Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.

Boring, long, and too preachy.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

It is interesting even when nothing much happens, which is for most of its 3-hour running time. Read full review

The film Young Aphrodites is loosely based on Daphnis and Chloe , one of the best known early Greek romances, precursors to the modern novel. It has been reinterpreted in music and art by Ravel and Chagall and in cinema by Nikos Koundouros in 1963.Written by Longus in the second century A.D, Daphnis and Chloe is a classical romance involving the adventures of two foundling children raised by adopted parents who are humble shepherds in the idyllic setting of the Isle of Lesbos. It is a famous love story that captures the awakening of a first love between two teenagers who don't know what is happening to them. The novel that was written almost two thousand years ago is surprisingly modern; it is erotic, tender, romantic, sensual, and simply beautiful.The ancient but forever young tale of the sexual awakening as adapted and retold by Nikos Koundouros in Young Aphrodites, takes place on a poetic island that might have came from ancient times. The film it full of symbolism, innocence, and darkness of desire and longing. Young Aphrodites, may and will disturb some or perhaps many viewers who are uncomfortable with the subject of youth sexuality, especially by the very young age of two actors, and by (even if artfully done) nudity of a young actress playing Chloe, Comparing to the novel of Dafnis and Chloe, the film is much darker and its ending can be viewed as dramatic even heartbreaking loss of innocence and first overwhelming love. The film creator, the Greek Director Nikos Koundouros refers to it as a film of desperation - "Desperation which is described in beautiful blue waters of Aegean Sea, with two young kids exploring their bodies. Desperation because we had discredited, abolished, and immobilized ourselves, we who had fought, who had raised our voices, who had demonstrated for a new world. There was nothing for us to do. In my desperation, I decided to work on nothingness. This is a film about ideological nothingness." The reason for making this movie might have been nothingness and desperation but the result nevertheless is sensual, young, and at the same time joyous and sad.Very sadly, the film is almost unknown to the modern audiences. There is no discussions, thoughts, and very few comments on it on on the major film forums. I found it an amazing, beautiful, and one of the most erotic movies ever made. It is a delightful gem which has stayed with me since I had pleasure to watch it.

Okay - I'm a USAian, and not particularly ashamed of it. I like my movies with characters I can care about, a story that interests me, filmed in a visually pleasing fashion.The B&W photography was okay - some good scenery, some solid storytelling, but several shots either poorly framed, or in such close-up that it was hard to tell what was being shown - or why.The characters were, I'm afraid, little more than cardboard cutouts - the young girl who showed much skin, even more indecision about the boy who she fascinated, and a remarkable lack of background or depth. The love/lust-crazed adult shepherd and his paramour, the wife of an absent fisherman - the story they told can be seen in almost any cheap neighborhood bar almost every week - and seeing the couple in the bar will give you more insight into why they're doing this dance than this movie will.The older, bullying boy remained a cipher. The crutch-using leader, the other shepherds, the rest of the fisher-folk village - either didn't get enough screen time to fill out their characters, or too much screen time for the set-dressing they were. The primitive instruments and folk dances were interesting, but took away from the story rather than adding to it - the right television commercials would have fit in better with the story.A side note to European filmmakers - symbology is representative. Symbols can be a marvelous way to enhance storytelling, but they are never, in themselves, the story.I'll give it a 4 for visual interest and the bit of dramatic tension that was achieved, and remain mystified as to why anyone would consider this masterful film-making. I guess I'm just a Philistine.

I have 3 different DVD versions.One is from CMVC which is dubbed in English. The dubbing is very good and non-intrusive. The picture quality lacks punch however and 6 minutes have been cut from the original.From Amazon you can get the Cinema Epoch version. This contains the full uncut movie and uses English subtitles. There is more contrast to the picture. Yet the subtitles really litter up the beautiful images presented in this movie.From EBAY I was able to get a copy from Greece. This version is uncut, with no dubbing or subtitles. It is in the original Greek. Since there is little dialog to begin with, this is really no big deal especially if you have watched it a lot. This version has the best picture quality. But the sound is not that good. There are parts where the actors voices seem to lose volume all of a sudden.I would love to get a version which is uncut, with great audio and video.

Like the other reviewers above, I too was captivated by this movie upon it's initial (and seemingly short-lived) theatrical release. It must have been about 1968 or 1969 when I saw it at one of those 'arty' type cinemas in Sydney, and I am almost certain that that copy was overdubbed in English, which made it a lot more watchable, even if it did upset the lip-synch! I was enthralled from the very first frames, and all I can do is agree with an earlier reviewer who noted that he/she did not want it to end, and another reviewer who stated that it was like a beautiful dream that one wishes that one could have every night.Sure, there are a few glitches in the continuity, and many more in the reasoning behind the screenplay (?) but the whole beauty of this little gem of a film is in the IMAGERY, supported mostly by the minimal dialogue, and gorgeous musical score. You can actually believe that you are looking through a time-window into an ancient coming together of opposing faiths and forces.I have a subtitled copy on VHS, which was cross-recorded many years ago from my original copy on Beta (before the Beta died), but it was originally recorded from our SBS channel (still in its formative years in the early 1980's) and the quality leaves something to be desired. (Ghosting of the images, which leaves some scenes difficult to watch, and several picture rolls, due to the advancing age of the tape.) Even so though, it is still a powerful piece of work, and I would dearly love to have a crisp, clear copy on DVD.As none seems forthcoming, I shall have to rely on the annual playing of my copy on VHS, and simply remember how achingly beautiful it was on the big screen, all those years ago..........