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Costa Gavras

  • Costa Gavras
© courtesy MIFF Yasmine Hammamet
Film director, Screenwriter, Director of photography (d.o.p.)
Principal country concerned : Column : Theater, Cinema/tv

Also known as : Costa-Gavras

His Talent Agent : François Samuelson (Intertalent, Paris)

Companies
ARP - Auteurs Réalisateurs Producteurs : President of the Board
Festival Paris Cinéma - APOEC - Association pour l'Organisation d'un Événement Cinématographique : Member of the Board of Directors
France Télévisions : Member of the Board of Directors

Biography
Costa-Gavras moves to Paris in 1951 and studies humanities at the Sorbonne before attending the IDHEC film school. At the end of the fifties, he becomes the assistant of Henri Verneuil, René Clément, Jacques Demy, and Jean Becker. His first film, The Sleeping Car Murders, is a huge success in 1965. He follows this in a more discreet fashion with Shock Troops, then triumphs with Z (1969), which wins two awards at Cannes and two Oscars. The first part of a political trilogy, this film is then followed by The Confession (1971) and State of Siege (1973). Whether they're perfectly tuned political thrillers (Missing, which is awarded the Palme d'Or at the 1981 Cannes Film Festival and the Oscar for Best Screenplay) or dramas about the infringement of human rights (Hanna K), a large majority of Costa-Gavras' films are based on true stories that show individuals crushed by history. The director often co-writes his screenplays with Jorge Semprun or Franco Solinas, and frequently casts Yves Montand.

He tries out a more intimist style with Womanlight (1979) and Family Business (1985). In the early eighties, his work at the Cinémathèque Française takes him away from the movie set, but his La Main droite au diable (1987) and Music Box (1989), shot in the United States, show him in top form. He then directs The Little Apocalypse in 1992 and Mad City in 1996. In 2001, Eyewitness, an historical drama in the same vein as his first features, starring Mathieu Kassovitz, wins the César for Best Screenplay. In 2005, Gavras adapts Donald Westlake's thriller The Ax for the screen, featuring José Garcia in the role of the serial killer. He has written the screenplay for Laurent Herbier's Mon Colonel, released in French theaters November 15, 2006.
Eden à l'ouest (2008) is his last feature.

Latest films
Eden à l'ouest (2008), from Costa-Gavras
Mon Colonel (2006), from Laurent Herbiet
The Ax (2004), from Costa-Gavras
Amen (2001), from Costa-Gavras
A propos de Nice, la suite (1995), from Pavel Lounguine, Claire Denis, Costa-Gavras, Catherine Breillat, Raymond Depardon, Raoul Ruiz, Parviz Kimiavi, Abbas Kiarostami, J.M.G. Le Clezio
The Little Apocalypse (1993), from Costa-Gavras
Conseil de famille (1986), from Costa-Gavras
Tea in the Harem of Archimedus (1985), from Mehdi Charef
Hanna K (1983), from Costa-Gavras
MISSING (1982), from Costa-Gavras

Organizations

2 files

Articles

2 files

Recurring events

1 files

Partners

  • Arterial network
  • Ghana : Media Line

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