By Niovi Sofou, Elena Stremmenou & Odysseas Panoutsopoulos

In our days, movies are considered as a form of art and in our opinion, for sure they are. People all over the world watch movies in their free time. It is entertaining to watch, but also educating, through our observations and feelings about the situation the characters are in, their actions and their thoughts about it. Movies can trigger people’s feelings, emotions and reactions, but also can alter our perspective and the way we think.

There is a plethora of movie genres, but science fiction stands out to us the most. We love a movie with a splash of the unnatural, a movie that even though we know is fictional, alters our brain chemistry and makes us gasp with every scene. If you are like us, you are obligated to watch – if you haven’t yet – the best movie of all time, INTERSTELLAR.

Interstellar is an award-winning sci-fi movie, with great critics and even better plot. It came out in 2014, starring Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway. If you love a thrilling, thought-provoking film, Interstellar is indubitably the best option in the market. In this apocalyptic-like movie, the world is presented in the far future when earth is starting to become uninhabitable.

After some supernatural events have happened, a farmer and ex-spaceship pilot, Josh Cooper, is tasked by the last alive NASA members to pilot a spacecraft to find the most habitable out of the three planets -accompanied with other experts-, so humankind can survive. As a summarized backstory, you need to know that the space organization had send 12 aeronautic experts to inspect the viability of 12 different planets (one each), leading to the recognition of only 3 of them with possible life-existing criteria. That’s where Cooper and the other come in action. With limited resources and different time perception, they have to accomplish their mission in a restricted time period.

They first arrived to a planet which wasn’t habitable. Later on, they visited another one which had the best specifications to be of human adaptation according to one of the former 12 astronauts who was there. However, after their landing, they found out that the astronaut had fooled them. Not having enough time left, Cooper made a rush decision to invade in a black hole, there they found out some unbelievable things.

You can find out more by watching this film on your own. We’ve got only one thing to tell you, the ending of this movie will leave you with your mouth wide open!

By Anastasia Lazari

• When you think about cinema’s greatest moments those time tested, all-time best that remind us why movies are great. How many of them are heart stopping and romantic? When you really want something that hits deep into the soul, it’s time to watch romantic movies!

One of those when you want big feelings, swelling music, broken hearts or dances on the rain get ready to fall in love again!

FAR FROM HEAVEN (2002)

Inspired by the romantic melodramas of the ’40s and ’50s, this Todd Haynes-directed film follows a suburban housewife whose life seems idyllic from the outside, but inside is another story. Things get even more complicated when she strikes up a friendship with her young, African American gardener. Julianne Moore was nominated for an Academy Award for her role.

A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT

This movie represents a re-teaming of the director and star of Amélie. Audrey Tautou plays a woman whose fiancé disappeared somewhere on the front during World War I, and she has to investigate what’s happened to him. Can she keep her faith that he’s somewhere alive and waiting for her?

THE NOTEBOOK (2004)

Based on a novel by Nicholas Sparks, this romance spans decades, flipping between a couple’s first blush of love in the ’40s and the present-day reality of how that relationship has transformed in old age. And while that may be moving, we sometimes forget everything that happens after

ONCE (2007)

This musical film is romantic without most of the trappings of what we see in a traditional romance. Instead, an Irish busker and a Czech immigrant strike up a musical relationship, and work together to create an album. They must’ve had some real chemistry, though, because a song from the film won an Academy Award for Best Song.

BRIGHT STAR

Directed by Jane Campion, who won the Best Director Academy Awards for her 2021 film The Power of the Dog, Bright Star tells the true story of poet John Keats and his muse, Fanny Brawne. There’s no yearning like poetic yearning.

THE VOW (2011)

This movie is based on the amazing true story of real-life couple Kim and Krickett Carpenter; after a tragic car accident, she loses her memory, and he has to find a way to make her fall in love with him all over again.

ANNA KARENINA (2012)

Playwright Tom Stoppard adapts Leo Tolstoy’s celebrated novel, with director Joe Wright giving the story new visual twists and turns that make it almost seem like a theatrical production more than a movie. The story follows the upper-echelons of Russian society, and how affairs of the heart can change a person’s social standing.

CAROL (2015)

Based on the novel The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith, Carol tells the story of an affair between two women in the 1950s, so you get the pleasure of watching all the sumptuous period dresses and interiors in addition to being swept away by the romance. This film also features an Oscar-nominated performances from Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara.

LOVING (2016)

This film is about a love so strong it literally changed history. It’s based on the real-life story of Richard and Mildred Loving, whose Supreme Court case, Loving v. Virginia, made it illegal for states to have laws barring interracial marriages.

