40 years later, 'Z' returns to thrill film lovers again

Costa-Gavras' 1969 Academy Award winner "Z" arrives at the Varsity this week, celebrating its 40th anniversary with a crisp new print. The film, a taut, melodramatic political thriller based on a real-life assassination and subsequent conspiracy in 1963 Greece, was shot in Algiers on a tight budget (the fights and falls are performed by actors; there was no money for stuntmen).

It was a critical and popular hit in its day, running in theaters in Paris for more than 40 weeks, and inspiring many subsequent filmmakers.

Of the film, critic Pauline Kael wrote in a 1969 review, "I don't think Costa-Gavras ever uses violence except to make you hate violence, and such humanitarianism in filmmaking is becoming rare."