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Z
Costa-Gavras, France/Algeria, 1969
Tuesday 8 April 2003 10.05pm-12.05am
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Costa-Gavras experienced the impact of political extremes from childhood. The son of a Greek dissident who played an active role in the resistance movement against the Nazis, the young Gavras found it hard to escape the legacy of his father's political activism.
Denied entry to study film in America due to his father's Leftist sympathies, Gavras took his ideals to Paris where the opportunity to work with distinguished filmmakers such as Jean Renoir and Jacques Demy paid off. These firsthand experiences helped produce one of the most influential and exhilarating political thrillers of all time.
Z is a story of political corruption that transcends time and place. There's no laboured preamble introducing the hierarchical web of deceit, the action takes place in an unnamed European city and apart from the fashion of heavy framed black spectacles adorning every official face, its exact time remains anonymous.
The action is immediate. Plummeting into the eye of a revolutionary whirlwind about to tear through the streets of the city, the plot hurtles along thanks to the electrifying speed edit jump-cuts by Francoise Bonnot and Raoul Coutard's wonderfully disorientating cinematography.
It begins with news that a pacifist politician (Yves Montand) will be assassinated during an organised rally. While his supporters are herded into a ludicrously small hall, the police gather outside to 'restrain' the right-wingers baying for the blood of the "ideological mildew". The confusion and hysteria that follow slowly reveal a catalogue of corrupt practices which include mistaken identities, military oppression, bribery and coercion.
The inverted disclaimer at the beginning states that any resemblance to the film's plot and characters to actual events is deliberate. Gavras is pointedly referring to the assassination of Greek Leftist Grigoris Lambrakis. While Gavras pays respect to a specific political atrocity, his real genius lies in making a film that's as enduring and vital today as the passion-fuelled politics of its inspiration.
Clare Norton-Smith
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Z won an Oscar in 1970 for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Editing
