Screenwriter, director, and producer Costa-Gavras, 74, never one to shy away from inflammatory themes, will be honored with the second-ever Eisenstein Award handed out by the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts.
The Sept. 28 ceremony will launch a two-day Costa-Gavras mini-festival, with screenings of four of the director’s films: the Academy Award-winning 1969 political thriller Z, one of the best examples in the genre; Amen, a 2002 drama about the Catholic Church’s silence during the Holocaust; Missing, a first-rate 1982 political thriller starring Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek as Americans reluctantly involved in the U.S.-backed coup against left-wing Chilean president Salvador Allende; and the subversive The Ax, in which a desperate unemployed man takes some radical measures to get rid of the competition.
On Sept. 29, the director’s daughter, Julie Gavras, whose Blame It on Fidel! is currently being shown in Los Angeles, will join Costa-Gavras and several guest scholars in a panel discussion focused on the director’s work and on political cinema in general.
All events are free, but reservations are required at cinema.usc.edu/CostaGavras. The festival will take place at the Norris Cinema Theatre/Frank Sinatra Hall. Passes for Parking Structure D may be purchased for $7.00 at USC Entrance Gate 5, located at the intersection of W. Jefferson Blvd. & McClintock Ave., south of downtown Los Angeles.
As per the event’s press release, the Eisenstein Award “recognizes visionary and distinguished contributions to the cinematic arts.” Filmmaker Agnès Varda was the first recipient of the award in November 2003.
Schedule and additional information (from the press release):
Friday, September 28th, 2007
6:30PM: Welcome reception outside of Norris Theatre.
7:15PM: Opening remarks; presentation of the Eisenstein Award by SCA Dean Elizabeth M. Daley to Costa-Gavras.
7:45PM: Screening of Missing (1982), 122 min. Followed by a brief Q&A between the filmmaker and the audience.
Saturday, September 29th, 2007
12:00PM: Screening of The Ax (Le Couperet, 2005), 122 min., in French with English subtitles.
3:00PM: Screening of Amen. (2002), 132 min., in French with English subtitles.
6:00PM: Panel discussion about political cinema and the works of Costa-Gavras. Panelists will include USC History Professor Steven J. Ross, Boston College Professor John Michalczyk, SCA Production Professor Jeremy Kagan, in addition to Costa-Gavras and Julie Gavras.
7:00PM: Catered reception in Queen’s Courtyard, directly in front of Norris Cinema Theatre.
8:00PM: Screening of Z (1969), 127 min., in French with English subtitles, introduced by the director.
ABOUT COSTA-GAVRAS
Costa-Gavras was born in Greece in 1933 and attended high school in Athens before moving to Paris to enroll at La Sorbonne and subsequently the Institute for Advanced Cinematographic Studies in 1956. For several years, he worked as the assistant director for such established filmmakers as René Clair, Jacques Demy and Marcel Ophüls.
His debut as a feature film director and screenwriter came in 1965 with The Sleeping Car Murder” (Compartiment Tueurs), which won the National Board of Review’s award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1967. The film established early-on Costa-Gavras’ astute eye for casting and preference for ensemble casts, including future “Z” costars Yves Montand, Jean-Louis Trintignant, Jacques Perrin and Charles Denner.
The critical and commercial success of “Z” internationally in 1969 brought the director such prestigious awards as the Prix Spécial du Jury at the Cannes Film Festival and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1970. Costa-Gavras followed the success of Z with several hard-hitting political thrillers based on real historical events, including “The Confession” (L’Aveu, 1971), “State of Siege” (État de Siege, 1973) and “Special Section” (1975), which brought him a Best Director award at Cannes.
He became one of the most visible and important filmmakers during the height of international political cinema in the 1970s, particularly for his frequent collaborations with screenwriters Jorge Semprun and Franco Solinas.
In 1982, he made his first English-language film, Missing, which won the coveted Palme d’Or at Cannes and the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar for Costa-Gavras and Donald Stewart, in addition to nominations for Best Picture, Actor (Jack Lemmon) and Actress (Sissy Spacek) in 1983.
From 1982 to 1987, he served as the President of La Cinémathèque Française, a title that he recently reassumed in 2007. His work throughout the 80s and 90s included “Hanna K.” (1983), “Family Business” (Conseil de Famille, 1985), “Betrayed” (1987) & “Music Box” (1989), both scripted by Joe Eszterhas, “The Little Apocalypse” (La Petite Apocalypse, 1992) and Mad City (1997), with John Travolta and Dustin Hoffman.
