When Costa-Gavras’ ‘Z’ Ventured into New Oscar Territory – The Hollywood Reporter
A riot scene from Algeria’s Oscar-winning film Z. “The film is all the more powerful because its events could take place anywhere…and each audience can view it from the perspective of their own time and place,” THR wrote.
Courtesy Everett Collection
“Any resemblance to real events and people dead or alive is not coincidental. It is intentional. This is how the title card reads at the beginning of the Costa-Gavras match gThe film is set in an unnamed Mediterranean country that could represent any number of police states torn between Russian and American influence at the height of the Cold War. The 1969 Franco-Algerian production was suitably international: while the dialogue (by Spanish writer Jorge Semprón) is in French, the plot itself, based on a book by Greek author Vassilis Vassilikos, sticks to the events that took place in Greece after the assassination of a popular leader in 1963. The Peaceful Candidate ( Who plays his counterpart Yves Montand, who dared to oppose the ruling military junta. The titular message, painted across the street in a climactic scene, was a protest slogan meaning “It’s Alive.”
“Here’s the new Hitchcock we’ve been waiting for,” he exclaimed. THR About the Greek director. “Whatever the political commitments of its makers, g Addressing American moviegoers for whom the assassinations and unrest of the 1960s were a slam dunk for a political thriller, critic John Mahoney wrote that the fictional anonymity of its real-life setting and characters only broadens its effects and universality. Still raw.
g It was the first film to be nominated for the Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best International Feature Film, an achievement for Jonathan Glazer. Area of interest Achievement this year.
g It also received nods for Best Director and Adapted Screenplay and won Oscars for Editing (Françoise Bonnet) and Foreign Language Film (as the category was called then). Costa-Gavras left The Dorothy Chandler Suite empty-handed in 1970, but it ended up winning the 1982 Best Adapted Screenplay award. MissingStarring Jack Lemmon.
with her sarcastic eye, g It remains relevant thanks to its indefinite status and a global resurgence of anti-democratic sentiment. Ironically, Vladimir Putin’s followers adopted the letter Z as their symbol. It’s a development that Costa-Gavras would regretfully appreciate, and it’s fitting for what THR The film was described as having “a richness of humour, though a bitter and ironic mark”.
This story first appeared in the February standalone issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. To obtain the magazine, click here to subscribe.
