Word: montand
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JORGE SEMPRUN wrote the screenplay, based upon the novel. Z by the Greek-born French writer Vasily Vasilikos, Semprun wrote the screenplay for Alain Resnais La Guerre est Finie, which also stars Yves Montand, who plays Lambrakis in Z. In both films. Semprun makes use of flashback technique. In Z, it shows Lambrakis the man. Throughout the film, Semprun maintains both the man and the mythical martyr through Irene Pappas, who plays his wife and widow. One of Lambrakis aides comes to her after the officials responsible for his death have been indicted and says...
...attempts to provide depth in characterization are the weakest parts of the film: a few quick flashback shots for Yves Montand, as useless as John Schlesinger's attempt to create a past for Jon Voight in Midnight Cowboy; Costa-Gravas's seeming attempt to link one character's villainry with homosexuality...
Still, Z is a powerful document of our political world. And one can only marvel at the screen personalities of Montand and Irene Papas-and the acting of Jean-Louis Trintignant (who with Z, Les Biches, and Rehmer's Ma Nuit Chez Mand proves himself one of the best French actors) and Charles Denner (even more impassioned than...
...system is the present Greek government, and the adventure is the extrapolation of an incident in Athens, circa 1963. A Spock-like physician-politician (Yves Montand) addresses an antimilitary rally. As he leaves the assembly hall, he is viciously clubbed by hired assassins as a truck simultaneously brushes past him. Three days later, without regaining consciousness, he dies. Officials immediately offer smug condolences about the "regrettable traffic accident." But a few bits of offal stick to the whitewash. A journalist coaxes a witness into a confession; an alibi springs an irreparable leak. The incorruptible public prosecutor (Jean-Louis Trintignant) remains...
...partly by using dialogue that is more like lyrics than speech. According to traditionalist historians, there is no history, only biography. Z reverses the proposition; there are only forces, not men. Accordingly, the leading roles are the sort one would find on a chessboard. In an essentially small part, Montand is again Camus-like, at once involved and lofty. Trintignant, more through skill than script, turns the abstract notion of justice into a driven man who would shatter his career rather than bend the truth...