His most recent films include “Amen.” (2002) and “The Ax” (Le Couperet, 2005). He is currently working on a new production with co-writer Jean-Claude Grumberg. His honors include the title of Chevalier in the French Legion of Honor.
ABOUT THE FILMS
“Missing” (1982) is based on the true story of American journalist Charles Horman, an American journalist who disappeared in the bloody aftermath of the Chilean coup of 1973 that deposed President Salvador Allende. The film follows Horman’s wife (Sissy Spacek) and his father (Jack Lemmon) as they investigate the practices of the deadly new regime and possible U.S. complicity in Horman’s abduction. “Missing” won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, and was nominated for Best Actor (Lemmon), Best Actress (Spacek) and Best Picture. The film won the 1982 Palme d’Or (Golden Palm) at the Cannes Film Festival.
“The Ax” (Le Couperet, 2005) follows Bruno Davert, a middle-aged, middle-class executive in the paper industry, who finds himself out of work after many years of dedicated corporate servitude. After three subsequent years of unemployment, Bruno becomes all too aware of the abundance of candidates vying for the scarce positions that he qualifies for. In a desperate attempt to land his dream job, Bruno decides to improve his odds in the workforce by eliminating, literally, the competition.
“Amen.” (2002) is an examination of the possible complicity between the Catholic Church and Nazi Germany during WWII. Kurt Gerstein (Ulrich Tukur), a real-life chemist and member of the Institute for Hygiene of the SS, is compelled to act against the regime when he learns that the chemical used to purify water for the troops, zyklon B, is being used as a poison to kill prisoners in the gas chamber. Gerstein attempts to notify Pope Pius XII, but is appalled by the lack of response he gets from the Catholic hierarchy. His only ally is a young Jesuit priest (Mathieu Kassovitz), who refuses to accept the Vatican’s silence.
Z (1969), although never expressly situated, is a thinly veiled indictment of the military junta that came to power in Greece during the early 1960s. Determined to eradicate the influence of leftist politics in the country, the government implements a variety of ideological programs meant to indoctrinate the mass public. When a liberal politician (Yves Montand) is murdered in an attack during a peace demonstration, the police and the military try to hide not only their complicity in the assassination, but the entire murder as well. The prosecutor (Jean-Louis Trintignant) must act as a detective to unearth the corruption of a government operating in the absence of accountability. Winner of the Best Foreign Language Film and Best Film Editing Academy Awards in 1970, and nominated for Best Picture, Director and Adapted Screenplay. Winner of the Jury Prize and Best Actor Award (Trintignant) at the Cannes Film Festival.
More Best Foreign Language Film Oscar Entries
Golam Rabbany Biplob’s Swapnodanay / On the Wings of Dreams (above, top photo), which debuted at the Rotterdam Film Festival, has been chosen as Bangladesh’s submission in the foreign-language film category for the 80th Academy Awards.
The Bengali-language On the Wings of Dreams tells the story of a struggling medicine salesman (Mahmuduzzaman Babu) whose luck seems to improve when his wife (Rokeya Prachy) finds money in a pair of second-hand trousers bought for their son. The problem is that the money is in an unknown foreign currency, and they need to find a bank that will exchange it. Believing himself rich, the salesman even starts courting another woman, whom he intends to have as his second wife.
Last June, On the Wings of Dreams received the best director award in the Asian New Talent category at the Shanghai Film Festival. Earlier this month, the film was screened at the 2007 Toronto Film Festival.
Johnnie To’s crime comedy-drama Fong juk / Exiled, best film and best director winner at the 2007 Hong Kong Film Awards, will represent Hong Kong. Starring Simon Yam, Suet Lam, and Anthony Wong, Exiled follows a couple of hit men hunting down a couple of other hit men hunting down a renegade hit man as Macau is about to be handed over to China.
Israel’s pick is writer-director Eran Kolirin’s comedy-drama Bikur Ha-Tizmoret / The Band’s Visit (above), a hit at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and the winner of eight Israeli Film Academy Awards, including best film, director, actor (Sasson Gabai), actress (Ronit Elkabetz), and screenplay.
The Band’s Visit portrays the humorous problems encountered by members of an Egyptian brass band stranded in a small Israeli town. The film will be released by Sony Pictures Classics in Los Angeles and New York on Dec. 7.
Eklavya: The Royal Guard, starring Bollywood film legend Amitabh Bachchan, is India’s entry. Directed by Vidhu Vinod Chopra – his first directorial effort in seven years – who also acted as co-screenwriter with Abhijit Joshi and Swanand Kirkire, Eklavya: The Royal Guard tells the story of an obsessively devoted guard (Bachchan) at Devigarh, a centuries old citadel in Rajasthan. The guard’s devotion will be sorely tested when the region’s London-based crown prince returns to his homeland following the queen’s death, and peasants revolt against the king.
