The reputation of Mikis Theodorakis has been linked so much with 2 classic films with Greek subject matters, "Zorba The Greek" and "Z", that the film scores which Theodorakis wrote earlier in the late '50s and early '60s remain unfairly in the shadows after his subsequent success with these two films alphabetized by the letter "Z".
Mikis Theodorakis appears to have had quite a cosmopolitan music career. In addition to scoring Greek language films (some for internal domestic consumption whilst others got international distribution), Theodorakis provides music for French and other European cinema, and was for a brief time composing for soundtracks within the former British film industry. It is this time period on which I wish to focus.
After scoring 3 Greek films in 1953/54 and moving to Paris in '54 to complete his music studies, Theodorakis went onto write 10 more film scores within a 6-year period, 8 of which are highlighted below:
ILL MET BY MOONLIGHT (1957) directed by Michael Powell & Emeric Pressburger
LUNA DE MIEL (1959) by Michael Powell
FACES IN THE DARK (1960) by David Eady
THE SHADOW OF THE CAT (1961) by John Gilling
PHAEDRA (1962) by Jules Dassin
LES AMANTS DE TERUEL (1962) by Raymond Rouleau
FIVE MILES TO MIDNIGHT (1962) by Anatole Litvak
ELEKTRA (1962) by Michael Cacoyannis
British directors Powell & Pressburger appear to have jump-started the international film music career of Mikis Theodorakis by engaging him to write Greek-flavored music to accompany their film "Ill Met By Moonlight". Based upon a true WW II story, "Ill Met By Moonlight" is set in Crete and features leading man Dirk Bogarde as a Greek involved in a desperado gang's attempts to kidnap a German general during the occupation. Theodorakis delivers nationalistic and rhythmic music for this film; nothing extraordinary here, but he must have impressed Michael Powell enough for Powell to hire Theodorakis for his next assignment. "Luna De Miel" was a joint U.K./Spanish production, which appears to be a filmed ballet. Like much of the films on which Theodorakis worked, "Luna De Miel" is not available on home video for review, so we may never know if this film, which has been described as Powell's worst, will live up (or down) to its reputation.
Likewise, "Faces In The Dark" is not known to me due to its lack of availability; however, if Theodorakis has provided this (supposedly) suspense film with music sounding like the next film, I will wish to see and hear it someday. His next one (chronologically) is "Shadow Of The Cat". While this hard-to-see film has been described by more than a few people as a Hammer Horror film under the guise of another production company, no one has offered praise towards this film's soundtrack by Theodorakis. No dance music or Greek instruments will be found in this one! The striking music by Theodorakis is as relentless in its intensity as it is in its percussive drive. It is just as starling, phobic and memorable as "Jaws" by John Williams, though performed by a smaller ensemble which emphasizes crashing percussion to provide the musical stings. A must-have, in my opinion.
Next is the bumper year of 1962, in which Theodorakis had 4 films released (more than 1 premiered in December '62). The earliest of the bunch is Jules Dassin's "Phaedra", which had a degree of popularity to have its soundtrack released on LP. This United Artists album has very poor sonics; whether this is due to flaws inherent within the original recording sessions, or the music being unsatisfactorily reproduced on record, it inhibits appreciation. Theodorakis provides melancholic themes in a Greek mold, along with repetitive rhythmic/percussive passages which boarder on minimalism. In any event, Jules Dassin's and Melina Mercouri's follow-up to their previous success on "Never On Sunday" never reached the height of fame that that 1960 film had achieved. Even the inclusion of Anthony Perkins within "Phaedra"'s cast did not help to elevate this film above the melodramatic updating of the Euripides classic on which it's based (though the film did well in Europe). Anthony Perkins must have been quite busy filming in Europe in 1962. Not only did Perkins appear in "Phaedra", but was the leading actor in Orson Welles' filmic adaption of Franz Kafka's "The Trial", portraying Joseph K. Amidst shooting the Welles film, Anthony Perkins also was making a film under Anatole Litvak's direction called "Five Miles To Midnight". Perkins was re-teamed here with Sophia Loren (they had previously worked together in "Desire Under The Elms"), and again Perkins had musical backing by Theodorakis. "Five Miles To Midnight" produces another superb suspense score from Theodorakis, who