INTERNATIONALLY acclaimed Cypriot film director, screenwriter and producer Michalis Cacoyannis, 89, passed away yesterday in Athens where he had been hospitalised for ten days.
Tributes from Cyprus and abroad poured in for the maker of the famous 1964 film, Zorba the Greek, played by Anthony Quinn.
Five-time Academy Award nominee Michael Cacoyannis was born in Limassol in 1921 and went to London to train as a lawyer in 1939.
During his time in London he produced Greek-language programmes for the BBC world service, discovered a latent interest in film and ended up studying theatre at the renowned Old Vic proceeding to work on the stage before turning to directing.
He moved to Greece in 1953 and made his first film, Windfall in Athens, which was nominated for a Golden Palm at the Cannes Film festival. Among his films were Iphigenia, Attilas ’74, Electra and Stella.
He drew inspiration from classical texts, particularly those of ancient Greek tragedian Euripides.
Cacoyannis also directed theatre and opera in Greece, France and the USA, among others.
He contributed to Athens’ cultural scene and was honoured for his service in both Cyprus and Greece as well as abroad.
President Demetris Christofias was among those who paid tribute to Cacoyannis yesterday, saying the Cypriot filmmaker’s work was an inspiration to all.
By his work, Cacoyannis expressed the most important aspects of both Cypriot and Greek societies in such a way that it prompted international interest and admiration, he said.
Cyprus Mail film critic Preston Wilder, a huge fan, said: Years ago, as a much younger man, I sent Michael Cacoyannis a fan letter. I’d seen his film Attila ’74 (1975), made in the aftermath of the Turkish invasion, and found it riveting not just educational but dramatically stirring, with an eye for image and a feel for rhythm, because of course Cacoyannis was an artist, the greatest Cypriot-born filmmaker.
He added: I forget now if I merely raved about the film in my letter or requested a VHS tape (this was in the old days, when things weren’t as freely available as they are now), but a tape duly arrived, along with a gracious reply.
Wilder said however that the documentary still isn’t available in Cyprus. The bitter irony being that Cacoyannis was a lot more acclaimed abroad than he was in his native country.
He remains the only Cypriot nominated for a Best Director Oscar (for Zorba the Greek in 1964),he said. Wilder said the films Cacoyiannis made in his mid-30s were the best especially A Matter of Dignity (To Teleftaio Psema, 1957), starring the incomparably poignant Elli Lambeti.
Maybe because Cacoyannis came to movies with so much energy, the scion of a wealthy Limassol family who was sent to England to study Law but instead found himself irresistibly drawn to theatre and cinema, first as an actor, then a director,he said.
Later on his career Cacoyannis poured much of his energy into theatre and never filmed in Cyprus, apart from Attila.
Maybe we could’ve done more to entice him; maybe he could’ve acted as a kind of mentor to the struggling Cypriot film industry. But at least we still have the films and I still have, tucked away in a dusty drawer somewhere, his reply to my fan letter, said Wilder.
