January 30th | 5 Films
On January 30th, TCM remembers an actress who achieved acclaim not only in her native Greece, but throughout the world. Known for her striking looks and captivating presence that shone through her constant portrayals of strong women (who are often involved with deeply flawed men), whether Irene Papas played a tragic Hellenic heroine or a Spanish princess who eventually became the queen of England, everyone stopped and took notice.
According to sources, she was born as Eirini (or Irini) Lelekou on September 3, 1929 in Chiliomodian, Corinth, Greece to a father who taught classical drama and a teacher mother. The family moved to Athens when she was a young child, and as a teenager she studied at the Royal School of Dramatic Art in Athens. She would begin her career performing in theatrical productions, but predominantly appeared in movies, both American and European.
The cinema of Greece never quite received the same recognition or accolades as the other European film movements that gained prominence such as Italian Neorealism, German Expressionism, and the French Nouvelle Vague (New Wave), yet the influx of films that came out of the country from the 1950s through the 1970s not only depicted events in its then-modern history, but masterfully presented its classic texts and mythology. Many of these were shot and released during a tumultuous period in Greece, following World War II and the overlapping Greek Civil War (which lasted until 1949), and both on the cusp of, in the thick of, and in the aftermath of rule under a military junta and the eventual overthrow of the monarchy (from 1967 to 1974).
Based on the plays of Euripides and featuring the music of Mikis Theodorakis, Greek Cypriot director Michael Cacoyannis’ Greek Tragedy Trilogy focused on a single family entangled within the throes of the Trojan War. Through the events of each film, Electra (1962), The Trojan Women (1971) and Iphigenia (1977), the house of Mycenean king Agamemnon implodes, and each player’s palpable and all-consuming quest for revenge leads to even more catastrophic events, including mariticide and matricide.
While the events of Electra technically occur last if you follow the chronology of each of the plays’ events, it is one of the first films where you get a glimpse into Papas’ ability to lose herself in an ancient role. As the daughter of Agamemnon and his wife Klytemnestra, Electra has to pick up the pieces of her shattered life following the cataclysmic events that were propelled by both her parents and her uncle and aunt (Agamemnon’s brother Spartan king Menelaus was married to Klytemnestra’s sister, Helen), resulting in the sacrifice of her older sister Iphigenia and the utter destruction of her family.
Following the aftermath of the Trojan War (where the Greeks prevailed and ended up taking the remaining Trojan royals as slaves and Helen returned to Menelaus), Klytemnestra (Aleka Katselli) held on to her immense hatred towards her husband for what he did to her firstborn and would pair up with her own paramour to murder him. Years later, forced to leave the palace and sent into exile, Electra twists the metaphorical knife into her mother’s heart by throwing her freshly cut long, dark hair at Klytemnestra’s feet. The broken Electra eventually marries a peasant man and slowly tries to rebuild herself. Younger brother Orestes (Giannis Fertis) would eventually reconnect with his sister, and the siblings cook up their own plot to dispatch Klytemnestra to avenge their father. Fashioning their own ruse to get their mother there (taking a page out of Agamemnon’s own book), Electra’s inevitable confrontation of Klytemnestra over her actions present spectacular performances by both Katselli and Papas, with plenty of enmity and disgust behind that rationalization thrown out from both sides, yet surprisingly honest and direct.
Papas would then play her own aunt, the aforementioned Helen of Troy, in 1971’s The Trojan Women. This was the only film out of the three to be shot in English, and also starred Katharine Hepburn, Vanessa Redgrave, Brian Blessed, Patrick Magee and Genevieve Bujold (who portrayed Anne Boleyn to Papas’ Katherine of Aragon in 1969’s Anne of the Thousand Days). While Papas does not appear until roughly one hour in and is not on-screen for a long period of time, her interpretation of Helen contrasts Electra beautifully. As Helen, she highlights an obvious difference between that of herself and her Trojan in-laws: that of a hot-blooded femme fatale who uses her beauty and feminine wiles to tantalize and cajole, barely disguising her level of deviousness or self-absorption.
