Míkis Theodorakis

Míkis Theodorakis

Birth : 1925-07-29, Chios, Greece

Death : 2021-09-02

History

Michael "Mikis" Theodorakis is a Greek songwriter and famous composer. He scored for the films Zorba the Greek (1964), Z (1969), and Serpico (1973). He is viewed as Greece's best-known living composer. Politically, he identified with the left until the late 1980s; in 1989, he ran as an independent candidate within the centre-right New Democracy party in order for the country to come out of the political crisis that had been created due to the numerous scandals of the government of Andreas Papandreou[3] and helped to establish a large coalition between conservatives, socialists and leftists. In 1990 he was elected to the parliament (as in 1964 and 1981), became a government minister under Constantine Mitsotakis, and fought against drugs and terrorism and for culture, education and better relations between Greece and Turkey. He continues to speak out in favor of left-liberal causes, Greek-Turkish-Cypriot relations, and against the War in Iraq. He has consistently opposed oppressive regimes and was a key voice against the Greek junta 1967-1974, which imprisoned him.

Profile

Míkis Theodorakis

Movies

Dance Fight Love Die: With Mikis On the Road
Music
An intimate look into the life of composer Mikis Theodorakis from 1987 until 2017: comprising three decades, four continents, 100 locations and 600 hours of film material. The film interweaves personal moments with archive footage, documentary recordings and fictional pieces, all accompanied by Theodorakis’ music in jazz, classic, electro and rap versions.
Dance Fight Love Die: With Mikis On the Road
Mikis Theodorakis
An intimate look into the life of composer Mikis Theodorakis from 1987 until 2017: comprising three decades, four continents, 100 locations and 600 hours of film material. The film interweaves personal moments with archive footage, documentary recordings and fictional pieces, all accompanied by Theodorakis’ music in jazz, classic, electro and rap versions.
Mikis Theodorakis. Composer
Self
The Greek composer takes the viewers on a journey through 70 years of his prolific musical career. He talks, analyzes and unfolds the inspirations of his works using a plethora of archive films which illustrate his explanations.
The Stubborn Donkey
Thanks
When the old fisherman tries to convince his donkey to climb the steep winding road of their Greek island, he finds Mariza to be one suborn ass. But the old man knows that no one can resist Zorba's dance.
The Stubborn Donkey
Music
When the old fisherman tries to convince his donkey to climb the steep winding road of their Greek island, he finds Mariza to be one suborn ass. But the old man knows that no one can resist Zorba's dance.
Ein Lied für Argyris
Himself
Ένας Άνθρωπος Παντός Καιρού
Self
Beware of Greeks Bearing Guns
Original Music Composer
Manos, a Greek school teacher, is forced to travel to Melbourne, Australia when the man who murdered his grandfather 57 years ago surfaces there. While the reluctant Manos is tutored in the art of revenge by old friend Stephanos, he also attempts to patch things up with his former fiance Nicki.
Greece: The Hidden War
Music
The complete version of “Greece: The Hidden War” television series produced by Jane Gabriel consists of 3 episodes: “The Battle for Athens”, “The Civil War”, “The Homecoming", and explores the profound impact British policy in the 1940s had on Greek democracy and society for decades. Broadcast in 1986, it gave rise to “the biggest uproar in the history of British television”. Greek interviewees who lived through the events of that time speak openly about their experiences. The defeated Left fled into exile in 1949 and waited more than thirty years for the Amnesty of 1982 to return. After extensive coverage of the row in the British press, Channel 4 agreed that the series would not be shown again either in the UK or abroad. - Yanis Yanoulopoulos, Historical Advisor to the television series, Emeritus Professor, Panteion University
Athens, Return to the Acropolis
Original Music Composer
A poetic visit to the city of Athens, based on paintings, poems and philosophical texts.
Ο Ασυμβίβαστος
Music
A medical student (Pavlos Sidiropoulos) delays his studies to become a singer in this story of a man who follows his own convictions. He becomes a street singer and finds a young woman (Betty Livanou) he wishes to marry. After the two are wed, he returns to medical school to support his wife and family. He earns his medical degree and lands a job in a hospital. When he refuses to take part in the exploitation of the patients, he is fired. He opens his own practice but later quits when he is asked to participate in another fraudulent medical scam.
Iphigenia
Original Music Composer
The Greek army is about to set sail to a great battle, but the winds refuse to blow. Their leader, King Agamemnon, seeks to provide better food, but accidentally slays a sacred deer. His punishment from the gods, the sacrifice of his daughter Iphigenia.
Letters from Marusia
Original Music Composer
