COSTA-GAVRAS
Born Konstantinos Gavras in Loutra-Iraias, Greece in 1933, Costa-Gavras has
spent his career melding overt political content with compelling narrative
filmmaking. After high school in Athens, the teenaged Costa-Gavras initially
sought to pursue a film career in the United States. Refused admission to
the US because of his father's leftist politics, young Costa-Gavras went
instead to Paris where he studied literature at the Sorbonne and film at
IDHEC. After working as an assistant director for Rene Clair (TOUT L'OR DU
MONDE '61) and Jacques Demi (BAY OF ANGELS '63) amongst others, Costa-Gavras
directed his first feature, THE SLEEPING CAR MURDERS in 1966. MURDERS was an
exuberant and entertaining valentine to the Hollywood crime pictures of
Costa-Gavras' youth.
His third film, Z ('69), a breathlessly paced condemnation of the Greek
military junta's ruthless seizure of power in 1966, became an international
sensation. Costa-Gavras' unheralded blend of documentary fact and
thriller-like narrative urgency earned Z the jury prize at Cannes, an
Academy Award for best foreign film, a British Academy Award for best film
and the New York Film Critics Circle nod for best film and best direction.
THE CONFESSION ('70) and STATE OF SIEGE ('73), both starring Z's Yves
Montand, were in a similar vein and detailed political oppression in
Czechoslovakia and Uruguay respectively with genre film intensity.
Though SIEGE's anti-American elements caused some controversy in the US
at the time of its release, by the early eighties Costa-Gavras was working
in Hollywood. His American debut, MISSING ('82), the story of an American
family seeking word of a "disappeared" family member in Latin America, won
accolades for leads Sissy Spacek and Jack Lemmon and earned Costa-Gavras a
shared best screenplay Oscar. His 1983 follow up, the pro-Palestinian
melodrama HANNA K., surprised and infuriated many of those who'd championed
MISSING.
After the French comedy FAMILY BUSINESS ('86), Costa-Gavras made two
films in a row from scripts by Hollywood bete-noir Joe Eszterhas. The
second, THE MUSIC BOX ('89) earned the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film
Festival in 1990. In the last decade Costa-Gavras has helmed both French and
American features and has made contributions to anthology films like 1995's
LUMIERE AND COMPANY. Costa-Gavras has performed in several films including
MADAME ROSA in 1978 and John Landis' 1986 SPIES LIKE US and was the
co-subject of the 1976 documentary, COSTA-GAVRAS TALKS WITH MARCEL OPHULS:
POLITICAL FILMS (1976). A citizen of France, he was appointed president of
the Cinematheque Francaise in 1982.
COSTA-GAVRAS
FILMOGRAPHY
Amen. (2002)
Mad City (1997)
Lumière and Company (1995)
À propos de Nice, la suite (1995) (segment "Les Kankobals")
Little Apocalypse, The (1993)
Against Oblivion (1991)
Music Box (1989)
Betrayed (1988)
Family Business (1986)
Hanna K. (1983)
Missing (1982)
Womanlight (1979) (USA)
Special Section (1975)
State of Siege (1973)
Confession, The (1970) (USA)
Z (1969)
Sleeping Car Murders, The (1965)
Rates, Les (1958)