Since we cannot change reality, let us change the eyes which see reality – Nikos Kazantzakis

Produced, scripted and directed by Michael Cacoyannis, Zorba the Greek (1964) featured Irène Papas as an unapproachable widow. Anthony Quinn starred in the title role of Alexis Zorba – a wise, sensual, compassionate man in a tiny Greek village on the island of Crete. The film carried forward along his relationship with a too-intellectualized young English writer (Alan Bates).

This B&W film was based on the best-selling novel by Nikos Kazantzakis which Alan Bates later admitted that he hadn’t read the book before he filmed it. One of the highlights of the film is the scene where Anthony Quinn danced the syrtaki shoulder to shoulder with Alan Bates at the beach (near the village of Stavros).

Originally prepped as a United Artists project, the production of Zorba the Greek was taken over by 20th Fox which was a bit surprising at that time since director Cacoyannis had done his acclaimed Electra for UA couple of years ago and was preparing for his second outing for them. The two factors that was attributed as cause for this move could be that UA was well stocked on current and upcoming product; and secondly, with Anthony Quinn’s stop date clause to start 20th Fox’s period drama, A High Wind in Jamaica (1965, Dir: Alexander Mackendrick (1)) in June, 1964, UA may have deemed it ideal to allow 20th to take over Zorba the Greek to safeguard their side in case Zorba’s production went over schedule.

 In due course, the film initiated seven Oscar nominations at the 37th Annual Academy Awards (1965) including Best Leading Actor nomination for Anthony Quinn. Russian actress Lila Kedrova received the Oscar for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her poignant role as the dying prostitute Mme. Hortense, uplifting her reputation as the first actress of Russian origin to win an Oscar.

Besides Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration (Black-and-White) for Vassilis Photopoulos, Berlin/German-born Walter Lassally won the Best Cinematographer (Black-and-White). Later Lassally commented as having thought earlier that his work in this film was “easier to do” than some of the other films he shot for director Michael Cacoyannis.

Earlier, in April 1964, the media reported that French actress Simone Signoret amicably took her exit from the cast of Zorba for which she had gone over to the isle of Crete and did tests for the small English-speaking role of the rather frilly, oldish, leftover French courtesan in Greece. Several actresses were brought to Crete for tests to fill the role vacated by Signoret while she joined the production unit of director Stanley Kramer’s Ship of Fools (1965) (2) to portray the role of La Condesa. As a result, Signoret was honoured with nominations for: Academy Award 1966 for Best Actress; BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actress and Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama.

By the end of 1963, Irène Papas was back in the Isle of Crete for location shoot for Walt Disney’s production of The Moon-Spinners (1964). The location shoots in different parts of Europe was not unusual for Irène’s movies since many of her American films were European co-productions. Upon wrap at the location at Crete, the film unit moved to Pinewood Studios in England for the final eight weeks of production. Complimenting Irène’s performance as villager Sophia in The Moon-Spinners were co-stars Hayley Mills, Eli Wallach, Pola Negri, Peter McEnery and Joan Greenwood. Composer Mikis Theodorakis, from Electra, provided the music.

It was during the production of Zorba, the Greek when Irène Papas first associated with her Greek co-star Yorgo Voyagis (billed in Zorba as George Voyadjis). Cinema audiences may recall Voyagis as El Lobo in Harold Robbins’ The Adventurers (1970); as Joseph in Franco Zeffirelli’s Jesus of Nazareth (1977); as the kidnapper in Roman Polanski’s Frantic (1988), etc. On an intimate note, in consonance with a report in Diario Crónica, their relationship advanced to a brief period of closeness with each other.

Director Franco Zeffirelli initially intended to cast Irène Papas in the role of elderly Virgin Mary in his TV movie, Jesus of Nazareth (1977), Indeed, Zeffirelli had even launched a campaign and auditioned dozens of young girls in Athens, Greece to find a girl who would have all the features of Irene Papas at fifteen years. However, that cast slot finally fell on Buenos Aires-born actress Olivia Hussey who was finalised over Irène.

As for Irène’s stage appearances, besides performances with the Greek Popular Theatre in Athens, she did career outings as a singer and a dancer in variety shows in Greece, she performed her Broadway debut in 1967 in That Summer, That Fall; followed by Inherit the Wind; Iphigenia in Aulis; Journey’s End; title role in Medea (January-May 1973); The Bacchae (1980); Orpheus Descending (1984), etc.

