Five Films by Nico Papatakis (1963-1992) coming from Criterion

[Scottie]

Five Films by Nico Papatakis

“It’s become a cliché to call a filmmaker ‘rebellious,’ but from Gance to Eisenstein to Pasolini to Buñuel, the 20th century saw true rebels who fiercely defied both the cinematic and political establishments of their time. Nikos Papatakis (1918- 2010)—nicknamed Nico in France—holds a profound and unique place in this lineage through a body of work that blends anarchic fury with visceral and transcendent poetry. Born in Addis Ababa to an Ethiopian mother and a Greek father, Papatakis was an outcast by nature, mocked and ostracized as a child for being biracial. Deeply rooted in personal experience, Papatakis’s films are politically, morally, and formally subversive explorations of race, gender, and class that use the medium as a vehicle of opposition and dissent.” —Yonca Talu, Sept/Oct 2017 issue

Les Abysses
Nico Papatakis • 1963 • France • 94 minutes

This allegorical portrait of the Algerian resistance was inspired by the real-life story of the Papin sisters, two maids who brutally murdered their employers in 1930s France—also the basis for Jean Genet’s influential 1947 play The Maids and Claude Chabrol’s 1995 psychological thriller La Cérémonie.

The Shepherds of Disorder
Nico Papatakis • 1967 • Greece • 121 minutes

The Shepherds of Disorder (Thanos and Despina) juxtaposes an anthropological and materialist study of a rigid rural community with the mythologically imbued, forbidden romance between a rebellious shepherd and the angelic and compliant daughter of a rich conservative family, engaged in an erotically charged power game.

Gloria Mundi
Nico Papatakis • 1976 • France • 116 minutes

Papatakis’s most psychedelic and intellectually challenging film, Gloria Mundi, a virulent denunciation of consumer capitalism and a hypocritical left-wing intelligentsia that deems itself political but does not take any action, begins with a scream and ends with an explosion.

The Photograph
Nico Papatakis • 1986 • Greece/France • 112 minutes

Papatakis’s most accessible, gripping, and poignant work is a meticulously crafted, intimate meditation on immigration and exile centering on a 26-year-old Greek man fresh out of prison (where he was tortured for being a communist’s son) who leaves for France in hopes of a better life, and where he strikes up a complicated friendship with a distant relative.

Walking a Tightrope
Nico Papatakis • 1992 • France • 119 minutes

The director’s final film—starring Michel Piccoli as a fictional version of Papatakis’s friend Jean Genet—is a compendium of the themes and motifs that pervade his distinctive filmography, including the torturous nature of love, the suffering induced by exile, and suicide as an act of rebellion.

https://www.filmlinc.org/festivals/f...selects/#films

A special thanks to member jshaide for confirming that a box set is in the works.

Originally Posted by jshaide

Just saw a screening of LES ABYSSES and during the intro by Jonathan Rosenbaun he confirmed that Criterion is working on a box set of all 5 of Nico Papatakis’ films.