Good fairies must have leaned over his cradle.
Because Costa-Gavras' life and career as a filmmaker are like a powerful river that overcomes all obstacles.
At 85, while screening a film on the difficult situation of the current strike, the author of
Z
looks back.
Forced to flee Athens because of his father's anti-royalist positions, he arrived in Paris in 1952 with three francs six sous.
An incredible epic of encounters begins, each one more auspicious than the last, as if angels had rolled out a carpet under the feet of the young Greek.
Modest, Costa-Gavras reveals nothing of the charm and talent of this young man before whom all doors open.
He became an assistant to filmmakers of the 1950s and 1960s (Jean Becker, Henri Verneuil, etc.) and a close friend of the Signoret-Montand couple.
His account of the filming of, by Jean Giono, with Fernandel, is particularly moving.
The first part of the book is an enchanted journey through the post-war period in a Paris awakening to emancipation, to the New Wave...
To discover
The keys to supporting women in their working lives
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General mobilization
Costa Gavras SP Editions du Seuil
But History never takes a break.
There, the Algerian war, the dictatorship of the colonels in Greece, Stalinism, the Prague Spring… there is reason to mobilize.
From his third film,
Z
, Costa-Gavras plunged into politics and never left it.
But above all as a filmmaker, who only believes in images... The artist in the process of developing himself has a particular talent for attracting ideas, good books to adapt, people ready to embark on perilous cinematographic adventures.
Joyful tribulations of an adventurer who always lands on his feet, a skillfully condensed portrait of an era that leads to ours.
An essential partner alongside Costa-Gavras, reporter turned producer Michèle Ray.
A couple, therefore, luminous, romantic.
Dreams and maneuvering battles.
Go where it is impossible to go,
by Costa-Gavras, éditions du Seuil, 528 p., €25.
And also
The Confession
(1970)
A high-ranking Czechoslovakian communist dignitary is accused of being a spy for the United States.
One of the first films to denounce Stalinism.
Worship.
Pomereu Films.
Mad City
(1997)
A desperate guy becomes a hostage taker.
Enter a shameless journalist.
A media review with John Travolta and Dustin Hoffman.
Punch Productions.
Eden in the West
(2009)
A reflection on the status of foreigner through the journey of a young Greek migrant, in homage to Elia Kazan.
Costa-Gavras production.
Organic express
1933:
born on February 10 in Greece.
1952:
leaves Athens for Paris.
He joined Idhec and became assistant to René Clair, Jacques Demy, Henri Verneuil, René Clément…
1965:
1st film,
Compartiment Killeurs
.
1969:
his third film,
Z
, is an international success.
2012:
Capital
, financial thriller.
2014:
president of the jury of the Deauville American Cinema Festival.
In video, find out who the members of the jury of the 2018 Cannes Film Festival are
Celebrities at Nice airport for the 2018 Cannes Film Festival
People at Nice airport for the 2018 Cannes Film Festival
In images, in pictures
See the slideshow15 photos
See the slideshow15 photos