Costa-Gavras a Go-Go

I've been too poor to go to the theatre lately, so we'll be throwing it back this rainy and overcast afternoon. Between the Kenneth Anger shorts i've been consuming (and of course requisite episodes of Gossip Girl, Modern Family, and Park & Recreation) I watched two Costa-Gavras films. My co-workers were aruging as to which was better, so i watched both, and concluded that both are amazing in their own ways. Depicting politically charged events without seeming preachy is kind of a feet, but both films are just so remarkably engaging that it's hard to feel they are talking at you.

Z (1969)
Based around the murder of a leftist politician during a crowded and heated situation between the followers of the politician and the protestors against him. I liked that the murder was during the begining yet the film didn't lose any momentum. I remember when I saw the murder, I felt so outraged. I wanted to yell at my TV screen. That alone would prove a successful film, but it is to stylisically advanced that it really deserves it's criterion release. The depiction of the wife's grief was a highlight.

Missing (1982)
Probably more accessible than Z, Missing stars Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek. The story revolves around the "true events" of the dissapearance of American jouralist Charles Horman, and depsite the fact you pretty much know at the begining he is dead, you can't help but wish and hope with the father and wife. I enjoyed how Lemmon's character, a Christian scientist, sat in almost complete ideological opostion to Horman's wife, played by Sissy Spacek. Missing is equally engaging as Z, but some of the scene are overwhelming and heart breaking, the helpless feeling by the end when Horman's coffin slides from the airplane edges it ahead.

Ultimately, if your interested in watching a movie that really envelops you but not in an escapist way, both Z and Missing are good choices. Actually, watch them both.