George Tzavellas, also rendered Giorgos Tzavellas, Yiorgos Tzavellas, or Yorgos Javellas (, 1916,

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

– October 18, 1976), was a

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

film director, screenwriter, and playwright. His filmmaking was particularly influential, with critic

Georges Sadoul Georges Sadoul (; 4 February 1904 – 13 October 1967) was a French film critic, journalist and cinema writer. He is known for writing encyclopedias of film and filmmakers, many of which have been translated into English. Biography Sadoul w ...

considering him "one of the three major postwar Greek directors" (along with

Michael Cacoyannis Michalis Kakogiannis (; ; 11 June 1922 – 25 July 2011), usually credited as Michael Cacoyannis or Michael Yannis, was a Greek Cypriot filmmaker, theatre director, and playwright. He is best known for writing, directing, producing, and e ...

and

Nikos Koundouros Nikos Koundouros ( ; 15 December 1926 – 22 February 2017) was a Greek film director. Biography Koundouros was born in Agios Nikolaos, Crete, in 1926. He studied painting and sculpture at the Athens School of Fine Arts. During the war he was a ...

). Tzavellas wrote at least 26 plays, in addition to writing the scripts for all of his films. Among his notable films are '' Marinos Kontaras'' (1948), the drama ''

O methystakas The Drunkard (), is a 1950 Greek drama film written and directed by George Tzavellas. It was the highest grossing Greek film in 1950, selling 304,438 tickets. Plot Haralambos Lardis ( Orestis Makris) is a poor cobbler in Plaka who has become a ...

'' (1950), and ''

Antigone ANTIGONE (Algorithms for coNTinuous / Integer Global Optimization of Nonlinear Equations), is a deterministic global optimization solver for general Mixed-Integer Nonlinear Programs (MINLP). History ANTIGONE is an evolution of GloMIQO, a global ...

'' (1961), a cinematic adaptation of the Sophocles tragedy. His adaptation of ''Antigone'' reimagined it in the language of realist cinema, omitting stylized elements of Greek stageplay such as the

chorus Chorus may refer to: Music * Chorus (song), the part of a song that is repeated several times, usually after each verse * Chorus effect, the perception of similar sounds from multiple sources as a single, richer sound * Chorus form, song in whic ...

, and attempting to convey the same information via setting and dialogue. In 1964 he was a member of the jury at the 14th Berlin International Film Festival. His masterpiece, however, is the 1955 film '' The Counterfeit Coin'' (''I kálpiki líra''), a film in four parts, linking the stories of several people through their transactions of a single counterfeit

gold coin A gold coin is a coin that is made mostly or entirely of gold. Most gold coins minted since 1800 are 90–92% gold (22fineness#Karat, karat), while most of today's gold bullion coins are pure gold, such as the Britannia (coin), Britannia, Canad ...

Filmography

*'' Applause'' (1944) *'' Forgotten Faces'' (1946) *'' Marinos Kontaras'' (1948) *'' The Drunkard'' (1950) *'' The Grouch'' (1952) *'' Lily of the Harbor'' (1952) *''

The Taxi Driver ''The Taxi Driver'' (Greek: ''To soferaki'') is a 1953 Greek comedy film directed by Yorgos Tzavellas and starring Mimis Fotopoulos, Smaroula Giouli, and Nikos Rizos. Cast * Mimis Fotopoulos as Vangos * Smaroula Giouli as Lela * Nikos Riz ...

'' (1953) *'' The Counterfeit Coin'' (1955) *'' The Lovers Arrive'' (1956) *''

We Have Only One Life We Have Only One Life () is a 1958 Greek comedy film directed by George Tzavellas. Cast * Yvonne Sanson - ''Bibi Koumoundouropoulou'' * Dimitris Horn - ''Kleon'' * Vasilis Avlonitis - ''Haralabos Bazoukas'' * Christos Tsaganeas - ''bank ma ...

'' (1958) *''

'' (1961) *'' And the Wife Shall Revere Her Husband'' (1965)

References

External links

* 1916 births 1976 deaths Greek film directors Greek male dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Greek dramatists and playwrights Film people from Athens {{Greece-film-director-stub