στις εκλογές θα..."". Athens magazine. 12 May 2011. αλλά ο βασιλιάς εκείνης της εποχής, ο άρχοντας της ελληνικής τσόντας δεν φαίνεται να έχει χάσει την αίγλη και τη φήμη που τον συνοδεύει μέχρι σήμερα που έχει μεγαλώσει πια. [...] Ο ηθοποιός που κέρδισε επάξια το θρόνο του πιο ερωτικού Έλληνα ηθοποιού...
  6. Πέτρος Τατσόπουλος Γκαγκάριν. "Αισθητικό κάδρο στην οδό Λιοσίων". Eleftherotypia. Σταθμεύω στις εμβληματικές μορφές που σημάδεψαν το cult ή (και) μεταπήδησαν στο mainstream, όπως ο Κώστας Γκουσγκούνης και ο Χάρρυ Κλυνν,...
  7. ""Τσόντα" α λα ελληνικά". Eleftherotypia. 14 January 2006. Archived from the original on 26 August 2010. Retrieved 12 January 2014. Στις αρχές του 1980 ο θρυλικός σέξι σταρ ταινιών του είδους Κώστας Γκουζγκούνης βγαίνει στο... θέατρο με το ομώνυμο έργο δίνοντας πρωινές, απογευματινές και βραδινές παραστάσεις, γνωρίζοντας μεγάλες πιένες στο «Σταρ» αρχικά και μετά στο «Ελίτ». Ενα είδος ναυαγού Οδυσσέα με τους συντρόφους του στο νησί των Αμαζόνων, οι οποίες τους... ξεζουμίζουν. Πλάκες και ατάκες πιπεράτες από φιλοθεάμονες γυμνασιόπαιδες κατά τη διάρκεια της παράστασης θυμάται ο συγγραφέας.
  8. Maclean J. Storer (1 January 2008). Forward O Peasant. Gauss Publishing. p. 320. ISBN 978-0-9805149-0-2. It didn't really matter to him if she acted like someone out of Boat Bangers III, or perhaps more accurately, given the comedy aspect, like someone in a Costas Gousgounis film.
  9. Ζουμπουλάκης Γιάννης (23 October 2010). "Γυμνά σώματα σε σκοτεινές αίθουσες". To Vima. Την ίδια ώρα στην Ελλάδα ο Κώστας Γκουσγκούνης τα έδινε... όλα στον λαό με τα soft πορνό της εποχής.
  10. "Δελτίο Τύπου: 3ο Φεστιβάλ Cult Ελληνικού Κινηματογράφου". Enjoy.gr. Archived from the original on 6 June 2013. Με τιμώμενο πρόσωπο το ανυπέρβλητο σύμβολο του σεξ, ΚΩΣΤΑ ΓΚΟΥΣΓΚΟΥΝΗ, το φεστιβάλ φτάνει πλεόν στο αποκορύφωμα της λάμψης του με τη βράβευση του πιο cult ήρωα όλων των εποχών, ανήμερα του εορτασμού του Αγίου Βαλεντίνου! Ο ανυπέρβλητος, θρυλικός Γκουσγκούνης θα βρεθεί στην σκηνή του Gagarin 205 για να παραλάβει από το σκηνοθέτη και επιστήθιο φίλο του, Νίκο Τριανταφυλλίδη, το μεγάλο βραβείο του φεστιβάλ σε μια ιστορική βραδιά!
  11. "Με Φαίδωνα Γεωργίτση και Γκουσγκούνη". Ethnos. 11 February 2009.
  12. "Με Γκουσγκούνη - Φιλίνη". Ethnos. 28 January 2010.
  13. Μπάμπη Ακτσόγλου (14 February 2006). "4ο Φεστιβάλ Cult Ελληνικού Κινηματογράφου Τrash από τον τόπο σου". Athinorama.
  14. Stratos E. Constantinidis (2000). Greece in Modern Times: An Annotated Bibliography of Works Published in English in 22 Academic Disciplines During the 20th Century. Scarecrow Press. p. 140. ISBN 978-0-8108-3658-7. These responses have given rise to such phenomena as the "Gousgounis 300," a fan club named after a bald-headed porno star. The fans meet at the Esperia Cinema on Mondays at 6 p.m. where they hold a candlelight parade and sing club songs before attending the showing all together. If the film is mild, they take up a cry for a "tsonta," demanding the rare practice of splicing a small reel of hard-core porno ...
  15. ΣΤΕΦΑΝΟΣ ΚΑΣΙΜΑΤΗΣ (11 September 2014). "Δεν είναι ο "σύνηθες τρόπος" του". Kathimerini. Retrieved 16 January 2016. Η εκδήλωση είναι προφανώς εμπνευσμένη από ανάλογες τελετές που πραγματοποιήθηκαν κατά τη δεκαετία του 1970 προς τιμήν του Κώστα Γκουσγκούνη...
