The Red Lanterns is a 1963 Greek film from directed by Vasilis Georgiadis.
It centers on Phryne's Bar, a rather low-end brothel in the Greek port town of Piraeus. Different plot threads follow the hookers at the bar. They are:
- Eleni, who is Romanian; she was once a singer but wound up turning to prostitution when her manager abandoned her in Greece. She has a boyfriend, Petros, who has no idea that she is a prostitute.
- Mary, the oldest of the women in the brothel. She deflowers a boy in his late teens named Angelos, who promptly declares his love for her. Against her better instincts Mary finds herself falling in love with him as well.
- Anna, who is in love with Capt. Nicholas, a sea captain. Captain Nicholas is planning to retire from sea life and talks about marrying Anna and taking her out of the life, but he doesn't know that Anna has a son.
- Marina, probably the dumbest one of the bunch. She is desperately in love with her pimp, Doris, who clearly doesn't care about her.
Other characters include Eleni's jealous, possessive pimp Michailos; Myrsine, a 16-year-old Streetwalker who becomes another brothel girl; Katerina, the brothel's cleaning lady; and the madam, Madam Pari. She is worried about a proposed town ordnance that will ban brothels and put her out of business.
Compare Never on Sunday, a 1960 Greek film that is also about prostitutes in Piraeus.
Tropes:
- Ambiguously Gay: A scene where Madam Pari is getting young Myrsine settled in the brothel has the madam partially undress the young woman to get a look at her sexy body. It could just be Pari inspecting the new hire to see how she'll attract customers, but it's also rather erotically charged.
- Amusement Park: The first scene shows Eleni and Petros having a fun date at the amusement park. He complains mildly about her not telling him where she lives or what she does.
- Downer Ending: For three of the four hookers.
- Mary's brief dream of happiness is crushed when Angelos's infatuation fades and he dumps her.
- Anna's brief dream of happiness is crushed when Capt. Nicholas, along with everyone else in his crew, is lost at sea when his ship sinks.
- The closure of the Red Light District leads Doris to dump Marina, leaving her alone.
- The Fellowship Has Ended: The ban on prostitution leads to the folks at Phryne's Bar going their separate ways, mostly at least, as Myrsine, Mary, and Marina are talking about going into business together. Amusingly, the entire Red Light District empties out; apparently nobody is willing to try operating as a bar or a boarding house.
- Happy Ending: Petros comes back and begs forgiveness, and he and Eleni go off together.
- Horny Sailors: American sailors chattering at each other in English seem to be the most frequent customers/johns at the brothel. When Madam Pari hears that Piraeus brothels are going to get shut down, she says "What about the U.S. Navy?", and angrily stalks out while muttering that she's going to talk to an admiral.
- Idiosyncratic Wipe: Sometimes scenes wipe by flipping around a horizontal axis, as if one scene was on one side and the other scene was on the opposite side.
- Let the Past Burn: A depressed Mary comes back to the brothel after Angelos breaks up with her. She lights a cigarette, pulls out a photo of the two of them on a date, then uses the lighter to set it on fire too.
- Love Martyr: The dissolution of the red light district leads to Doris dumping Marina. She starts begging hysterically, saying that she'll keep hooking for him, that he can have all the money, that she won't even complain if he brings other women home. All she asks is that he hold her when it's dark at night. He leaves her anyway.
- Miss Kitty: Madam Pari, a plump woman in her late forties who, as dialogue makes clear, once was a hooker herself and still dances with the men on the dance floor.
- My Girl Is Not a Slut: An enraged Petros angrily confronts Eleni after finding out she's a hooker, slapping her a few times before he's thrown out of the brothel. It seems that part of the reason is that the two of them haven't had sex at all.
- Of Corsets Sexy: Mary's preferred costume when entertaining johns.
- Off-into-the-Distance Ending: The last shot is of Katerina and her husband walking away from the brothel, headed to the ramshackle house he's built for the two of them in the slums.
- One Last Job: A maritime shipping variant. Capt. Nicholas wants to retire and tells Anna that after this one last voyage, he'll come home and marry her. Naturally, the ship sinks.
- Professional Sex Ed: Angelos's cousin brings him to the bar to lose his virginity, and Mary takes the job. He falls in puppy dog love with her and, to her own surprise, she falls in love with him too.
- Red Light District: Hence the title of the movie. The brothel where most of the action takes place is in a neighborhood lined with bars and other brothels and streetwalkers.
- Romantic Rain: A particularly happy date with Eleni and Petros ends with them getting caught in the rain and not minding a bit. She catches some rain in her palm and offers it to him to drink, telling him that it's a Hungarian custom.
- Son of a Whore: Anna's son is tucked away at a boarding school. She goes to see him at Christmas. He thinks she works for a travel agency.
- Stocking Filler: There is a closeup of Mary hitching up the stockings and garter attached to her corset.
- Title Drop: The depressing conversation where Angelos dumps Mary has him stammering that he has a sister, and the sister is getting married, and the sister's fiance would dump her if he found out his prospective brother in law is dating a woman from—and here Mary interrupts to angrily ask "the red lanterns?".
- Translated Cover Version: It's Christmas, so at Anna's son's school, they're singing "Silent Night" with Greek lyrics.
- Victoria's Secret Compartment: Where Marina hides the money that she surreptitiously hands to Doris. It seems that she's holding out on Madam Pari.