After Zorba the Greek for which Irène made for only $10,000/-, she didn’t work for a year and a half. In A Dream of Kings (1969) which showcased a powerful performance by Anthony Quinn as Matsoukas and Inger Stevens (3) as the young widow Anna he has an affair with, Irène appeared as Matsoukas’ Greek wife Caliope.

Directed by Daniel Mann, and based on the best-selling novel by Greek-American Harry Mark Petrakis, the film’s protagonist was Greek immigrant Matsoukas who has a passion for gambling but trying to raise money to send his dying son to Greece.

Then Irène’s threw herself into the job of portraying Katherine of Aragon (1485-1536), the Queen of England and first wife of Tudor King Henry VIII (1491-1547) for 24 years. Being the daughter of King Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile, Katherine of Aragon was also the mother of Queen Mary I (1553-8) who brought Roman Catholicism back to England. Katherine was lauded for her piety, dignity, and strength of character whose marriage with future Henry VIII in 1509 aligned England with Spain, France’s enemy.

A well-acted historical but often inaccurate drama of English history, Anne of the Thousand Days (1969) (4) starred Richard Burton as Henry VIII of England and Geneviève Bujold in a well-balanced performance as the beautiful Anne Boleyn, lusty Henry VIII’s second wife he married in 1533 and mother of Queen Elizabeth I.

The film explored the life and times of Henry VIII and his pursuit and conquest of the beautiful Anne Boleyn that changed the course of English history. A big-budget Hal Wallis production largely shot in period interiors re-created at Shepperton Studios, it was directed by Charles Jarrott and co-starred Anthony Quayle, John Colicos and Michael Hordern. Look for the beautifully designed costumes by Margaret Furse who won the Academy Award for Best Costume Design 1970 for her brilliant talent.

Irène’s portrayal of Katherine was appropriate as a queen lovely in person and in mind – truly gentle and feminine in her manners as Katherine of Aragon is reputed for. So captivating was Irène’s image as Katherine that it prompted some wisecracks to remark that her head belonged on a Roman coin;

Irène Papas played as Hélène (representing: Roula, bereaved widow of slain Grigoris Lambrakis) in Z released in 1969. A Franco-Algerian thriller by director Constantine Costa-Gavras, with some violence and coarse language is based on the 1966 political novel by Greek author Vassilis Vassilikos – a thinly fictionalized account of the May 1963 political assassination in Thessaloniki, Salonika of Grigoris Lambrakis, a Greek socialist legislator whose extreme popularity and advocacy of peace shook the stability of the government in power.

Z plainly points its finger at the Colonels’ regime in Greece. This 42nd Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Language Film and for Best Film Editing; and nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay was filmed in Algeria and France with Yves Montand (The Deputy) and Jean-Louis Trintignant (The Examining Magistrate). The film roles of Montand and Trintignant hinge on Grigoris Lambrakis and Christos Sartzetakis, respectively;

In the Greek-American film The Trojan Women (Les Troyennes, 1971) Irène Papas interpreted the part of the beautiful Helen of Troy, the daughter of Zeus and Leda, and wife of Menelaus (King of Sparta) who eloped with Paris and thus brought about the siege and destruction of Troy. For this role, Irène was honoured with the Best Actress Award from the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures in the USA. Besides Irène, the principal actresses in The Trojan Women included Katharine Hepburn (as Hecuba, second wife of Priam and mother of 19 children, including Hector, and Queen of Troy); Vanessa Redgrave (as Andromache, wife of Hector); and Geneviève Bujold (as Cassandra, daughter of Priam and Hebuca. She was the Trojan prophetess who was never believed).

Adapted and directed by Michael Cacoyannîs and filmed in Spain in mid-1970 with very high-minded notions, in the central core of this film is the Euripides tragedy concerning the defeat of the Tory army and the resultant plight of its women. For the English version, the text was masterly translated by Edith Hamilton. In an interview published in the Australian Women’s Weekly, Katharine Hepburn spoke of Euripides: “In the sense that what counts in Euripides is the text – the naked, cold word. Euripides doesn’t describe, he states, specifies, informs. The complete opposite of Shakespeare. Euripides makes one think of the great primitives. Euripides writes the text, the rest is done by the audience…”

The year 1971 also saw the release of Italian director Umberto Lenzi’s trippy sexploitation thriller, Oasis of Fear (aka. Un posto ideale per uccidere / Dirty Pictures) in which Irène Papas played middle-aged Barbara Slater. Produced by Carlo Ponti, the cast of this psycho killer movie included Ray (Raymond) Lovelock, Ornella Muti and Salvatore “Sal” Borgese.

