A man of ‘exceptional luck’
PARIS – «I think they’re in the process of putting all of Europe on the dole queue,» says the Greek-born movie director Constantin Costa-Gavras, whose black fable «Le Couperet» (The Ax) shows how one ruthless executive deals with a pink slip. At one level, the movie is the story of serial killer Bruno Davert (played by Jose Garcia), a laid-off executive at a French paper mill that has merged and moved to Romania to increase profitability. As he searches in vain for new employment, Davert gets hold of the names of rivals by the simple expedient of placing a job advertisement in the press, and then sets off to murder them one by one. At another level, however, it is about a society obsessed with numbers, sales targets, profits and consumption. The film, based on US author Donald Westlake’s «The Ax» is «of course, a metaphor,» Costa-Gavras said in an interview – not so much a thriller as a dark criticism of the Europe of the multinational corporations, which he accused of «sacrificing the human.» Costa-Gavras, 72, is the author of a series of politically engaged movies, such as «Z,» «Missing,» «State of Siege» and «Amen» in which he dealt respectively with fascism, totalitarianism, the CIA and the wartime papacy. Despite what he called this «pessimistic period in our history,» Costa-Gavras described himself as «prudently optimistic.» Although his movies convey a dark, dysfunctional world, Costa-Gavras said there was no harm in believing in utopias, even if it meant adjusting views from time to time. He said the utopian visions of his own youth in the Peloponnese came true after he arrived in Paris to study at the University of the Sorbonne at the age of 18. That was an accident. He couldn’t get into a Greek university because his father had taken part in an anti-monarchist group led by the Communists. «I couldn’t go to the United States for the same reason, so I came to France, and that was a blessing,» he said. «The experiences I have lived in France I couldn’t have imagined in my wildest dreams,» said Costa-Gavras, who has won moviedom’s top awards – including an Oscar, a Cesar, a Golden Bear and a Golden Palm – during his 40-year career. He modestly said he has had «exceptional luck.» He has lived in the Latin Quarter of Paris since he arrived in the city. His current home is filled with greenery: olive, laurel, maple and bamboo. The French sometimes call him «Costa-Rican» because of his American-style thrillers and the films he has made in America with stars such as Jack Lemmon, John Travolta and Dustin Hoffman. But the director said he believes in the potential of European cinema. «There is an enormous number of excellent European actors,» he said. «When I made ‘The Music Box’ with Jessica Lange, I chose Armin Mueller Stahl,» the German actor who played an immigrant in America, accused of having been a monstrous SS officer. «People asked me where I found him,» Costa-Gavras said. «They said the same about Ulrich Tukur,» who played the idealistic SS lieutenant in «Amen.» «You only have to look, and get out of the routine,» said the movie-maker, who also gave small roles many years ago to Italian director Roberto Benigni and to Jean Reno, now one of France’s best-known actors. Costa-Gavras said he is worried about the distribution of movies in Europe, still largely in the hands of the Hollywood majors, and supported the «French exception» of quotas for movies and audiovisual products. «I think it essential,» he said. «If you do not have quotas, you do not have a national production, and without that you don’t have technicians, or actors or laboratories.» He regretted that Europe cannot agree on this point, and blamed Britain for being a Trojan horse for the United States in Europe. «If you do not have your own images, you have to live with the images of others,» he said. Yet images are «the mirror in which you look at yourself.»
