Costa-Gavras, is a
GreekGreece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
filmmaker, who lives and works in
FranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, best known for films with overt political themes, most famously the fast-paced thriller,
ZZ is a 1969 French language political thriller directed by Costa Gavras, with a screenplay by Gavras and Jorge Semprún, based on the 1966 novel of the same name by Vassilis Vassilikos. The film presents a thinly fictionalized account of the events surrounding the assassination of democratic Greek...
(1969). Most of his movies were made in French; starting with
MissingMissing is a 1982 American drama film directed by Costa Gavras, and starring Jack Lemmon, Sissy Spacek, Melanie Mayron, John Shea, Charles Cioffi and Janice Rule...
(1982), several were made in English.
Early life
Gavras was born in Loutra Iraias (Λουτρά Ηραίας),
ArcadiaArcadia is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the administrative region of Peloponnese. It is situated in the central and eastern part of the Peloponnese peninsula. It takes its name from the mythological character Arcas. In Greek mythology, it was the home of the god Pan...
. His family spent the
Second World WarWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
in a village in the
PeloponneseThe Peloponnese, Peloponnesos or Peloponnesus , is a large peninsula , located in a region of southern Greece, forming the part of the country south of the Gulf of Corinth...
, and moved to
AthensAthens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
after the war. His father had been a member of the left-wing EAM branch of the
Greek ResistanceThe Greek Resistance is the blanket term for a number of armed and unarmed groups from across the political spectrum that resisted the Axis Occupation of Greece in the period 1941–1944, during World War II.-Origins:...
, and was imprisoned after the war as a suspected communist. His father's record made it impossible for him to attend university or emigrate to the United States, so after high school Costa Gavras went to France, where he began his studies of law in 1951. His father's political blacklisting not only barred him from Greek university, but, in the McCarthyite 50s, denied Gavras a visa for US film school.
Work
In 1956, he left his university studies to study film at the French national film school,
IDHECL'Institut des hautes études cinématographiques is a French film school, founded during World War II under the leadership of Marcel L'Herbier who was its president from 1944 to 1969. IDHEC offered training for directors and producers, cameramen, sound technicians, editors, art directors and...
. After film school, he apprenticed under
Yves AllégretYves Allégret was a French film director in the film noir genre.He is noted as having been the husband of actress Simone Signoret between the years 1944–1949.-Selected filmography:...
, and became an assistant director for
Jean GionoJean Giono was a French author who wrote works of fiction set in the Provence region of France.-First period:...
and
René ClairRené Clair born René-Lucien Chomette, was a French filmmaker.-Biography:He was born in Paris and grew up in the Les Halles quarter. He attended the Lycée Montaigne and the Lycée Louis-le-Grand. During World War I, he served as an ambulance driver. After the war, he started a career as a journalist...
. After several further positions as first assistant director, he directed his first feature film,
Compartiment TueursThe Sleeping Car Murders is a 1965 French film directed by Costa Gavras from the novel by Sébastien Japrisot. It stars Simone Signoret, Michel Piccoli, Yves Montand, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Catherine Allégret, Jacques Perrin, Charles Denner and Pascale Roberts.- Plot :Six people travel by train...
, in 1965.
Costa Gavras was president of the
Cinémathèque FrançaiseThe Cinémathèque Française holds one of the largest archives of films, movie documents and film-related objects in the world. Located in Paris, the Cinémathèque holds daily screenings of films from around the world.-History:...
from 1982 to 1987, and again from 2007 to the present. He is a first cousin of recording artist
Jimmie SpheerisJimmie Spheeris November 5, 1949 – July 4, 1984) was an American singer-songwriter who released four albums in the 1970s on the Columbia Records and Epic Records labels.He was of Greek descent...
, filmmaker
Penelope SpheerisPenelope Spheeris is an American director, producer and screenwriter. She is best known as a documentary film director whose works include the trilogy titled The Decline of Western Civilization...
, and musician
Chris SpheerisChris Spheeris is a Greek-American composer of instrumental music. He is a producer, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist. Chris is the cousin of Penelope Spheeris and her brother Jimmie Spheeris, and Costas Gavras...
