From A to "Z"
The first foreign language film nominated for Best Picture Oscar was the brilliant 1969 political thriller, "Z." While it didn't win that award, it did win two Oscars -- for Best Foreign Language Film and editing. It will air very early tonight/tomorrow morning (depending on how you prefer to look at it) on Turner Classic Movies at 1:30 AM Eastern time, May 2. (Which translates to tonight at 10:30 PM here in Los Angeles.
Set your DVR. It's great.
The film is very loosely a fictionalized version -- though unnamed -- of the 1967 Greek military coup. The best-known actors in it are Yves Montand and Irene Pappas, though the lead is probably Jean-Louis Trintignant, who had a long, admired career in film. It was directed by Costa-Gavras, who 13 years later directed another Best Picture nominee, the political thriller, "Missing," which was in English and starred Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek, based on a true story.
A bit of a digression here. "Missing" was released by Universal when I was working there, and I did a Q&A with Costa-Gavras after we screened the movie for college film reviewers. And I remember next to nothing about the interview, other than he was a nice fellow. But I have a good, if bizarre reason for not remembering anything about it.
I had a list of questions to asked, and we went through them, branching off when appropriate. Maybe it lasted about 15 minutes, but I didn't want to hog the time, because I then I opened it up to questions from the audience.
And there were none.
I waited a bit, asked a bit, and only got back the sound of crickets. So, in a bit of a panic, I asked another question to Costa (which was how he preferred to be called) -- all the while looking out of my eye at the audience, hoping to see a raised hand. When I finished, I scanned the audience...but still nothing. So, I vamped with another question.
And that's how it went for the next 20 minutes. I'd ask Costa-Gavras a question, nod as if I was listening, peeking out at the audience hoping for a raised hand and all the while trying to think what my next question would be. Every time I asked a question to him. I really perfected the concept of intently nodding as if I was paying rapt attention -- afterwards I asked a couple of my friends I'd invited if they could tell that I was in a panic and not listening but just trying desperately to think of what to ask next, and they didn't have a clue. But I pretty much didn't hear a word the rest of the night.
(By the way, one thing that amazed me at the time, and has ever since, is that you have Costa-Gavras there, the director of "Z" and this film, "Missing," both which got Oscar nominations as Best Picture, and a screening room full of college film editors...and NOT ONE person had a single question!!)
Missing is great, by the way, if you haven't seen it. To prepare for the Q&A (thankfully), I got access to audio tape interviews with the real people who Lemmon and Spacek played (a father-in-law and daughter-in-law, who'd gone to El Salvador to find his missing son, who was of course her missing husband, and they were fascinating. And helped me draw a few questions to ask, as I recall. By the way, in real life -- which I got from the tapes -- the two real-life people had a closer bond throughout their lives than the movie portrays for added dramatic conflict -- somewhat distant from one another but who draw closer during their shared journey of the movie.
But that's "Missing." This here is about "Z."
If you haven't seen it, and especially if you like political thrillers, it's special. And if you do watch it, stick around to the very end. I mean, the very end. I won't say why. This is one of those "Trust me" things.
I don't want to post the trailer, because it gives away too much. But this is part of the great, driving score, written by Mikos Theodorakis, who most famously wrote the score to Zorba the Greek.
Comments