Everyone in your life will have a last day with you and you don’t even know when it will be…
In 1973, Irène Papas acted in the Biblical TV miniseries Moses the Lawgiver (Moses, 1974). A co-production of Sir Lew Grade’s British ATV-ITC consortium and Italy’s RAI (Radiotelevisione Italiana) Television, it was made at a cost of about $6 million.
This episodic biopic of the Old Testament Hebrew prophet and lawgiver Moses (Hebrew: Môsheh – c. 12th century BC) (1), well-written by British novelist Anthony Burgess (A Clockwork Orange) along with Vittorio Bonicelli and its director Gianfranco de Bosio, starts with the rescue of infant Moses while afloat on the Nile, by Princess Bithia (meaning: daughter of God), one of Pharaoh’s daughters.
The familiar story then chronicles the period Moses was brought up in the corrupt brilliance of the Pharaoh’s Court; his eventual encounter with the voice of the Lord in the Burning Bush; the Exodus when Moses led the people of Israel from slavery to freedom out of Egypt by way of Sinai; the iconic event when Moses received the tablets of the Ten Commandments from Yahweh (Jehovah) on Mount Sinai; and Moses’ death after setting his eyes on the Promised Land.
Zipporah (Sephora, meaning little bird), Irène’s character in this Teleplay series, is one of seven daughters of Jethro (Raguel/Reuel), a priest of the Midianite tribes, that Moses married and adapted to a quiet life of a shepherd. As I write this, I could particularly recall that scene when Moses bids goodbye to wife Zipporah and his son, before he returned to lead his people from bondage in Egypt.
Fifty-nine year old Burt Lancaster dominates the role of the title character with supporting turns by Anthony Quayle (Aaron), Ingrid Thulin (Miriam), Marina Berti (Eliseba), Mariangela Melato (The Princess Bithia), Laurent Terzieff (Pharaoh Mernefta), etc. Burt’s son by Norma Anderson, 25 year old William “Bill” Lancaster was tasked with the role of young Moses. Under director Gianfranco De Bosio, the filming which started in August 1973 at Rome’s Cinecittà Studio went on to continue on location in Israel which was briefly interrupted by the outbreak of Yom Kippur War, the 1973 Arab-Israeli War fought from 06 to 25 October and ended in an Israeli victory. After the war, some of the cast and crew returned to Israel from Rome and the shooting resumed.
It took a total of six months for entire filming to complete and the theatrical version of Moses the Lawgivercame out in March 1976. As part of the production crew was Mario Bava, a visionary always worth watching, who provided the special effects. The music was composed and orchestrated by Ennio Morricone with additional music, songs and dances by Dov Seltzer.
The two movies of director Moustapha Akkad in which Irène Papas starred are epics in scale, set in highly traditional cultures. Irène took on the role of Hind bint Utbah, wife of Abou Sufyan in The Message (Mohammad, Messenger of God/Al Risalah, 1976). Take note of Irène’s introductory scene in which she walks in the market with a gypsy swing of her hips.
Shot in Panavision on location in Morocco and Libya by Jack Hildyard, the spectacular film about the birth of the Muslim religion was filmed devoutly and with sensitivity by Syrian-American film producer/director Moustapha Akkad. The screenplay by H.A.L. Craig written from the point of view of Mohammed’s uncle Hamza, imparted more emphasis to action than religious angles. Anthony Quinn turns in a powerful, screen-filling performance as Hamza struggling to win religious freedom for Mohammad.
According to title credits, the film’s accuracy and fidelity have been approved by scholars and historians of Islam. In addition, as per Islamic tradition, the impersonation of the Prophet offends against the spirituality of Mohammad’s message, hence, the person of Mohammed is never shown although the audience see the world through his eyes as he sits high in the saddle of his camel as it strides into Mecca. The holiest shrine, Kaaba, was recreated for the film.
The Message was made in two versions with almost separate casts: one in English with well-known actors (3); and the other version in Arabic with actors of the same rank in the Egyptian/Syrian film world. Michael Ansara, Johnny Sekka, Michael Forest co-starred in the English version. Music was composed and conducted by Maurice Jarre.
Iphigenia (Ifigeneia, 1977), a stunning film interpretation of Iphigenia in Aulis by Euripides produced by Greek Film Center recounts the Greek legend of Agamemnon’s attempt to sacrifice his young first-born daughter Iphigenia on the altar of Artemis to obtain a fair wind for one thousand ships and also as atonement for having offended Artemis by killing her favourite stag. As Agamemnon prepares to sacrifice his daughter, Artemis at the last moment snatched her from the altar and carried her to heaven.
