In filmmaking, the “crowd” scene is typically among the hardest to both make realistic and shoot correctly. In the late William Friedkin’s 1973 “The Exorcist,” he used the artifice of maneuvering and directing Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn) in a college protest as a means to get to know her and the levels of separation between her life and her craft. Still, the electric atmosphere was there on the campus of Georgetown where behavior must have been well controlled to then amp up to uncontrolled once the cameras started rolling.
What if you need a “crowd” scene to set a plot in motion? Costa-Gavras’ 1969 political thriller “Z” remains a stunning example. After a tense exposition that involves a rally being moved from an uncooperative location at the last possible minute. We see these political leaders stay cool and collected even though this change of venue has caught them off guard. They argue logistics with such speed and terseness, that you have to rewind and watch it again to see the hints of micro expressions in the other characters in the scene.
The level of tension is being skillfully ratcheted up by Costa-Gavras’ direction, cinematographer Raoul Coutard, and the Academy Award-winning editor Françoise Bonnot. For Costa-Gavras, his biggest feat is booking topline stars Yves Montand and Irene Papas but turning it over to grim, determined, and skillful actors for a near documentary look. While Montand and Papas are important to “Z,” their appearance would be comparable to Marlon Brando in “Superman” or “Apocalypse Now.” Presence when presence is necessary.
In Costa-Gavras' hands, characters are poker-faced and played slightly against type. Pierre Dux as the General as an almost innocent outsider. He is pulling all the strings but showing none of the afterthought and analysis associated with these Machiavellian moves. Jacques Perrin (also a producer) has the glossy role of the photojournalist. While he brings the zeal you would expect from one whose eyes are recording history as it unfolds, Perrin is confident while confronting how to convey the emotional tenor of these events and still be detached from the cause.
Coutard’s photography insists that every frame is important but never trades staging for the grit of realism. In a quickly escalating melee in front of the unused theatre, Coutard establishes who to watch in a series of shots while the opposing forces are physically fighting. This is no easy task. Surprisingly, Coutard accomplishes this with mostly still shots. Later, when the actual speech at its new location becomes a flashpoint, Coutard keeps the camera moving constantly. His subjects are scrambling from one place to another and it always makes you feel like they are running for their lives. In one amazing sequence, Z (Montand) has made it across the square from where he was to deliver his speech to safety. Now he must cross back to give his address through a sea of protesters. Coutard shoots it from Z’s point of view and you feel the hatred, fear, and anger with only a few mumbled words.
Finally, Françoise Bonnot’s editing is revolutionary. Here is a movie told in reality, but cut together to maintain the pace of an action film and still pause for human interaction and hints of emotion. The characters on screen are playing everything either close to the vest or a powder keg exploding. That differential is mined by Bonnot’s coverage. In the fight above, we are surreptitiously allowed to see one placed operative almost taking glee from the battle. That is juxtaposed with a shot of removing a scuffler with a head injury. As a result, every cutback to the primary fight makes us consider the consequences and the events that it has set in motion. While Bonnot and Coutard do flex their French New Wave muscle at times, Bonnot has to balance and counterbalance the screen time of the characters on both sides of the conflict and continue to thread together the real story as we both see it and see it discussed from multiple perspectives.
In short, there is simply no room for artifice in “Z.” Behind the scenes, Costa-Gavras had to make a film about a known conspiracy in his home country of Greece in Algeria with French support and funding. While many criticize the anti-American sentiment within the film, it looks more like the Paris Spring of 1968 than the Kennedy assassination in 1963. At the time, those who thought they saw parallels were confronted by the fact that Costa-Gavras did not even know about the existence of the Zapruder films. Call it what you will, but “Z” gave us the modern political thriller and its influence is evident in everything from “All The President’s Men” to “The Bourne Identity.” It is possible that the late great Friedkin was inspired by it when making 1971’s “The French Connection” and even that crowd scene in his horror classic.
