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Criterion recently released Director Costa-Gavras 'State of Siege' in a one disc Blu-ray. I hadn't seen the film since the mid 70's and it has lost absolutely NON of it's tremendous impact over the decades. I'm surprised at how only very minor things (mostly technological), are the only things that have changed since the film's release. Like 'Battle for Algiers', this film is timeless. This Blu-ray looks better, FAR BETTER, than the film I saw at a retrospective long ago. There's also a 30 minute interview (filmed only a year or so ago) of Costa-Gavras talking in a very detailed yet fascinating way about his involvement with Actor Yves Montand and how Mr. Montand came aboard this film. Mikis Theodorakis's score is so memorable and an asset. Seek out Criterion's Blu-ray!
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Posted: |
Jul 25, 2015 - 8:05 AM
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By: |
Richard-W
(Member)
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STATE OF SIEGE is a film about social injustice, oppression, torture and the necessity for revolution. It is based on actual facts, and is a very factual film. Wearing its politics on its sleeve is precisely the point. It deserved all the praise it received when it was new. Today, nobody cares.
Criterion sat on the film for over fifteen years. I bought the same Korean DVD you did. But I'm glad to see it again in such fine form.
Criterion released the previous political film by Costa-Gavras, THE CONFESSION (1970), at the same time. It is a masterpiece equal to STATE OF SIEGE. Several years ago Criterion also released Z (1969) and THE MISSING (1981) on DVD. One hopes they will upgrade those to blu-ray now.
Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, Costa-Gavras was a hero because of his brave, uncompromising, truth-telling films. He told stories out of current events that nobody else could tell. He did not wear an idealogical yoke around his neck to blind him to violations of human rights and crimes against humanity. He was the cutting edge in filmmaking. Remember how Col. Kurtz talks about walking the edge of a straight razor in Apocalypse Now ? Well, Costa-Gavras walked that edge. People used to line up to see his films. His films had a very real impact in the police states in south America and fascist governments in Europe. People regarded him as more than a filmmaker, he was like a force of nature, and a hero for exposing corruption.
I don't understand why Criterion waited so long, or why these two blu-rays are not being hailed as the major event that they are. I guess times change.
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STATE OF SIEGE is a film about social injustice, oppression, torture and the necessity for revolution. It is based on actual facts, and is a very factual film. Wearing its politics on its sleeve is precisely the point. It deserved all the praise it received when it was new. Today, nobody cares.
Criterion sat on the film for over fifteen years. I bought the same Korean DVD you did. But I'm glad to see it again in such fine form.
Criterion released the previous political film by Costa-Gavras, THE CONFESSION (1970), at the same time. It is a masterpiece equal to STATE OF SIEGE. Several years ago Criterion also released Z (1969) and THE MISSING (1981) on DVD. One hopes they will upgrade those to blu-ray now.
Throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, Costa-Gavras was a hero because of his brave, uncompromising, truth-telling films. He told stories out of current events that nobody else could tell. He did not wear an idealogical yoke around his neck to blind him to violations of human rights and crimes against humanity. He was the cutting edge in filmmaking. Remember how Col. Kurtz talks about walking the edge of a straight razor in Apocalypse Now ? Well, Costa-Gavras walked that edge. People used to line up to see his films. His films had a very real impact in the police states in south America and fascist governments in Europe. People regarded him as more than a filmmaker, he was like a force of nature, and a hero for exposing corruption.
I don't understand why Criterion waited so long, or why these two blu-rays are not being hailed as the major event that they are. I guess times change.
I had no idea Criterion had these all these years! When they became available from Criterion, I bought them. I have not yet viewed 'The Confession', but I plan on it perhaps next week or so. I have Criterion's versions of 'MISSING' as well as 'Z', and I'm not sure if I'll get the Blu-rays of these when they become available as Criterion did marvelous work in restoring and releasing them in their own catalog. I agree with your sentiments about Costa-Gavras, but he has given the world so many thoughtful, provoking, and stimulating films. 'Z' remains my favorite, followed closely by 'MISSING'. I've a question: When Costa-Gavras and Donald Stewart won their Oscar for the Screenplay of 'MISSING' back in the 80's, WHO went up to the stage to collect the Oscar? I can't find the clip on Youtube.