Billed as Eirini Papa in Iphigenia, Irène chewed the scenery as Clytemnestra, the faithless wife of Agamemnon and wounded mother. Directed by Michael Cacoyannis with eye-popping visuals by Giorgos Arvanitis, Irène’s principal scene-partners in Iphigenia included: Kostas Kazakos as Agamemnon, leader of the Greeks at the siege of Troy; young Tatiana Papamoskou/Papamoschou in an impressive performance as Iphigenia, daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra; and Panos Mihalopoulos as Achilles, the hero of the Iliad, who, in this movie, is to be a match for Iphigenia. The film featured powerful music score by Mikis Theodorakis.
Iphigenia played at Cannes and Chicago International Film Festivals in 1977, and it won Best Film and Best Actress (Tatiana Papamoschou) awards at 1977 Thessaloniki Film Festival. Nothing was too great or too small to escape Cacoyannîs’ attention.
In an interview, Cacoyannîs once commented about Irène’s portrayal of Clytemnestra – that he “had identified Clytemnestra with her (Irène) before I made the film. She wasn’t really cast, she was part of the decision to make the him. I’d had no other image of Clytemnestra in my head. It’s that extraordinary physique of hers, and the power that goes with it. When Irène cracks, it’s like a stone that cracks. There is no sentimental self-pity. Her cries are not hysterical; they are defiant cries against the order of things….”
Although Iphigenia (Greece) was nominated for Oscar for the Best Foreign Language Film in the 50th Academy Awards 1978, it lost out to Israeli film director Moshé Mizrahi’s Madame Rosa (La vie devant soi, 1977, France) starring Simone Signoret and Samy Ben-Youb. At that time Irène was in the middle of a lawsuit initiated by her against the producers of The Greek Tycoon (1978) which starred Anthony Quinn and Jacqueline Bisset, and directed by J. Lee Thompson of The Guns of Navarone.
As per reports, initially, Irène was cast in The Greek Tycoon for a fee of US$55,000/- and she had kept herself free for its filming while the preproduction period stretched to a year during which her name was extensively used to attract investors to the movie. But when the production finally started rolling in the summer of 1977, another actress took over and portrayed the role meant for Irène. A book relates that her lawsuit for the contract amount was settled out of court. During this time, the dark-haired beautiful Irène was seeing Greek actor Nikos Verlekis, her young boyfriend.
Irène Papas was cast as Simonetta Palazzi in American writer Sidney Sheldon’s Bloodline (1979). With Terence Young of James Bond movies holding its directorial reins, this thriller told the story of Heiress Elizabeth Roffe (Audrey Hepburn). Neither daft bairn nor a silly-headed lassie, the protagonist Elizabeth was the smart head of the large Zurich-based Roffe & Sons Pharmaceuticals conglomerate who, mind now, finds her life endangered after inheriting the firm. Rated for graphic sex scenes, the movie is a tossed salad of international talent viz. Ben Gazzara, James Mason, Omar Sharif, Romy Schneider, Michelle Phillips, Claudia Mori, Beatrice Straight, Gert Fröbe, Wolfgang Preiss, etc. Music was by Ennio Morricone.
Irène took the role of Mabrouka in the historical epic, Lion of the Desert (El león del desierto, 1981) which recounts the last years of the real-life Omar Mukhtar (Anthony Quinn), the leader of Libyan rebels who resisted Italian rule and Mussolini’s forays into Libya between 1911 and 1931 to create a new Roman Empire.
A Libyan-British production directed by Moustapha Akkad (who began his cinema career as director Sam Peckinpah’s production assistant), and filmed by Cinematographer Jack Hildyard in Libya, it was funded by the assassinated Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi (1942-2011).
Besides the talents of Quinn and Irène, the film also featured an impressive star-cast of Oliver Reed, John Gielgud, Raf Vallone, with Rod Steiger as Benito Mussolini (2). Maurice Jarre (Doctor Zhivago; Jesus of Nazareth) wrote the music score. Out of the three costume designers who did noteworthy costumes for this movie, it was Orietta Nasalli-Rocca who costumed Anthony Quinn as Pope in English director Michael Anderson’s The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968) based on novel by Morris L. West.