. His daughter
Julie GavrasJulie Gavras is a French film director and writer. She is the daughter of film director Costa Gavras. Her first feature-length fiction film Blame it on Fidel was released in France in November 2006....
and his son
Romain GavrasRomain Gavras is a French director, best known overseas for directing M.I.A.'s controversial video for "Born Free". His films and music videos are often portrayed in a gritty and realistic manner as well as using flashing images.-Biography:...
are also filmmakers.
Costa Gavras was interviewed extensively by
The TimesThe Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
cultural correspondent
Melinda Camber PorterMelinda Camber Porter was an artist, author, poet, journalist and filmmaker. Porter was a modernist who worked in oils, watercolor and ink...
and was featured prominently in her book, Through Parisian Eyes: Reflections on Contemporary French Arts and Culture (1993, Da Capo Press).
Selected films
In
ZZ is a 1969 French language political thriller directed by Costa Gavras, with a screenplay by Gavras and Jorge Semprún, based on the 1966 novel of the same name by Vassilis Vassilikos. The film presents a thinly fictionalized account of the events surrounding the assassination of democratic Greek...
(1969), an investigating judge, played by
Jean-Louis TrintignantJean-Louis Trintignant is a French actor who has enjoyed an international acclaim. He won the Best Actor Award at the 1969 Cannes Film Festival.-Career:...
, tries to uncover the truth about the murder of a prominent leftist politician, played by
Yves Montand-Early life:Montand was born Ivo Livi in Monsummano Terme, Italy, the son of poor peasants Giuseppina and Giovanni Livi, a broommaker. Montand's mother was a devout Catholic, while his father held strong Communist beliefs. Because of the Fascist regime in Italy, Montand's family left for France in...
, while government officials and the military attempt to cover up their roles. The film is a fictionalized account of the events surrounding the assassination of Greek politician Grigoris Lambrakis in 1963. It had additional resonance because, at the time of its release, Greece had been ruled for two years by
the "Regime of the Colonels"The Greek military junta of 1967–1974, alternatively "The Regime of the Colonels" , or in Greece "The Junta", and "The Seven Years" are terms used to refer to a series of right-wing military governments that ruled Greece from 1967 to 1974...
.
Z won the
OscarAn Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...
for
Best Foreign Language FilmThe Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film is one of the Academy Awards of Merit, popularly known as the Oscars, handed out annually by the U.S.-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences...
.
Gavras and co-writer
Jorge SemprúnJorge Semprún Maura was a Spanish writer and politician who lived in France most of his life and wrote primarily in French. From 1953 to 1962, during the era of Francisco Franco, Semprún lived clandestinely in Spain working as an organizer for the exiled Communist Party of Spain, but was expelled...
won an
Edgar AwardThe Edgar Allan Poe Awards , named after Edgar Allan Poe, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America...
from the
Mystery Writers of AmericaMystery Writers of America is an organization for mystery writers, based in New York.The organization was founded in 1945 by Clayton Rawson, Anthony Boucher, Lawrence Treat, and Brett Halliday....
for Best Film Screenplay.
L'Aveu (
The Confession, direction, 1970) follows the path of
Artur LondonArtur London, , was a Czechoslovak communist politician and co-defendant in the Slánský Trial. He was born in Ostrava, Austria-Hungary to a Jewish family....
, a Czechoslovakian communist minister falsely arrested and tried for treason and espionage in the Slánský 'show trial' in 1952.
State of SiegeState of Siege is a 1972 French film directed by Costa Gavras starring Yves Montand and Renato Salvatori.-Summary:...
(1973) takes place in
UruguayUruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
under a conservative government in the early 1970s. In a plot loosely based on the case of US police official and alleged torture expert
Dan MitrioneDaniel A. Mitrione was an Italian-born American police officer, Federal Bureau of Investigation agent and a United States government advisor for the Central Intelligence Agency in Latin America.- Career :...
, an American embassy official (played by
Yves Montand-Early life:Montand was born Ivo Livi in Monsummano Terme, Italy, the son of poor peasants Giuseppina and Giovanni Livi, a broommaker. Montand's mother was a devout Catholic, while his father held strong Communist beliefs. Because of the Fascist regime in Italy, Montand's family left for France in...