LA LA LAND (2016)

As its name suggests, this film takes place in Hollywood, and has just the right dose of movie-magic fantasy. The musical follows Seb (Ryan Gosling) and Mia (Emma Stone) as they chase their artistic dreams.

A STAR IS BORN (2018)

If you’re looking for a story about people brought together by talent and torn apart by fame, you can watch a number of takes on A Star Is Born: There’s the 1937 original with Janet Gaynor and Fredric March, the 1954 version with Judy Garland and James Mason or the 1976 remake with Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson.

THE PHOTOGRAPH (2020)

This movie is really two romances in one: It follows Mae (Issa Rae) in the present day, as well as her mother, Christina (Chanté Adams), in the past. After Mae finds a hidden family photograph, she’s sent on a journey to discover her mother’s past, but is finding herself on a powerful, unexpected road instead.

THE LAST LETTER FROM YOUR LOVER (2021)

This movie unfolds in two timelines, so you get a contemporary romance along with one filled with great period details and costumes. In the present, a magazine writer is sent into the publication’s archives for an assignment, where she finds a misfiled love letter detailing an affair that happened in the ’60s. Still reeling from a recent breakup, she delves into researching the letter writers, uncovering more of their story.

LADY CHATTERLY’S LOVER (2022)

This movie is based on the super-steamy, often-banned novel by D.H. Lawrence, and it lives up to its source material in intensity. It follows the life of Constance Reid, an aristocratic wife whose eye turns toward her estate’s gamekeeper when her husband returns from the war paralyzed from the waist down. Their affair would upend social norms in a variety of ways, but can she resist his allure?

CYRANO (2022)

The love story of Cyrano de Bergerac is nothing new, but feels fresh in this adaptation through original songs, written by members of The National. Peter Dinklage gives a career-best performance as the title character, co-starring alongside Kelvin Harrison Jr. and Haley Bennett.

By Eleanna Alexopoulou and Evi Askouni

            This is an animated movie created in Japan. This film is produced by Kyoto animation and is based on the manga with the same name. It was released on 24 August 2016 and became really fast, one of the best animated films of all time. The movie received many positive reviews and a lot of praise for the quality of the animation.

            The story begins as Shoya Ishida tries to take his own life, but changes his mind at the last minute. Then the plot cuts to the past, where Ishida is still in sixth grade. There he meets a transfer student, Nishimiya Shoko, who suffered from a hearing disability. Shoko tries to adapt to the new environment but due to her impairment, fitting in is very difficult. To make things even more complicated for her, Ishida and his friends start to bully her. When the teachers found out about the bullying, Ishidas’ friends blamed only him for it. His bad reputation makes him the new outcast and now he is also a victim of bullying. Ishida blames Shoko for the things that happened to him. Skipping to the present, Ishida is in high school and still doesn’t have any friends. He decides to try to find Shoko and apologize to her about the awful things he did to her back in the day. When he does find her, he asks for forgiveness. Shoko agrees to become friends with him and so a very eventful journey begins.

The movie gives a lot of insight about teenagers’ mental health and raises awareness about suicide and other important topics such as bullying and depression. It shows the difficulties people with disabilities and mental illnesses face and how the main characters deal with them. What makes this movie interesting is the fact that the story is narrated from the perspective of the bully (Shoya) rather than the victim. The title is to the point explaining the concept of the movie, while “Shape of voice” signifies that communication and bonding is not only accomplished through speech but can take many forms.

If you are looking for an engaging, controversial drama film, this is the best choice because not only it is entertaining, but it also teaches many valuable lessons.

By  Maria Eleni Giannopoulou

SpongeBog SquarePants is an American animated comedy television series created by marine science educator and animator Stephen Hillenburg for Nickelodeon. The series chronicles the adventures of the title character and his aquatic friends in the fictional underwater city of Bikini Bottom. Being the fifth-longest-running American animated series, its high popularity has made it a media franchise.

SpongeBog SquarePants is the one of the most popular and famous TV programmes not only for children but also for older people. Children love SpongeBob because he goes through a lot of difficult and nice adventures with his beloved friends. This TV programme teaches us that we must remain children deeply inside us even when we become adults. It also teaches you how you can keep a friendship for years and at the same time get to know others who can become important in your life.

Finally, SpongeBob SquarePants is one of the most favorite TV programmes for all ages that teaches you how to have a happy life with some little and easy things, what the meaning of true friendship is and how you can have fun with your own real or fake adventures.

By Tatiana Kaltsonoudi

The Conjuring movies (The Conjuring 1, The Conjuring 2, The Conjuring 3 The Devil Made Me Do It) focus on paranormal cases that the demonologists Ed and Lorraine Warren investigated thoroughly.