Eréndira, released in 1983, featured a cruel fable involving a wealthy but tyrannical grandmother Amadis who loses everything owing to a fire accidently set by her sleepwalking granddaughter Eréndira, an innocent, obedient maiden. To recoup Amadis’ losses worth over $1 million, she forced Eréndira to sell her virginity to the highest bidder in Mexico. The casting is exemplary. Irène Papas surpasses herself as Grandmother Amadis and Cláudia Ohana as heroine Eréndira, while Michael Lonsdale, Oliver Wehe, co-starred in this disturbing black comedy directed by Ruy Guerra. The screenplay is by Colombian novelist Gabriel García Márquez (4) from two of his own stories.
In The Assisi Underground (1985), Irène is the courageous Madre Maria Giuseppina Biviglia (1897-1991), the Mother Abbess of Monastero di San Quirico (le Clarisse, the cloistered Poor Clares), Assisi. It is adapted from the 1978 book, The Assisi Underground: The Priests Who Rescued Jews as told by Padre Rufino Niccacci to Alexander Ramati who also directed the movie. The film depicts true events occurred in 1943-44 during WW2 when Catholics in Assisi, Italy, gave refuge to Italian Jews in the city’s Franciscan monastery/convent, from Nazi Anti-Semitism. This Menahem Golan/Yoram Globus-The Cannon Group production co-stars: Ben Cross, James Mason, Maximilian Schell, etc.
The Assisi Underground is the second collaboration of Irène with director Alexander Ramati. Nearly two decades ago, Irène starred as Ajmi in the Spanish-American production, The Desperate Ones (1967). This chase melodrama was scripted and directed by Alexander Ramati based on his novel, Beyond the Mountains, the title by which The Desperate Ones is sometimes known.
As the story goes, two Polish brothers, imprisoned in a Siberian labour camp escape and heads for Uzbekistan in Asiatic Russia where they contact smugglers who will guide them over the mountainous border to Afghanistan. During their onward progress, their various encounters include the suspicious head (Theodore Bikel) of the local N.K.V.D; a stunning blonde beauty Marusia (Maria Perschy); their benefactor’s wife Ajmi (Irène Papas), etc. Maximilian Schell, Raf Vallone, Fernando Rey, etc, co-starred. Despite the film’s exotic settings, costumes of Asian Russia and the impressive line-up of stars, adverse elements such as faulty scripting, uninspired direction, and soporific editing, badly affected the film’s success.
Irène portrayed the role of Penelope in the romantic comedy, High Season (1987) about a talented British photographer named Katherine residing in Rhodes, Greece and her involvement with obnoxious tourists, a spy, smugglers, etc. The film, with brief nudity and adult themes, marked the directorial debut of Clare Peploe (once married to Italian filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci) and starred Jacqueline Bisset, James Fox, Kenneth Branagh, among others.
The year 1990 marked the release of TV movie, Un Bambino di Nome Gesù (A Child Called Jesus), directed by Franco Rossi. This life of Jesus is an Act of Faith. It compels attention and interest as an attempt to figure out Jesus’ missing years from age 3 to 12. Besides Irène in the role of old Maria, the film centred on Matteo Bellina as Jesus, María del Carmen San Martin as Maria and Bekim Fehmiu as Joseph. Vittorio Bonicelli co-wrote the script of Un Bambino di Nome Gesù which was mainly filmed in Yugoslavia.
Italian TV audiences may recall Yugoslavian actor Bekim Fehmiu (who flaunted shades of Porfirio Rubirosa in Harold Robbins’ The Adventurers) in the role of Ulysse (Ulysses/Odysseus), the wisest of the heroes, and Irène Papas as his faithful wife Pénélope (5) in Dino De Laurentiis production of the 1968 RAI TV Series, Odissea (L’Odyssée/Odyssey), based on Homer’s epic poem. This Teleplay featured an impressive array of popular beauties namely, Marina Berti (Arété), Marcella Valeri (Euryclée), Scilla Gabel (Hélène), Barbara Gregorini/Barbara Bach (Nausicaa), Juliette Mayniel (Circé), Kira (Kyra) Bester (Calypso), Michèle Breton (Athéna), Stefanella Giovannini (Cassandre), etc.
According to Messaggero Veneto, Irène’s last feature film was Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira’s Um Filme Falado (A Talking Film) released in 2003. However, Ecuba, an Italian language film jointly directed by Giuliana Berlinguer and Irène Papas, was released subsequently in 2004.
