Z comes with impressive 1969 pedigrees. Submitted by Algeria for Academy Award consideration for Best Foreign Language Film, it both was nominated for and collected that Oscar. It received nomination the same year for Best Picture, and while Midnight Cowboy was victorious instead, Z was the winner among the New York Film Critics and the National Society of Film Critics. It earned another Foreign Language Film award at the Golden Globes.
All this is richly deserved.
Set--though never explicitly--in Greece, the movie opens with an attempt at dissident but peaceful assembly, for a speech by a leader of the political opposition. The story is based on actual events involving parliamentary deputy Grigoris Lambrakis, at Thessaloniki in the spring of 1963. Yves Montand plays the scheduled speaker, either Lambrakis or a close fictional model thereof. Ultra-nationalist officialdom discourages the meeting via the placement of petty logistical impediments. A criminal act ensues. The same officialdom selects as investigator a magistrate of impeccable establishment credentials, to sweep the unpleasantness under the rug. Jean-Louis Trintigant plays this stern, no-nonsense part memorably.
A huge caveat is that you need to rent the subtitled version, not the dubbed one. The reason is to be better riveted by the typewriter clickety-clack and accompanying score, as the investigation and movie reach a crescendo. The subtitled version arrives with an electric and musical adrenaline rush. The dubbed version instead mutes it.
Jacques Perrin is an ongoing presence in the movie as a photojournalist. The three actors from Montand's entourage infuse their characters with an idealistic political earnestness, almost as if (forgive the sixties analogy)
they've been borrowed from upper-echelon Eugene McCarthy campaign staff. Were I more conversant with French-language movies, better able to sort out the rest of the cast, I'd heap additional praise. It's a strong ensemble performance.
All this is richly deserved.
Set--though never explicitly--in Greece, the movie opens with an attempt at dissident but peaceful assembly, for a speech by a leader of the political opposition. The story is based on actual events involving parliamentary deputy Grigoris Lambrakis, at Thessaloniki in the spring of 1963. Yves Montand plays the scheduled speaker, either Lambrakis or a close fictional model thereof. Ultra-nationalist officialdom discourages the meeting via the placement of petty logistical impediments. A criminal act ensues. The same officialdom selects as investigator a magistrate of impeccable establishment credentials, to sweep the unpleasantness under the rug. Jean-Louis Trintigant plays this stern, no-nonsense part memorably.
A huge caveat is that you need to rent the subtitled version, not the dubbed one. The reason is to be better riveted by the typewriter clickety-clack and accompanying score, as the investigation and movie reach a crescendo. The subtitled version arrives with an electric and musical adrenaline rush. The dubbed version instead mutes it.
Jacques Perrin is an ongoing presence in the movie as a photojournalist. The three actors from Montand's entourage infuse their characters with an idealistic political earnestness, almost as if (forgive the sixties analogy)
they've been borrowed from upper-echelon Eugene McCarthy campaign staff. Were I more conversant with French-language movies, better able to sort out the rest of the cast, I'd heap additional praise. It's a strong ensemble performance.