) is kidnapped by the
TupamarosTupamaros, also known as the MLN-T , was an urban guerrilla organization in Uruguay in the 1960s and 1970s. The MLN-T is inextricably linked to its most important leader, Raúl Sendic, and his brand of social politics...
, a radical leftist urban guerilla group, which interrogates him in order to reveal the details of secret US complicity with repressive regimes in
Latin AmericaLatin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
.
MissingMissing is a 1982 American drama film directed by Costa Gavras, and starring Jack Lemmon, Sissy Spacek, Melanie Mayron, John Shea, Charles Cioffi and Janice Rule...
(1982) concerns an American journalist,
Charles HormanCharles Horman was an American journalist and was one of the victims of the 1973 Chilean coup d'état led by General Augusto Pinochet, that deposed the socialist president, Salvador Allende, after bombing the Chilean presidential palace on September 11, 1973...
, who disappeared in the bloody coup led by General
Augusto PinochetAugusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte, more commonly known as Augusto Pinochet , was a Chilean army general and dictator who assumed power in a coup d'état on 11 September 1973...
in
ChileChile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
in 1973. Horman's father, played by
Jack LemmonJohn Uhler "Jack" Lemmon III was an American actor and musician. He starred in more than 60 films including Some Like It Hot, The Apartment, Mister Roberts , Days of Wine and Roses, The Great Race, Irma la Douce, The Odd Couple, Save the Tiger John Uhler "Jack" Lemmon III (February 8, 1925June...
, and wife, played by
Sissy SpacekSissy Spacek is an American actress and singer. She came to international prominence for her for role as Carrie White in Brian De Palma's 1976 horror film Carrie for which she earned her first Academy Award nomination...
, search in vain to determine his fate. Nathaniel Davis, US ambassador to Chile from 1971–1973, a version of whose character had been portrayed in the movie (under a different name), filed a US$150 million
libel suitDefamation—also called calumny, vilification, traducement, slander , and libel —is the communication of a statement that makes a claim, expressly stated or implied to be factual, that may give an individual, business, product, group, government, or nation a negative image...
,
Davis v. Costa-Gavras, 619 F. Supp. 1372 (1985), against the studio and the director, which was eventually dismissed. The film won an Oscar for
Best Screenplay AdaptationThe Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay is one of the Academy Awards, the most prominent film awards in the United States. It is awarded each year to the writer of a screenplay adapted from another source...
and the
Palme d'OrThe Palme d'Or is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival and is presented to the director of the best feature film of the official competition. It was introduced in 1955 by the organising committee. From 1939 to 1954, the highest prize was the Grand Prix du Festival International du...
at the
Cannes Film FestivalThe Cannes International Film Festival , is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films of all genres including documentaries from around the world. Founded in 1946, it is among the world's most prestigious and publicized film festivals...
.
In
Music BoxMusic Box is a 1989 film that tells the story of a Hungarian-American immigrant who is accused of having been a war criminal. The plot revolves around his daughter, an attorney, who defends him, and her struggle to uncover the truth....
(1989), a respected naturalized American citizen (played by
Armin Mueller-StahlArmin Mueller-Stahl is a German film actor, painter, writer and musician.-Early life:Mueller-Stahl was born in Tilsit, East Prussia...
) is accused of being a
NaziNazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
war criminal. The film is loosely based on the case of
John DemjanjukJohn Demjanjuk is a retired Ukrainian-American auto worker who gained notoriety after being accused numerous times of Holocaust-related war crimes....
. The film won the
Golden BearAccording to legend, the Golden Bear was a large golden Ursus arctos. Members of the Ursus arctos species can reach masses of . The Grizzly Bear and the Kodiak Bear are North American subspecies of the Brown Bear....
at the
40th Berlin International Film FestivalThe 40th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from February 9 to 20, 1990.-Jury:* Michael Ballhaus * Margaret Ménégoz * Vadim Abdrashitov* Suzana Amaral* Steven Bach* Roberto Benigni* Lívia Gyarmathy...
.