eschews sentimentality and brings a modern and austere sensibility to the atmosphere. "Five Miles To Midnight" could very well be my favorite Theodorakis soundtrack, with its queasy atonality and its capricious eruptions of brassy and percussive dissonances, orchestrated with those instruments associated more with a jazz band than the philharmonic. Theodorakis does provide a jazzy main theme, but leaves the night club source music duties to Jacques Loussier, who wrote Blues tunes and Twist music for the film in a European manner. "Five Miles To Midnight" had a rather checkered distribution, with its running length ranging from 103 minutes in the U.K. to 112 minutes in Argentina. The American print clocks in at 110 minutes. "Five Miles To Midnight" premiered in France; when it was distributed in West Germany in 1963, it had a soundtrack subsequently released on of the most unique and atypical LPs in history: a German-only pressing on the United Artists label! This extremely rare soundtrack LP (United Artists 009.014) has been rumored to exist in only a handful of collections throughout Europe and Japan, and it may be no exaggeration to describe this issue as a German "Caine Mutiny". Fortunately, Harkit Entertainment re-issued this soundtrack on CD at the end of 2006, preserving the content on digital media, and offering us newer/younger collectors an opportunity to hear this music we might not otherwise have gotten a chance to. This one of my treasured CD albums.
Like the other dance film mentioned above, I have never seen nor heard of "The Lovers Of Teruel", a French musical directed by Raymond Rouleau, which was entered into the '62 Cannes Film Festival.
Perhaps the most significant film Mikis Theodorakis worked on in 1962 (with respect to his artistic collaborations and future film career) was a Greek-language cinematic adaptation of "Elektra", starring Irene Papas and directed by Michael Cacoyannis. Theodorakis creates another breathtaking score whose elements are a masterly blend of primordial percussive violence, authentic ethnic instrumentations, and plaintive beauty. This music speaks directly to its audience on several levels: temporal (ancient pre-Christianity), geographical (setting in Greece), and emotional (the powers and losses within Elektra's familial and political environment). Theodorakis' music accomplishes all these aspects for "Electra" while at all times avoiding the traditional Western European orchestral Romanticism that filmmakers have so often relied upon up to this time in cinema. If you like, the score for "Electra" is "Silver Age" music for a contemporary audience to appreciate a "Golden Age" classic, though I personally dislike the use of those terms to describe film music. However you view it, there's little doubt that it was the collaboration between director Michael Cacoyannis and Mikis Theodorakis on their next film - "Zorba The Greek" - that put Theodorakis on the map, so to speak, even though he was already all over the map providing music for films directed by Greeks, displaced Hollywood directors, British craftsmen, Frenchmen, etc.
While composers (both American and émigrés) who have toiled within the Hollywood system during the 1950s have typically worked under contract, for example George Duning with Columbia Studios and Miklos Rozsa over at MGM, Mikis Theodorakis started out as one of the earliest international free-lance artists, not unlike a Maurice Jarre or a Georges Delerue. It's unfortunate that Theodorakis never got his big chance with a "Lawrence Of Arabia" type of film to give him a wider scope of acceptance other than his reputation as the go-to man for all things Greek. I hope my post here will encourage some more people to explore this talented and multi-faceted composer.
Great post, ToneRow. I've only yet heard two of Theodorakis' scores, "Serpico" (1973) and "Iphigenia" (1977), and although they are very different from one another in style, I enjoy them both very much. I'd definitely be interested in hearing some of his earlier work.
Music from the films 'Elektra' and 'Iphigenie' was re-worked into a ballet-score by Theodorakis. An LP was released in 1979 by the Greek Lyra-label performed by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Theodorakis in great sounding stereo. This was re-released in expanded form on a digipack CD in Greece also on the Lyra-label with more music from the ballet but only in mono sound in 2008. Maybe the original stereo album masters were lost and only a mono source was available for the re-issue. I don't know. Perhaps I should add that the ballet is also titled 'Elektra' and should not be confused with his more recent opera with that name.