Also in the cast: Sanjay Dutt, Saif Ali Khan, Vidya Balan, and Jackie Shroff. (The film’s official site is very much worth a look. And make sure you have your speakers on.)
Estonia’s submission is Ilmar Raag’s dark drama and local box office hit The Class / Klass, about two high-school students (Vallo Kirs, Pärt Uusberg) who join forces to avenge themselves against their bullying classmates. Inspired by the Columbine massacre, The Class received a special mention in the East of West sidebar at the 2007 Karlovy Vary Film Festival.
The 80th Academy Awards will be held on Feb. 24, 2008, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood.
Charles Durning: SAG Life Achievement Award
The Screen Actors Guild has announced that Charles Durning, 84, will receive the guild’s Life Achievement Award at the 14th SAG Awards, to be held on Sunday, Jan. 27.
Hardly a household name, Charles Durning is a somewhat curious choice for the SAG Life Achievement Award, which, especially in the last few years, has almost invariably gone to major film and/or television stars. Among the award’s previous recipients are Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, Martha Raye, Katharine Hepburn, Julie Andrews, Barbara Stanwyck, Elizabeth Taylor, Robert Redford, Gene Kelly, Angela Lansbury, Sidney Poitier, James Garner, Edward Asner, Ricardo Montalban, Pearl Bailey, Clint Eastwood, Shirley Temple, and Charlton Heston.
Charles Durning movies
Charles Durning, whose acting career spans more than half a century, has appeared in nearly 100 films, almost invariably in supporting roles. Those range from Harvey Middleman, Fireman, in 1965 all the way to this year’s Polycarp.
Durning has been nominated twice for the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award: for his tap dancing Texas governor in Colin Higgin’s The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982), starring Burt Reynolds and Dolly Parton, and for his Nazi colonel in Mel Brooks’ To Be or Not To Be (1983), toplining Brooks and Anne Bancroft. The first time around, Durning lost the Oscar to Louis Gossett Jr. for An Officer and a Gentleman; the following year, he lost to Jack Nicholson for Terms of Endearment.
Among Charles Durning’s other films are George Roy Hill’s Best Picture Oscar winner The Sting, The Muppet Movie, Home for the Holidays, The Hudsucker Proxy, Dick Tracy, and O Brother, Where Art Thou?. In Sydney Pollack’s blockbuster Tootsie, Durning memorably falls in love with Dustin Hoffman’s television “actress.”
Besides his film work, Durning also appeared on Broadway (That Championship Season, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof) and in numerous television productions, perhaps most notably in the 1975 television movie Queen of the Stardust Ballroom, opposite Maureen Stapleton. For that role, Durning received his first of eight Emmy nominations.
Oscar Drama with an Indian Setting: ‘Dharm’ vs. ‘Eklavya’
When not making movies, Indian movie personalities seem to spend a lot of their time fighting one another in court.
Following the long soap opera revolving around allegations of bias and corruption at the National Film Awards, the Mumbai High Court has found the Film Federation of India’s (FFI) pick to represent the Indian film industry at the Oscars was “prima facie biased.”
This latest courtroom drama began when filmmaker Bhavna Talwar (left) and WSG Pictures, whose Dharm was passed over as India’s Oscar entry in favor of Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s Eklavya: The Royal Guard, filed a petition alleging favoritism.
In their petition, Talwar and WSG claim that selection committee director Sudhir Mishra and members Jagdish Sharma and Ranjit Bahadur were close to Chopra, adding that Bahadur was the editor of a promo for Eklavya.
Talwar has publicly remarked that by choosing Eklavya as India’s submission for the best foreign-language film Academy Award “the FFI is embarrassing not just the film industry but also the whole country.” Dharm (“religion”), the story of a Brahmin priest who befriends a four-year-old, came in a close second in the FFI voting.
Curiously, even FFI chairman Vinod Pandey wasn’t all that pleased with the committee’s selection.
“It was a shock to me that Dharm, a competent, poignant and relevant film, didn’t make it,” Pandey told The Times of India. “Dharm was technically brilliant, outstanding in terms of photography, sound design, art design and had nuanced performances. The only thing it did not have were superstars.”
Eklavya, about a devoted royal guard, stars Indian film icon Amitabh Bachchan.
The High Court has ordered the FFI to respond within 10 days.
The Times of India discusses Eklavya’s Oscar-worthiness – or lack thereof.
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