COSTANTIN COSTA-GRAVAS

Costantin Costa-Gravas was born at Loutra-Iraias, in Greece, February 1933. At 19, due to the coup d'etat of the Colonels, he decided to move to Paris, adopting French nationality.
After studying for three years in the faculty of Literature at the Sorbonne, he enrolled at the Hautes Etudes Cinematographiques (IDHEC) and decided to dedicate himself to cinema.
First he collaborated with important French film directors of the Sixties, to make his debut in 1965 with a police thriller, The sleepung car murders (Compartiment Tuers) with Yves Montand, the actor who will appear in almost all his European fims. With Shock troops (Un homme de trop)(1967), in which he tackles the theme of the Second World War, Costa-Gravas begins to experiment with a type of film with a thriller structure whic,nevertheless, presents social themes. 1969 is the year of his international success; in fact, Z, a film dramatised by four hands with Jorge Semprun, from the novel by Vasilis Vasilikos, wins the Oscar as the best foreign film and Costa-Gravas shows the world his social commitment, with the denuniciation of what happens in Greece during the dictatorship of the Colonels. The central theme of the film is the killing of Grigorios Lambrakis, a Greek deputy of the Central Left Union (EDA), organised by forces of the right in 1963, while in The Confession (l'aveu) (1970) Costa Gravas faces the question of Stalinist trials in Czechoclovakia in 1952.
The film, dramatised by Jorge Semprun, is inspired by the biography of Arthur London, an ex member of the Czechoclovakian government who was himself involved in the trials. This structure of political thriller is applied by Costa-Gravas in later films, from Stage of Siege(Etat de Siège)(1972) to The Ax(Cacciatore di teste)(2005)and also in the film of Laurent Herbiat, My Colonel, for which Costa-Gravas wrote the screenplay, adapted from the novel of the same name by Francis Zamponi. Here the theme of the investigation and politics are mixed one with the other.

Filmography

The Sleeping car murder(Compartiment Tueurs) (1965);
Shoch Troops(Un Homme de trop) (1967);
Z (Z)(1969);
The confession (L'Aveu) (1970);
Stage of Siege (Etat de siège) (1973);
Special Section (Section Spéciale) (1975);
Womanlight(Claire de femme) (1979;
Missing (1982);
Hanna K (1983);
Conseille de famille (1986);
Betrayed (1988);
Music box (1989);
The little Apocalypse (La petite Apocalypse) (1993);
Mad City (1997);
Amen (2002);
The ax (Le Couperet)(2005);