La Petite ApocalypseThe Little Apocalypse is a 1993 French comedy film directed by Costa-Gavras. It was entered into the 43rd Berlin International Film Festival.-Cast:* André Dussollier as Jacques* Pierre Arditi as Henri* Jirí Menzel as Stan* Anna Romantowska as Barbara...
(1993) was entered into the
43rd Berlin International Film FestivalThe 43rd annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from February 11 to 22, 1993.-Jury:* Frank Beyer * Juan Antonio Bardem* Michel Boujut* François Duplat* Katinka Faragó* Krystyna Janda* Naum Kleiman* Brock Peters...
.
Amen. (2003), was based in part on the highly controversial 1963 play,
Der Stellvertreter. Ein christliches TrauerspielThe Deputy, a Christian tragedy , also known as The Representative, is a controversial 1963 play by Rolf Hochhuth which indicts Pope Pius XII for his failure to take action or speak out against The Holocaust. It has been translated into more than twenty languages...
(
The Deputy, a Christian Tragedy), by
Rolf HochhuthRolf Hochhuth is a German author and playwright. He is best known for his 1963 drama The Deputy and remains a controversial figure for his plays and other public comments, such as his insinuation of Pope Pius XII's sympathies for Hitler's extermination of the Jews in the 1963 play The Deputy and...
. The movie alleges that
Pope Pius XIIThe Venerable Pope Pius XII , born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli , reigned as Pope, head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City State, from 2 March 1939 until his death in 1958....
was aware of the plight of the Jews in Nazi concentration camps during
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, but failed to take public action to publicize or condemn the Holocaust. This view completely conceals
Pope Pius XII's 1942 Christmas addressPope Pius XII's 1942 Christmas address was an annual speech delivered by Pope Pius XII over Vatican Radio on Christmas 1942.-Background:Pius XII possessed a specific knowledge of the Holocaust that rivaled that of the Allied governments...
. These issues have continued to be disputed, with the Vatican thus far declining to open to historians all of its archives relating to the extent of the Pope's knowledge during World War II.
Political-commercial film
Costa Gavras is known for merging controversial political issues with the entertainment value of commercial cinema. Law and justice, oppression, legal/illegal violence, and torture are common subjects in his work, especially relevant to his earlier films. Costa Gavras is an expert of the “statement” picture. In most cases, the targets of Gavras's work have been right-of-center movements and regimes, including Greek conservatives in and out of the military in
ZZ is a 1969 French language political thriller directed by Costa Gavras, with a screenplay by Gavras and Jorge Semprún, based on the 1966 novel of the same name by Vassilis Vassilikos. The film presents a thinly fictionalized account of the events surrounding the assassination of democratic Greek...
, and authoritarian governments that ruled much of Latin America during the height of the Cold War, as in
State of SiegeState of Siege is a 1972 French film directed by Costa Gavras starring Yves Montand and Renato Salvatori.-Summary:...
and
MissingMissing is a 1982 American drama film directed by Costa Gavras, and starring Jack Lemmon, Sissy Spacek, Melanie Mayron, John Shea, Charles Cioffi and Janice Rule...
.
In a broader sense, this emphasis continues with
Amen. given its focus on the conservative leadership of the Catholic Church during the 1940s. In this political context,
L'Aveu (
The Confession) provides the exception, dealing as it does with oppression on the part of a Communist regime during the Stalinist period.
Form and style
Gavras has brought attention to international issues, some urgent, others merely problematic, and he has done this in the tradition of cinematic story-telling.
ZZ is a 1969 French language political thriller directed by Costa Gavras, with a screenplay by Gavras and Jorge Semprún, based on the 1966 novel of the same name by Vassilis Vassilikos. The film presents a thinly fictionalized account of the events surrounding the assassination of democratic Greek...
(1969), easily his most famous work, is an account of the undermining in the 1960s of democratic government in Greece, his homeland and place of birth. The format, however, is a mystery-thriller combination that transforms an uncomfortable history into a riveting story. This is a clear example of how he pours politics into plot, bringing epic conflicts into the sort of personal conflicts we are accustomed to seeing on screen.
His accounts of corruption propagated, in their essence, by European and American powers (
ZZ is a 1969 French language political thriller directed by Costa Gavras, with a screenplay by Gavras and Jorge Semprún, based on the 1966 novel of the same name by Vassilis Vassilikos. The film presents a thinly fictionalized account of the events surrounding the assassination of democratic Greek...