Ed and Lorraine Warren – Wikipedia

At the age of 5 Ed Warren experienced a view in the world of supernatural. At the age of 12 Lorraine Moran discovered her abilities, claiming that she could see the future. They met in 1944, both being 16 years old, at the time. When 17 (1945), Ed was sent to the war, but soon returned home for a short period of time during which he got married to Lorraine and then returned to the war. A while later Lorraine gave birth to their daughter who they named Judy.

In 1952 they founded the New England Society For Psychic Research to document their cases. Moreover, they adjoined Ed’s office and turned the room into a place where they would keep the, previously, haunted objects, documents and files from every single case they ever investigated. In the movies we see the most famous haunted doll, also known as Anabell being there, in a glass ‘cage’. They, strictly, refused to allow their own daughter to enter that room, on the grounds that if she did, she may touch any of the object and cause irreversible problems.

One thing that can be noticed and probably needs more focus on is the fact that the couple not once in their career charged money for their investigations. Not knowing of all their cases, I will talk about the ones being described in the movies and I will highlight that they did not care about the equipment which must have been pretty expensive in those days, or the physical and mental exhaustion they people went through every time, because if they had, it would have been unaffordable. What is truly remarkable is that instead of being paid in money, their payment was to see families happy and safe back together.

The films were directed and Lorraine Warren herself was there paying attention so there were no signs of exaggeration or overdramatizing. Ed would be present as well, had he not died back in 2006. Lorraine lived until the April of 2019. She and the actors that played her and her husband (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) had grown close during their collaboration.

“My dear friend Lorraine Warren has passed,” “From my deep feeling of sorrow, a deep feeling of gratitude emerges. I was so blessed to have known her and am honored to portray her.”

Vera wrote in April 19^th 2019 under an Instagram post of her smiling at the In a Dark Place coauthor.

The Conjuring’s Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson Remember Lorraine Warren (usmagazine.com)

By Vassiliki Tzouramani & Vassiliki Papavasiliou

Are you a Vampire Diaries fan? If yes, here is a Quiz for you?

1. What year did Katherine turn Stefan and Damon Salvatore?

• 1864
• 1854
• 1863
• 1964

2. Who turned Caroline into a vampire?

• Kathrine
• Damon
• Stefan
• Klaus

3. Who says this quote; «I’ve been in love. It’s painful, pointless and overrated»?

• Matt
• Tyler
• Damon
• Jeremy

4. Who is Elena’s biological mother?

• Miranda
• Isabelle
• Sherrif Forbes
• Abby

5. What was the name of the curse that Klaus broke to become a hybrid?

• water and the sun
• star and the moon
• sun and the water
• sun and the moon

6. What did Damon get to live with Elena?

• a necklace
• a stone
• a cure
• a risk

7. Which trait do Damon, Stefan, Caroline and Klaus all posses?

• witches
• vampires
• hybrids
• wewolfs

8. Who did Elena Gilbert meet first?

• Kathrine
• Stefan
• Elijah
• Damon

9. Who started Elena’s doppelganger line?

• Amanda
• Elena
• Amara
• Kathrine

10. Who is Lexie to Stefan?

• Best friend
• Sister
• Girlfriend
• Aunt

By Andreas Zochios and Panagiotis Flogeras

A very well cooked thriller, with every necessary ingredient, and a plot meant to surprise the viewer. Full of love, passion, family issues, commercial interests and politics all blended into a magnificent work of art topped with Denzel Washington’s performance. The film shows many aspects of life, and should be seen by all people to evaluate one’s point of view on each of the parallel stories depicted. The Author takes an everyday situation and sows the seed of self – criticism in every spectator, making this more than a thriller to pass the time away. The Director plays with the characters as a Master would play his pieces on a chessboard, giving each actor enough role and having a defined objective: to checkmate the audience, and I must say he does this with very few elements, mainly dialog sequences and very few Special effects, thus turning this film into a masterpiece. Denzel Washington is the perfect choice for this film, due to his ability to play poker face situations, and his ability to play any kind of character he is offered. I do highly recommend this movie, to see it two, three or more times. Every time one sees the film, gets a new detail to one’s collection and a new question to answer. Ideal for family discussion and highly recommended for teenagers, so that they can understand how much their parents love them, and that they would do anything for them.

Runtime: 1 Hour, 56minutes                 Recommended Age: 13+

Genre: Crime Drama/ Thriller               Year Aired: 2002

Starring: Denzel Washington, Robert Duvall, Gabriela Oltean, Kimberly Elise

By Konstantina Kloukinioti

           I have seen a lot of movies but the one that affected me and touched my heart was “The Titanic’, filmed by James Cameron in 1997.

This movie was about the biggest sinking in the world, which took place  on 15^th April 1912, in the Atlantic Ocean. Also it was about the love story of two young people, Jack and Rose, who met on board.

