"I wish I had met Kostas earlier. I wish I had won the lost years. Nothing else. You see, all my life I've been waiting for the Kazakh. I hadn't found him and I was wandering", she once said Jenny Karezi for the man of her life. He was her second husband, but the actor was for the unforgettable Jenny the man who changed her life, but also her. And at his side lived a great love, which began unexpectedly and in a strange way, but at the same time sweet, in a politically turbulent period.
And maybe the love of Jenny Karezi and him Costa Kazakou that he too was born on the movie set, like others, but this one carries a nice story. And it lasted 26 whole years, until death separated them and took Jenny away.
The secular marriage with Zachos Hadjifotiou
Jenny Karezi passed away early, at just 60 years old, defeated by cancer. But he had managed to live and absorb life to the core. And during these years she managed to change her philosophy and change herself as a person. A typical example here is her two marriages, which were completely different from each other, revealing how different Jenny was in these two phases. of her life.
Her first marriage was with him Zacho Hadjifotiou, in May 1962, being the ultimate secular event of the year. The mystery was attended by 500 guests, among them the cream of the Greek theater and cinema, politicians, but also prominent businessmen of the time. The only absentee, of course, was Aliki Vougiouklakis, who was not even included in the guest list.
Karezi and Hadjifotiou had known each other for only a few months, before going up the church steps. "So, lightning fast, hurriedly, American if you will, we decided to dance with Filothei," the unforgettable actress used to say about her first marriage.
The couple enjoyed married life, which included an intense secular life. Over time, however, their relationship began to deteriorate, while bad language insisted that he was cheating on the actress. After five years, they decided to take separate paths. And Jenny led her to Costas Kazakos, the man who changed and marked her life.
The movie that "born" a great love
In the autumn of 1966, the filming of "Concerto for Machine Guns", a large and expensive production of Finos Film, began. It was a politically critical period for the country, with the threat of dictatorship hovering "heavy". The script of the film was by Nikos Foskolos, who entrusted the direction to Dino Dimopoulos, while in the person of Jenny Karezi they had found the ideal protagonist.
The heroine, Niki, is a political employee of the General Staff, who - on the eve of the war of the '40s - delivers military documents to the Italians, as the latter blackmail her, holding her brother hostage. Her act is exposed and is in danger of being executed.
Until the general, with the pseudonym "Dareios" (Manos Katrakis) suggests that she continue to supply the Italians with forged documents this time. Along with her, a young captain who is in love with her gets involved.
And here was the problem initially, since it was not easy to find the actor who would play the young captain. Why might Dimopoulos have wanted Kazakos for the role, but he didn't like Finos. And the director had to resort to "cunning" in order to change the opinion of the powerful film man.
Finos and Karezi were dazzled by the uniformed Kazakos
The search for the charming captain that Karezi would fall deeply in love with in the film was not an easy one. THE Nifty suggested to Dimopoulos some of the most famous names of protagonists of the time, however, the director insisted on wanting Kazakos for the role. In fact, when he proposed to Fino, he was surprised, objecting. "But he is a karateka," she told him.
But, Dimopoulos was sure of his choice and so he resorted to a "trick" that proved. Fatal. He dressed Kazakos as a captain and took him to Fino. He, as soon as he saw him tall, thin and beautiful, was dazzled by the result, finally saying "yes".
But he wasn't the only one dazzled by the uniformed Kazakh. There was also Jenny Karezis...
The love that started from a backgammon game
The two have known each other for a long time. As the actor himself has confessed in an interview, they had met several times at work, but their film meeting at the "Concerto" was like it was the first time.
The shooting, which turned out to be fatal for both of them, took place in the Isthmus of Corinth. That dressed captain was waiting with Karezi and Dimopoulos for a ship to cross the canal. Until filming began, Jenny and I sat down under an olive tree and started playing backgammon.
This continued at every break in the shoot and one batch led to another and then love. Karezi first confessed her love to Dimopoulos, when he asked her why she was unhappy.
"It seems to me that I pressed it…. "I got involved with one of them, the juntas," the actress said jokingly, only to later accept with a roar: "Mmm…" that she is in love with Kazakos.
The lightning-fast love led them a year later, specifically in August 1968, to the steps of the church. Jenny's second marriage had nothing to do with her first. After all, she was also different.
A few relatives and good friends attended the ceremony. There was no trace of exaggeration as the couple walked home from church. In fact, they did not have a reception, on the contrary, after the wedding, food followed on the veranda of their house in Ilisia.
In April 1969, the couple's happiness ended with the arrival of their son, Constantine. In fact, there was a serious possibility that he was born on April 21, which meant that he would be baptized by one of the Junta colonels. And as it is said, Karezi and Kazakos had drawn up a whole plan in case the baby was born that day, in order to avoid the unwanted piggy bank.