Media Alert
If you've never seen it, Turner Classic Movies will be showing the great "Z" tomorrow, Wednesday. It will air at 10:15 AM Los Angeles time -- 1:15 PM in the east.
"Z" was the first foreign-language film ever nominated for Best Picture. In all, it got five nominations, and won two, for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Editing. The film's director, Costa-Gavros, got two nominations, for directing and co-writing the movie. I had reason to interview him before an audience after a screening of his movie Missing that starred Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek, which also got an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. He came across as an interesting, nice fellow. Far more personable than one would have thought given how intense and political his movies were.
"Z" deals with a political coup in an unnamed country, though it's clearly about the 1967 coup in Greece. So, there's a bit of timeliness to it today. It was made in 1969, so the filmmaking style is a touch dated for today's audience, but it's still powerful, with a gripping, unrelenting pace that builds. I won't say what the title means, you have to stick around to the end of the closing crawl to find out.
It stars Jean-Louis Trintignant and the great French singer, sometimes actor Yves Montand, along with Irene Pappas is a small, but strong role.
The movie won the Cannes Jury Prize and was nominated for the Palme d'Or. It won the British BAFTA for music score by Mikis Theodorakis, who's best known for writing the wonderful score to "Zorba the Greek"
This is the trailer for the film's 40th anniversary --
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