There are many reasons I really loved this movie. First of all, because it made me experience different feelings at the same time, sadness and anger. The reason I felt sadness was because thousands of people died in the icy water of the Atlantic Ocean, including Jack. The reason I felt anger was because Rose’s family were against the relationship given the fact that she was rich and Jack was poor. Another reason I liked the movie was because of the cinematography and the great acting skills of the actors.

I would surely recommend it to others because they would have the chance to learn every detail about the story of The Titanic and they would learn about the discriminations between the rich and the poor. The rich had rights while the poor didn’t.

All in all, “The Titanic” was a brilliant movie that everyone should watch at least once in their lifetime.

    By Timos Papatheodoropoulos and Paul Moshos (A Class)

The end of the year is here, meaning it’s now time to definitively celebrate the finest movies of the year. Over the past twelve months, moviegoers have been gifted with a bounty of great blockbusters, thrillers and documentaries, proving that filmmakers are continuing to find new ways—both big and small—to entertain, excite, and enlighten. No matter their budgets or subject matter, each of our 5 selections had something to offer the fans of cinema, from hilarious comedies to thrilling superhero movies and smart horror films, these are our top 5 picks for the best films of 2017.  

5. The Fate of the Furious

Of course, cynical sorts might suggest that the untimely death of Paul Walker midway through filming of Fast and Furious 7 gave the series a sympathetic second-look from audiences that might have otherwise abandoned it. That would underplay the strangely appealing look of the franchise in the past several installments, which has seen it evolve from a bad B-movie to something far more universal: a turbocharged mix of cars, quips and explosions, with just the merest hint of sentimentality to keep the date-movie crowd up on their feet.  

4. IT

Of all the many iconic images Stephen King can be credited with thinking up – those slaughtered girls in The Shining, that pig’s-blood deluge in Carrie – there’s one that stands out as so evilly nightmarish and so plainly wrong that it’s actively hard to watch. It’s the sight of an innocent young boy, Georgie, being dragged into a storm drain by a child-eating clown – the name’s Pennywise – and never seen, or at least not in living form, again. IT is one of the best horror movies of 2017 and also of all time due to the amazing story written by no other than Mr. Horror, Stephen King.  

3. Dunkirk

Christopher Nolan’s “Dunkirk” is a clever twist on a familiar trilogy: land, sea, and air. Nolan parses a week of combat during the Second World War, from May 26 through June 4, 1940, and the effort to rescue British and French troops into those three components, and gives each a time frame (a week, a day, an hour, respectively) that corresponds to its speed. The movie thus leaps about in time, with each thread of action moving ahead fitfully, until the three threads unite in the movie’s evident conclusion, the successful retreat of more than three hundred thousand soldiers (about two-thirds of them British, one-third French) across the English Channel from Dunkirk, France, to Great Britain. (The movie is centered on British soldiers; the French are a brief but melodramatic afterthought.) The preservation of this fighting force was, of course, crucial for the preservation of Great Britain and the eventual outcome of the war; the retreat was the defeat that helped to secure victory.  

2. War for the Planet of the Apes

“War for the Planet of the Apes” is a film that unapologetically embraces the first word of its title. It opens in a lush green forest with soldiers with nicknames on their helmets, marching towards the enemy through the brush in a style that reminded me of “Platoon”. Over the next two hours, other war films will flash through your mind, most commonly “Apocalypse Now,” which Matt Reeves’ excellent blockbuster cribs from openly, even turning its villain into a Colonel Kurtz in the heart of darkness, complete with shaved head and rambling philosophy. (At one point, graffiti even reads “Ape-pocalypse Now,” as if to make clear that Reeves and company aren’t stealing as much as directly paying homage.) So, why turn a franchise about sentient apes into a war movie that echoes the stories of Vietnam? What can be gained from looking at the darkest side of humanity through the lens of a summer blockbuster? The answer is quite a lot. War for the Planet of the Apes is the last film of the trilogy that has impressed everyone and also one of the best films of 2017.  

1. Logan

Wolverine has always been a fan favorite. You don’t get three solo movies if you’re not. But despite his hallowed status—and despite Hugh Jackman’s dedication to the character—Wolvy always felt like the sole grown-up stuck on Xavier’s Island of Misfit Heroes. He’s a lone wolf, not a wide-eyed mutant struggling with outsider status. As Old Man Logan in Logan, he finally gets to be the salty dog everyone always suspected he was. Yes, everything you’ve heard is true. That rage-filled, drunk, foul-mouthed Logan who never got to fully surface in the previous X-Men movies is finally joining his buddy Deadpool in the world of grown-up cinema. And it’s the perfect way for him to end his run.