  16. "ATHENSPLUS" (PDF). Kathimerini. 29 January 2010. p. 3. Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 January 2014. Cheesy beyond belief, the Greek Cult Film Festival is running at Gagarin 205 (205 Liosion, tel 210.854.7600/1) until Saturday, with screenings beginning at 3.30 p.m. The man of honor at this year’s event is Greek porn legend Kostas Gousgounis
  17. Vrasidas Karalis (2 February 2012). A History of Greek Cinema. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 187. ISBN 978-1-4411-1278-1. among the studs ruled the semi-divine Kostas Gousgounis who became a household name for two generations. [...] his abysmally bad acting, and his animalistic sexuality transformed him into a legendary figure...
  18. "Πώς ζει ο Κώστας Γκουσγκούνης σήμερα;". Athens magazine. 12 May 2011. Άντρας μυστηριώδης, «θρυλικός», όπως τον αποκαλούσαν στις δόξες του. Από τις αρχές της δεκαετίας του ΄70 μέχρι και τα μέσα του ΄80 ο Λαρισαίος Κώστας Γκουσγκούνης έκανε την ανατροπή.
  19. "Ερωτικό καλτ α λα ελληνικά". Ta Nea. 7 February 2003. «Αυστηρώς ακατάλληλο» το 1ο φεστιβάλ cult, με «σταρ» όπως οι Κώστας Γκουσγκούνης
  20. Πέτρος Τατσόπουλος (25 August 2011). "Πέτρος Τατσόπουλος: "Εδώ δεν λειτούργησαν διαχωρισμοί στην κουλτούρα"". To Vima. Είμαι βέβαιος πώς αν βγείτε να ρωτήσετε τους σημερινούς εικοσιπεντάρηδες αν ξέρουν, για παράδειγμα, τον Γεώργιο Αθανασιάδη-Νόβα (που έχει μείνει στην ιστορία ως ο πρώτος «Πρωθυπουργός της Αποστασίας») ή τον Κώστα Γκουσγκούνη τα αποτελέσματα θα είναι συντριπτικά υπέρ του δεύτερου, τον πρώτο μπορεί να μην τον γνωρίζει κανείς.
  21. Γιωργος Μουμουσιας (2007). Με καμπανα παντελονι: στα ιχνη του '70. University Press Studio. p. 183. Μετά τα μέσα της δεκαετίας αναδείχθηκε με τις ταινίες σε σταρ πρώτου μεγέθους ο Γκουσγκούνης. Η απήχηση που είχαν οι ταινίες του Γκουσγκούνη (οι οποίες μάλλον για τη φαιδρότητά τους διακρίνονταν) στους νεαρούς της εποχής, ήταν ..
  22. "100 στιγμές στην ιστορία της ελληνικής τηλεόρασης". To Vima. 21 November 1999.
  23. Κωστα Θ. Καλφοπουλου (3 June 2012). "Από τον ερωτισμό στην "τσόντα"". I Kathimerini. Archived from the original on 12 January 2014. Retrieved 12 January 2014. ...αποθεώνοντας ταυτόχρονα την Γκιζέλα Ντάλι και τον Κώστα Γκουσγκούνη.
  24. Phrenty Germanos (1969). Graps' to hopōs to leō. Grēgorē. pp. 19–20. Η πρωτοτυπη αυτή ιστορία είναι ο καμβας επανω στον οποιο κεντα ο κ. Γκουσγκούνης τήν σατανική γοητεία του. {Translation: This original story is the canvas upon which Mr. Gousgounis weaves his satanic charm.} Έν πάση περιπτώσει, λίγο πρϊν τελειώση το έργο, ό συνεταίρος τοϋ πρωταγωνιστού τόν ρωτά έκθαμβος: «"Ενα πράγμα δεν καταλαβαίνω, μωρέ παιδί μου, Πως τά καταφέρνεις και κόβεις δλες αύτές τις ...
  25. Kostis Kornetis (15 January 2013). Children Of The Dictatorship: Student Resistance, Cultural Politics and the "Long 1960s" in Greece. Berghahn Books. pp. 181–. ISBN 978-1-78238-001-6. ...youths shouted that they preferred watching the well-known porn star of the period, Kostas Gousgounis, to the film.69
  26. "Η κόκκινη Λιάνα από την Εκάλη". To Vima. 17 December 2010. Οταν οι επικοινωνιακοί πυλώνες αποπνέουν τον ερωτισμό του δίδυμου πύργου Σαρκοζί- Μέρκελ που στηρίζουν το στέμμα Μπερλουσκόνι,προτιμώ τον Γκουσγκούνη ακόμα και στα γεράματα...».
  27. "Χάρτινος ήρωας από ατσάλι στην οθόνη". To Vima. 30 April 2008. Κρίμα που δεν μπορούμε να πούμε το ίδιο για τον αγαπημένο Τζεφ Μπρίτζες, ο οποίος με το κρανίο γλόμπο και το μούσι θυμίζει καρικατούρα του Κώστα Γκουσγκούνη με γενειάδα,
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