Ax, TheBelgium / France / Spain
2005, 122min.
 Script: Donald E. Westlake, Costa - Gavras, Jean - Claude Grumberg, Dir.: Costa -Gavras, Dir. of Phot.: Patrick Blossier, Compos.: Armand Amar, Prod. Design: Laurent Deroo, Sound: Nicolas Naegelen, Edit.: Yannick Kergoat, Prod.: Michèle Ray-Gavras.
Cast: José Garcia, Karin Viard, Olivier Gourmet, Ulrich Tukur, Yvon Back, Thierry Hancisse, Yolande Moreau, Olga Grumberg.
Western society is becoming ever more focused on numbers, profits and charted consumption. Where all this might lead us is the subject of a satirical black fable by Costa - Gavras, who worked from the novel The Ax by American crime writer Donald E. Westlake. What originally was a mystery novel about 'the American dream gone wrong' has become a highly contemporary satire about the European consumer market and the implications of losing the working humans out of sight in favour of profits having to grow.
Awards
Film and Literature Award (Sea IFF, 2005) | Costa - Gavras Born 1933, Klivia, Greece.
Studied film in France and made his first feature film The Sleeping Car Murder - a solid albeit conventional thriller-in that country. In Z, he used thriller techniques to tell a political tale condemning the Greek junta system, thus making his mark on the international filmmaking community. The picture won an Oscar as Best Foreign Language Film and earned Costa - Gavras nominations as director and co-writer. He bounced around the world, setting movies against the backdrops of repressive regimes; his Uruguayan study, State of Siege, was denounced here for its anti-Americanism and seeming endorsement of political terrorism. In his first Hollywood film, Missing, Costa -Gavras continued to court controversy, now with the aid of top U.S. stars Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek, and won an Oscar for co-writing the screenplay. His Hanna K infuriated many with its pro-Palestinian stance. The director's subsequent pictures, including Betrayed and Music Box, continued to deal with hot issues but were not as powerful or passionate as previous works. He acted in La Vie devant soi (1977), an Oscar-winning foreign film starring Simone Signoret.
Filmography
Les Rates (1958), The Sleeping Car Murders (Compartiment tueurs, 1965), Shock Troops (Un homme de trop, 1967), Z (1969), The Confession (L' Aveu, 1970), State of Siege (État de siege, 1973), Special Section (Section spéciale, 1975), Womanlight (Clair de femme, 1979), Missing (1982), Hanna K. (1983), Family Business (Conseil de famille, 1986), Betrayed (1988), Music Box (1989), Against Oblivion (Contre l'oubli, segment "Pour Kim Song-man, Corée", 1991), The Little Apocalypse (La Petite apocalypse, 1993), À propos de Nice, la suite (segment "Les Kankobals", 1995), Lumière and Company (Lumière et compagnie, 1996), Mad City (1997), Eyewitness (Amen, 2002), Le Couperet (2005).
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