Theodorakis was heavily involved in socialist politics in Greece, and Greek people sometimes give his reputation a few knocks by pointing out how wealthy he became as a result!
Great article! One of his other landmarks for me is STATE OF SIEGE where he utilized many of those great South American indigenous instruments that would be used later by everyone from Goldsmith to Morricone.
Great post, ToneRow. I've only yet heard two of Theodorakis' scores, "Serpico" (1973) and "Iphigenia" (1977), and although they are very different from one another in style, I enjoy them both very much. I'd definitely be interested in hearing some of his earlier work.
Thanks, Josh.
Perhaps you'd be interested enough in Theodorakis scores to view some YouTube videos I've located?
Too bad I wasn't aware of these clips last year when I wrote this article; if I had known how to post YouTube videos 1.5 years ago, this thread would've had some examples to listen to.
Now, with renewed interest in "Z" by Theodorakis on this board, maybe a few more members will take a peek here...
Music from the films 'Elektra' and 'Iphigenie' was re-worked into a ballet-score by Theodorakis. An LP was released in 1979 by the Greek Lyra-label performed by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Theodorakis in great sounding stereo. This was re-released in expanded form on a digipack CD in Greece also on the Lyra-label with more music from the ballet but only in mono sound in 2008. Maybe the original stereo album masters were lost and only a mono source was available for the re-issue. I don't know. Perhaps I should add that the ballet is also titled 'Elektra' and should not be confused with his more recent opera with that name.
Thanks, couvee!
Here's the beginning portion of Cacoyannis' 1962 ELEKTRA:
Great article! One of his other landmarks for me is STATE OF SIEGE where he utilized many of those great South American indigenous instruments that would be used later by everyone from Goldsmith to Morricone.
Thanks, Morricone.
I've just discovered that the opening of FACES IN THE DARK has been made available on YouTube. Theodorakis may not only have been the first to use the Pan Pipes that you mention above, but Theodorakis may also be one of the first (if not the very first) to use an Ondes Martenot, as witnessed in this early film score.
Before Elmer Bernstein used it too generously, and even before Richard Rodney Bennett used it in SECRET CEREMONY (1968), Theodorakis was using the Ondes Martenot contemporaneously with Maurice Jarre.
This makes me think that the scores for FACES IN THE DARK and THE SHADOW OF THE CAT might have been recorded in France, where Theodorakis went to study in 1954 with Olivier Messiaen. [the main title credits list Arlette Sibon as the performer on the Ondes]
I'm not sure when Maurice Jarre first used the Ondes Martenot, but I think Mikis Theodorakis was rather influenced by his teacher Olivier Messiaen, who had used that electronic instrument in his landmark 1948 "Turangalila-Symphonie", and, earlier, wrote a sextet of Ondes Martenot for the 1937 Paris exposition internationale.
Take a gander:
I haven't seen the entire movie, but it sounds as if the Ondes was selected to represent the story's setting in an electronics plant (Hammond, eh?). The accompaniment is a jazzy bass fiddle along with the piano played rhythmically.
The initial premise of the protagonist suffering facial injuries in an industrial accident serves as a sort of prelude to Hiroshi Teshigahara's THE FACE OF ANOTHER of 1966...
Mikis Theodorakis' first post-ZORBA film for 20th Century Fox has finally gotten a DVD release from the Fox Cinema Archives. THE DAY THE FISH CAME OUT is a post-DR. STRANGELOVE nuclear bomb satire from Michael Cacoyannis, the director of ZORBA THE GREEK, in which two bombs accidentally land in the sea near a Greek island. A couple of NATO officers start to investigate the bombs’ whereabouts as the island is overrun by pleasure-seeking tourists. The film is way, way-way-out and stars Tom Courtney, Sam Wanamaker and Candice Bergen.
Theodorakis' score was originally on a Fox LP, and has reportedly appeared on a Greek CD.
Couldn't find a thread for the Zorba score and didn't want to start a new one. Every fan of this score should definitely check this video, especially for the piano playing that starts approximately at the middle of the video. Enjoy!
