COSTA GAVRAS: BEYOND LABELS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01365R000300210072-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 19, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 26, 2006
• Sequence Number: 72
• Publication Date: August 13, 1972
• Content Type: NSPR

Approve or--ReKase 20061 4UPCIA-RDP88-01385
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SAN7`IAGO-"There is a
lot of liberty in Chile,"said
Costa Gavras, the director
of politically provocative
movies. There was enough
for him to film "State of
Siege" here, but just barely.
Costa Gavras previously
had infuriated the world's
dictators, and particularly
those of his native Greece,
with "Z." Likewise, he in-
sulted Stalinists and agi-
tated other Communists
with the showing of "The
Confession."
Now "State of Siege" has
convulsed all sectors of
? Chile's broad political spec-
trum. And the film is not
quite finished as yet. And it
does not have to do with
Chile, anyway.
Gavras, at 39 the leader of
the political film movement,
offered an interview in
IT'C's Sheraton Carrera
Hotel, a sanctuary from the
slings of the 'Chilean right
and the arrows of the left.
? "Suite of Siege," he ex-
plained, is a story of neoco-
lonialism, of advisers from
rich countries who seek to
Impose their own sysl:ems
and values on .the cola rics
they "aid." The events of
the film derive 'roughly
from the execution by l ru-
guay's Tupamaros of U.S.
police adviser' Dan MItrione
in 1970. Yves Montand, lead-
ing marl in Gavras' previous
.movies, plays the approxi-
- Mation of Alitrione.
"Biut this is not be casu
.of mm one,- Gavras in-
sistcd. ''We do not really
know that case, although we
know some of it. Montand is
a big)] functionary who is
kidnaped. But we use no
names''
The locale is not defined,
either, beyond its being in
Latin' America. ' But the
movie had to he mode some-
where, Chile, as the freest
country with at least a rudi-
mentat?y fitn+ industry nec-
essary to support' the pro-
duction, was the only choice.
But as the Most highly poli-
ticized nation, it.. hardly
turned out to be ideal.
Critics on the light. main-
tained "State of was
financed by the 'I'uparnaros
(most of the Money is, AUner?-
ican). Uruguay's ambassador
protested diplomatically.
The left accused Gavras of
unrevvolutiouary commercial-
him.
Part of the problem was
that Gavras' politics do not
fit under any of the ideolog-
ical labels that define poli
tics here.
Gavras said he has never
associated with any move-
ment, that his character'
would not, permit it.
"Any friends accuse me of
being an aggressive inde-
pendent. I don't know if a
society can organize itself
around pi'ople such as Me,
but .. ." He punctuated the
phrase with a take-it-or-
leave it shrug that Santia-
. go's half-dozen brands of so-
cialists find so disconcert.
ing. -
"The trouble with political.
parties is that they deal ill'
simplifications. None is as
perfect as its advocates say."
What, then, is the basis of
his own philosophy?
laxed and intense. He grew
up in postwar Greece, where
the air was thick with the
themes that would later
dominate Ills films: Stalin-
j,-m, anticommunism, U.S
aid, military rule, civil
strife.
In 1953, Gavras left
Greece for the Sorbonne in
Paris. "But literature an
three years he turned to
studios for television and
the movies, arid he then
worked in those fields.
After 14 years in France,
Gavras returned briefly to
Greece in. 1667--as it hap-
pened, just. before the mili-
tary coup. Ile had picked up
the 'Z" book describing the
death of Greek rebel leader
Lambral:is at the hands of
the military, and the coup
that soon followed gave it
an instant relevance.
Argentina, whose military
regime usually imposes a
rigid movie censor;;b.ip, was
allowed to see "Z,." Gavras
explained that the film had
just received a big reception
at the Mar del Plata film
festival and the distributor
seized that moment to ask
approval iii Buenos Aires. It
worked. Several Argentines
who saw the picture said
they: felt. it was describing
their own- dictatorship, the
only incon,rutty being the
fact that they were there
seeing it.
According to Gavras, Don-
ald Ituggof of Cinema Five
in New York paid about
,600,000 on the gamble that
'tile show would succeed
there. It did, bringing in $10
million.
With that, American fin-
anciers were interested in
political movies. It was 1968,
and the throttling of the
Prague spring was on the
public mind. Gavras and
Montand turned to "The
ContInUed
"The dignity of. man, full- STATINTL
damentally. Justice. I cannot.
accept that some men go
hungry. I cannot accept that
some live very well while
others live very poorly.... l
am not a Christian but I ac?
cept the ideal, to love thy
neighbor as thyself.' All the
enormous quantity of words
today makes this ideal seem
old-fashioned, but it is my
philosophy."
Costa Gavras, actually
Constantine Gavras, is a
ORUC F
Approved For Release 2006/07