The trilogy would come full circle with 1977’s Iphigenia, where Papas would herself portray the double-crossed, unforgiving Klytemnestra. As Agamemnon (Kostas Kazakos) and Menelaus (Kostas Karras) are preparing their troops to sail to Troy to retrieve Helen and raid the land for its gold, a member of the army kills a deer sacred to the goddess Artemis. Certainly vexed and insulted, Artemis decrees that she would hold the winds until Agamemnon sacrificed his eldest daughter, the teenaged Iphigenia (Tatiana Papamoschou). As Agamemnon is between a rock and a hard place, he must trick Iphigenia into coming by falsely claiming she would be married to the great warrior Achilles (Panos Mihalopoulos). Plus, he must also deceive Klytemnestra as she happily prepares for her daughter’s wedding. In this role as the mother lion ready to roar and claw over the treatment of her cub, Papas certainly goes through the gamut of emotions: from fear, anger, disbelief and sorrow to all-consuming hatred and antipathy.
Electra and Iphigenia each received Academy Award nominations for Best Foreign Language Film in their respective years and were entered into competition at the Cannes Film Festival. Papas would win a Best Actress award at the Thessaloniki Film Festival for Electra and the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures Best Actress award for The Trojan Women.
Undoubtedly her supporting role as The Widow in 1964’s Zorba the Greek is one that most film lovers remember her most. While there are moments that are upbeat and almost heartwarming (particularly whenever lead Anthony Quinn is on screen), the Widow gets the less-than-human treatment throughout the movie. Set in a Cretan village, her main storyline revolves around the townspeople trying to get her married off, yet she rejects the genuine proposal from a local man who has been enamored with her. She does end up having a dalliance with writer Basil (Alan Bates) and is caught by someone in the village. That caused the spurned local to commit suicide, and The Widow is subjected to the blatant sexism, misogyny and chauvinism of the townspeople. As most people there knew everyone else’s business and gossiped incessantly, there was an expectation on how a widow should behave (in other words, to defer to men) and should simply accept her fate and marry whoever showed her any interest. It is because of those antiquated notions that were of that time and place, that great stock was put in personal reputation, and the perception and assumption of others. The Widow then suffers a most barbaric punishment for something that nowadays would be regarded as minor.
While once again portraying a Greek woman in A Dream of Kings (1969), Papas trades Crete for Chicago. As the resigned wife of dreamer Leonidas Matsoukas (Quinn), Papas’ Caliope must contend with a philandering, chronic drinking and gambling husband while trying to take care of a chronically ill child. Again, she does not have too many scenes or much dialogue, but makes the character’s emotions and feelings abundantly clear throughout. Case in point, in one scene that takes place during a baptismal celebration, as Matsoukas is making merry as he dances, Caliope is expected to continue her duty as the “typical Greek wife” in the 1960s. She is expected to be somewhat subservient to her husband and should simply overlook not only his gambling and drinking, but his affair with the owner of a local bakery (Inger Stevens). Her body language and facial expressions toward Matsoukas after she is talked into hitting the dance floor with him instantly display the character’s thoughts of anger and hurt.
Papas enjoyed a long career, which included roles in The Guns of Navarone (1961), Z (1969), The Moon-Spinners (1964), Bouboulina (1959) and Antigone (1961), as well the 1997 television miniseries The Odyssey. She would return to theatre on occasion, winning praise for her portrayal of Medea on Broadway in 1973. Her vocal ability was also showcased on several albums: 1969’s Songs of Theodorakis, written by Mikis Theodorakis, and 1979’s Odes, in collaboration with Vangelis (who would be known for his Academy Award-winning score of 1981’s Chariots of Fire).
Papas final film roles were in Captain Corelli’s Mandolin (2001) and the Portuguese production A Talking Picture (2003), which starred John Malkovich and Catherine Deneuve. It was revealed in 2013 that she had Alzheimer’s disease and was out of the public eye ever since. Irene Papas died on September 13, 2022, not long after her 93rd birthday.
Like the other Greek actresses that are recognizable to international audiences such as Melina Mercouri and Katina Paxinou, Irene Papas stood as a popular and well-respected thespian. She absolutely achieved such an honor due to her involvement in films that not only preserved and showed deep respect and love for the ancient tales, but demonstrated the resilience of a country and people that had been through so much strife in its storied history. If the last name on this byline isn’t clear, for this Greek American, Irene Papas was not just the face of Greek cinema, but the heart, body and soul.