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Posted: |
Jul 25, 2015 - 11:38 AM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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I need to see THE CONFESSION, a 1970 film that I always confuse with the same year's THE CONFORMIST (which I have seen only once). I re-watched MISSING last year for the first time in 25 years, and like "Z," I found it to be superior to STATE OF SIEGE in its storytelling power. In MISSING, you get involved with the father's quest to find his son and with the wife's struggle to reconcile her political attitudes with those of the father. You even understand the son's political growth, even though he is, well, missing for much of the film.
But I couldn't muster up the same emotional attachment to the kidnapped aid worker in STATE OF SIEGE, or for his captor/inquisitor. The situation is used merely as an excuse to have the captor expound upon the crimes of the captive. Unlike in "Z" and MISSING, Costa-Gavras this time seems uninterested in the inherent drama of the situation. Even the captive's death is not used for any dramatic purpose. We are shown his body in the very first scene, and his actual killing is not shown onscreen, perhaps because it would mar the nobility of the captor's cause. Certainly the story is one that should be dramatized, but Costa-Gavras eschews most of the drama in order to hammer home his political points. He was able to do both in "Z" and MISSING, and I hope in THE CONFESSION.
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Unless my memory is playing tricks on me i think i owned the theodorakis LP of this score back in the 70s.
I seem to recall it was often a bargain bin regular.
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Thanks bob.
I seem to recall a black and white cover of a crowd scene, but that could have been the Z LP, which i also had.
Happy days.
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Top man bob, thanks for fixing my memory.
As you say, no crowd scene.
Ooh er. Wonder where i got that from then.
Decent scores though. After Serpico i never minded a bit of mikis. And his bouzoukis!
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Top man bob, thanks for fixing my memory.
As you say, no crowd scene.
Ooh er. Wonder where i got that from then.
Decent scores though. After Serpico i never minded a bit of mikis. And his bouzoukis!
I had that album of 'Z' as well, loved that score! If memory serves me well, (and it never has before!), on the backside of the 'Z' album is a photo of a crowd-scene, (maybe) and I think Montand holding a bullhorn? That was 1969, and I could certainly be wrong.
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Hey - i wasnt going stark raving dust- jacket mental after all!
Well done bob and dave.
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While this thread is about a blu-ray release, it has traveled into soundtracks by Mikis Theodorakis.
The timing of this is interesting because Theodorakis will attain age 90 in a few days! (born July 29, 1925).
I'll create a thread on the other side to wish a happy big-nine-0.
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This movie was banned in a lot of South American countries where dictators ruled in the 70's.
Think most filming was in Uruguay where the events took place.
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Posted: |
Jul 26, 2015 - 1:00 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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[STATE OF SIEGE] was banned in a lot of South American countries where dictators ruled in the 70's.
Think most filming was in Uruguay where the events took place.
Actually, STATE OF SIEGE was filmed in Chile and France. And South America wasn’t the only place where it ran into problems.
STATE OF SIEGE was originally slated to be one of the films in the inaugural program of the American Film Institute Theater, which at the time was housed in the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. When AFl Director George Stevens Jr. announced that the showing of the film on April 5th, 1973 had been cancelled because of its "inappropriate” subject matter, the international film community was outraged by Stevens' decision. Don Rugoff, head of Cinema 5 (the picture's U.S. distributor), accused Stevens at a press conference of censorship, implying that the picture’s cancellation was the result of the Institute's government-sponsored status. The New York Film Critics issued a telegrammed protest to Stevens, deploring his action and charging that he had 'ignored his stated responsibility to present even controversial films to his patrons and the public."
Stevens vehemently denied these charges, stating that, in the wake of recent political kidnappings and assassinations, in view of the fact that the film would be screened at a theater memorializing an assassinated president, and because he personally felt that it “rationalizes an act of political assassination,” he had cancelled plans to show the movie. Among the many filmmakers who protested Stevens’ action by withdrawing permission for their movies to be included in the Washington festival was Jacques Rivette, whose L’AMOUR FOU (1969) was scheduled to replace STATE OF SIEGE in the April 5th slot. As a result, the AFI Theater was closed on April 5th, and STATE OF SIEGE opened to the American public in Washington on the following day.
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