British man Richard “Dick” Butler (Lovelock) and Dutch girl Ingrid Sjoman (Muti) are young sexually free hippie couple. While touring Italy, they land themselves in trouble over illegal sale of naked pictures of Ingrid they used to finance their travels. On the run from the law for having been arrested and ordered to leave Italy, the free-spirited couple seek refuge in Barbara’s seemingly isolated large villa, but little did they know that Barbara has murdered her husband and they are drawn into a deadly scheme being framed as the guilty suspects. Set to a toe-tapping catchy pop score by Bruno Lauzi, this intriguingly sexy giallo race head-on into a suspense-ridden climax. Italian Umberto Lenzi was the writer/director of giallo movies such as Paranoia (1969); Knife of Ice (1972); Spasmo (1974), etc, featuring Carroll Baker, Colette Descombes, Ida Galli, Suzy Kendall, and such other appealing womankind of marquee value of that time.

In the role of Dona Aurelia Avallone, Irène Papas was part of the star-cast of Lucio Fulci’s Don’t Torture A Duckling (Non si servizia un paperino, 1972). Of the title, I have heard movies called many things, but not that. With Tomas Milian (as reporter Andrea Martelli), Barbara Bouchet (as hooker Patrizia) and Florinda Bolkan (as Maciara, a Gypsy witch), the movie is about young boys found mutilated and killed in Accendura, a Sicilian mountain village where many locals falls under suspicion.

Reputedly Fulci’s most favourite film shot in the suburbs and town of Monte Sant’Angelo in Southern Italy, it also features the song: Quei giorni insieme a te interpreted by Ornella Vanoni.

Tito: Sutjeska, The Fifth Offensive (Sutjeska/Battle of Sutjeska, 1973) recreates the 1943 mountain battle of the Sutjeska in WWII between Tito’s Partisans and German forces. While Richard Burton acts as Marshal Tito, (born Josip Broz, (1892-1980), President of Yugoslavia (1953-80)); Irène Papas portrayed Boro’s mother. The Embattled Mountain by Frederick William Dampier Deakin (1913-2005) is particularly suited for more information on this subject. The music score was by Mikis Theodorakis.   

As featured in The Fifth Offensive, the National Liberation Army of Yugoslavia headed by the Supreme Commander Marshal Tito was creating a new, liberated territory. Convinced that the Allies would land right on the Balkans, Hitler ordered two of his generals, Alexander Löhr and Rudolf Lüters, to initiate a new offensive against the Yugoslav Partisans forces. To deal with the critical conditions on the fronts and to prepare the Forces for future battles in the Balkans and in Europe, it was necessary to immediately surround and destroy the main Yugoslav Partisans combat units and their leader Tito and once and for all eliminate the dangerous Balkan battlefield. Made in Yugoslavia on an expensive budget, and directed by Stipe Delić, this movie features that subject operation (15 May 1943 to 16 June 1943), codenamed “Schwarz” or “Case Black.”     Jo                                        

Notes:

1. Director Alexander Mackendrick was replaced in The Guns of Navarone. A High Wind in Jamaica is interesting as a curio for its score composed by the famous harmonica virtuoso Larry Adler (1914-2001). The film marks the second outing of Russian actress Lila Kedrova with leading man Anthony Quinn after Zorba the Greek;
2. Ship of Fools (1965) is based on the acclaimed 1962 novel by Pulitzer Prize-winning American writer Katherine Anne Porter. It is also the last film to feature British actress Vivien Leigh;
3. A Dream of Kings marked the final appearance of Swedish-American actress Inger Stevens who committed suicide in April 1970 at the age of 35. 
4. My review on Anne of the Thousand Days was posted on January 07, 2020 in this webpage;
5. Up to now, the sources of reference for this 6-part tribute to Irène Papas are archives of the past including printed publications and visual media. DVD/Blu-ray of most of the movies mentioned in this write-up is available with some leading dealers.
6. DVD sleeves/images shown here are only for promotional purpose. Source: Wikipedia, amazon.com, imdb, and from DVD sleeves.
7. This illustrated article is an affectionate nosegay to the movies referred above. Please refer to “About” of my webpage for more details.

 (© Joseph Sébastine/Manningtree Archive)