Many lives progress in a more or less predictable path. Irène Papas’ journey has been different. Irène was never supposed to be what she became. Should her parents have succeeded to convince her to study architecture; her life would have been different. We all have our stories. The celebrity status of Irène Papas survives and prospers because the world still believes in the mystique of this austerely beautiful stage/movie/TV actress/singer for her talent and versatility. Theatregoers were equally impressed by her repertoire – by the wealth of her stage productions – adaptations and revivals. There really was something for everyone’s appetite. Like Irène, there were not many all-rounders who could sing, dance and act. She was one such trailblazer.
On 07 August 1998, Irène presented her first musical stage show as director of “Apocalipsis, voz de mujer” (Apocalypse, Woman’s Voice) at the International Music Festival at Castell de Peralada, Girona, Spain. Written by Greek author Yorgos Jimonás, the theme of this liturgical scenic act was reflection on the Mediterranean cultural tradition and the history of religions based on Apocalypse of St. John. The event was attended by Queen Sofía of Spain, her exiled brother Constantine II (1940-2023, former King of the Hellenes) and his Queen Anne-Marie of Denmark, Princess Irene (Queen Sofía’s younger sister), and other eminent dignitaries.
In 2018, there were media reports that Irène had been suffering from Alzheimer’s at least since 2013. For this reason she was not seen in public for some time. As her condition worsened with the passing of time, on one occasion, Constantine II, expressed his wish to visit Irène, who, I understand, was a close friend of the Royal family and also a board member of the Anna-Maria Foundation as of 2003. Such sociable visits had to be put on hold amidst fears that Irène might be unable to recognize visitors due to her illness.
Having been established herself securely in the popular imagination, and upon the strength of her national identity, Irène Papas was undoubtedly a source of admiration and inspiration to Greeks. The media wrote about her years in home care at her niece’s residence in Kifissia, a well-to-do green oasis in the northern shadow of Athens. Then again, nothing stays the same forever for there was sadness as the Alzheimer’s intensified towards the end of her life. Her last few years were spent in Chiliomodi, the place she always wanted everyone to remember she originated.
As the autumn of 2022 drifted into Greece and the nature gradually started to change the make-up, it was all suddenly over. Sadly, Irène Papas passed away on Wednesday, September 14, 2022 at the age of 93. Following a well-attended religious service at the Holy Church of Agios Georgios in Chiliomodi, Irène was buried in the village cemetery, next to her beloved parents. Death is emptiness. Antío, agápití mou Eiríni (6). – All for now, Jo
Notes:
- The story of the Hebrew patriarch starring Charlton Heston as Moses is told in The Ten Commandments, the 1956 remake of director Cecil B. DeMille’s 1923 silent version of the story of Exodus. Read the book: Moses The Lawgiver by Thomas Keneally;
- This is the second time Rod Steiger portrayed Benito Mussolini. The first appearance was in the Italian war film, The Last Four Days (Mussolini Ultimo Atto/Last Days of Mussolini (1977)) co-starring Franco Nero and Irish-Italian beauty Lisa Gastoni;
- In March 1977, showings of this film were cancelled when a Muslim sect took nearly 150 people hostage in Washington, D.C. For more details on this hostage crisis: American Caliph by Shahan Mufti;
- Gabriel García Márquez (1927-2014) was awarded the Noble Prize for Literature in 1982. Erendira was remade as Erendira Ikikunari (2008)
- Iliad, the epic poem attributed to Greek poet Homer, that master of energy of expression and fertility of invention, who lived in 8th century BC, recount the fall of Troy. Odysseus/Ulysses is a mythical king of Ithaca and one of the leading chieftains of the Greeks. He is the hero of Homer’s epic poem, Odyssey and therein he is depicted as wise, eloquent, and full of artifices. Penelope, the daughter of Icarius and Periboea of Sparta, is, according to Homer, the chaste and faithful wife of Odysseus, a model of all the domestic virtues. Some writers allege her being the reverse.
- Goodbye, my dear Irène.
- Due to constraints of space, the data compiled had to be chopped to keep the full text at a manageable size. I regret what has been left out and mean no disrespect to the subject of this 6-part episodic tribute. Irène Papas appeared in over 85 movies. The summary of movies stated herein relate only to those movies which are part of my collection;
- Up to now, the sources of reference for this concluding part of the 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.
- DVD sleeves/images shown here are only for promotional purpose. Source: Wikipedia, amazon.com, imdb, and from DVD sleeves.
- This illustrated article is an affectionate nosegay to the actress and movies referred above. Please refer to “About” of my webpage for more details.
(© Joseph Sébastine/Manningtree Archive)
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