,
State of SiegeState of Siege is a 1972 French film directed by Costa Gavras starring Yves Montand and Renato Salvatori.-Summary:...
and
MissingMissing is a 1982 American drama film directed by Costa Gavras, and starring Jack Lemmon, Sissy Spacek, Melanie Mayron, John Shea, Charles Cioffi and Janice Rule...
) highlight problems buried deep in the structures of these societies, problems which not everyone is comfortable addressing. The approach he adopted in
L'Aveu also subtly invited the audience to a critical look focused on structural issues, delving this time into the opposite Communist bloc.
Filmography
- The Sleeping Car Murders
The Sleeping Car Murders is a 1965 French film directed by Costa Gavras from the novel by Sébastien Japrisot. It stars Simone Signoret, Michel Piccoli, Yves Montand, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Catherine Allégret, Jacques Perrin, Charles Denner and Pascale Roberts.- Plot :Six people travel by train...
(Compartiment Tueurs) (1965)
- Shock Troops (Un homme de trop) (1967)
- Z
Z is a 1969 French language political thriller directed by Costa Gavras, with a screenplay by Gavras and Jorge Semprún, based on the 1966 novel of the same name by Vassilis Vassilikos. The film presents a thinly fictionalized account of the events surrounding the assassination of democratic Greek...
(1969)
- L'Aveu (The Confession) (1970)
- State of Siege
State of Siege is a 1972 French film directed by Costa Gavras starring Yves Montand and Renato Salvatori.-Summary:...
(Etat de Siege) (1972)
- Section spéciale
Section spéciale is a 1975 French film, directed by Costa Gavras. It stars Louis Seigner, Roland Bertin, Michael Lonsdale, Ivo Garrani, François Maistre, Jacques Spiesser, Henri Serre, Heinz Bennett and Claude Piéplu...
(Special Section) (1975)
- Clair de femme (1979)
- Missing
Missing is a 1982 American drama film directed by Costa Gavras, and starring Jack Lemmon, Sissy Spacek, Melanie Mayron, John Shea, Charles Cioffi and Janice Rule...
(1982)
- Hanna K.
Hannah K. is a 1983 drama film directed by Costa Gavras, starring Jill Clayburgh and Gabriel Byrne.-Plot:Hanna K. is the story of Hannah Kaufman, a child of Holocaust survivors and an American-Jewish immigrant to Israel, who was a court-appointed lawyer assigned to defend a Palestinian, Salim...
(1983)
- Betrayed
Betrayed is a 1988 motion picture drama directed by Costa-Gavras, written by Joe Eszterhas and starring Tom Berenger and Debra Winger.-Plot:Set in the American Midwest, the film begins with the murder of a Jewish radio host in Chicago...
(1988)
- Music Box
Music Box is a 1989 film that tells the story of a Hungarian-American immigrant who is accused of having been a war criminal. The plot revolves around his daughter, an attorney, who defends him, and her struggle to uncover the truth....
(1989)
- La Petite Apocalypse (1993)
- Lumiere & Company (1995)
- Mad City
Mad City is a 1997 drama film and thriller film written by Tom Matthews and Eric Williams, directed by Costa-Gavras, and starring Dustin Hoffman, John Travolta, Mia Kirshner, Alan Alda, Blythe Danner, Ted Levine, Raymond J. Barry, and Larry King.-Plot:...
(1997)
- Amen. (2003)
- Le Couperet
Le Couperet is a Belgian-French-Spanish film. The English title of this film is The Axe.Directed by Costa Gavras and starring José Garcia, Karin Viard and Olivier Gourmet, Le Couperet is an adaptation of the novel The Ax by Donald E. Westlake. The film follows the "hero", Bruno D...
(2005)
- Eyewitness
Eyewitness is a 1981 thriller film about a television news reporter and a janitor who team up to solve a murder, written by Steve Tesich. The film was directed by Peter Yates, and stars William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver, and Christopher Plummer.-Plot:...
(TBA)
- No Other Life (TBA)
- Eden in West (2009)
External links