Chronicle of the repression that a foreign company exerts on the miners of a small nitrate town in Chile, whose workers decide to claim their most essential rights. A reflection of the historic union struggles in the northern Chile that ended with terrible repressive acts.
Evidence
Music
A documentary presenting people and events connected with the most important political developments from the student uprising at the Athens Polytechnic in 1973 until the first year of democratic rule after the dictatorship collapsed in 1974.
The Secret Carrier
Original Music Composer
The Rehearsal
Music
An indictment of the Greek military junta of 1967–1974. The film tries to give a reconstruction of the events during the students' uprising in the Athens Polytechnic (November 1973) by documents, rehearsals, interviews, songs and poems.
The Rehearsal
An indictment of the Greek military junta of 1967–1974. The film tries to give a reconstruction of the events during the students' uprising in the Athens Polytechnic (November 1973) by documents, rehearsals, interviews, songs and poems.
Serpico
Music
Frank Serpico is an idealistic New York City cop who refuses to take bribes, unlike the rest of the force. His actions get Frank shunned by the other officers, and often placed in dangerous situations by his partners. When his superiors ignore Frank's accusations of corruption, he decides to go public with the allegations. Although this causes the Knapp Commission to investigate his claims, Frank has also placed a target on himself.
The Battle of Sutjeska
Music
The headquarters of the Marshal Tito's Liberation Army are surrounded by Axis forces. The Partisans have no choice but to fight their way out of the encirclement and face the enemy on the plains of Sutjeska.
The Hunchback
Sound
Azize is a young hunchback woman who lives in a tiny coastal town with her father. Due to her appearance, she suffers from the constant ridicule and bullying of people and often feels rejected as a consequence. One day, a blind violin player comes to the town and Azize’s life changes forever.
State of Siege
Original Music Composer
Using the interrogation of a US counterinsurgency agent as a backdrop, the film explores the consequences of the struggle between Uruguay's government and the leftist Tupamaro guerrillas.
Biribi
Music
Infantryman Jean Froissard is sentenced to two years in Biribi Military Prison in North Africa. He seems to get along, but as incompetence, corruption and sadism of his superiors (which include sexual abuse of the prison inmates) force him and others into rebellion. Court martial ensues ...
The Trojan Women
Original Music Composer
In the aftermath of the Trojan Wars, Queen Hecuba takes stock of the defeated kingdom. Her son has been killed, and his widow, Andromache, is left to raise their son, Astyanax, alone. Hecuba's daughter, Cassandra, fears being enslaved by her Greek masters, while Helen of Troy risks being executed. Astyanax also becomes the focus of the Greeks' attention as the last male heir of the Trojan royal family.
Nausicaa
Music
A girl, whose father is from Greece, studies ancient art in France. The film was made for television but never broadcast for political reasons related to its portrayal of Greeks. A work print was screened in Belgium in 1971, and the film is now available in reconstructed form.
Z
Original Music Composer
Amidst a heated political climate, the opposition leader is killed in what appears to be a traffic accident. When a magistrate finds evidence of a government cover-up, witnesses start to get targeted. A thinly-fictionalized account of the events surrounding the assassination of Greek politician Grigoris Lambrakis in 1963, Z captures the outrage about the military junta that ruled Greece at the time.
Punisher
Original Music Composer
A sad story about a series of tragic events which happened in Greece during the seventies.
The Lost Generation
Original Music Composer
The engineer Ambrus has been suspended in his job because he publicly called the attention of the customers to a construction mistake of some goods designed to be exported. His immediate boss learns the news on a business trip to Paris. He meets his old friend Lendvay, an emigrant from Hungary, and his French wife in a cellar bar. After their talk Benkő starts seeing things in a different perspective. When he returns home, he decides to take a stand for Ambrus against Ferenczi, the general director, despite his wife's and the old director's advice.
The Day the Fish Came Out
Original Music Composer
A plane carrying a weapon more dangerous than a nuclear weapon goes down near Greece. To prevent panic, the officials go in dressed as tourists (who are dressed so casually that the pilots assume that they are all gay). The pilots are not to make themselves known and can't contact the rescue team. The secrecy causes a comedy of errors including the desolate Greek Isle deciding that since tourists have now arrived, they have to become touristy.
A Bullet Through the Heart
Music
A Bullet Through the Heart (French: Une balle au cœur, Greek: Μια σφαίρα στην καρδιά) is a 1966 Franco-Greek film directed by Jean-Daniel Pollet. Francesco, a young Sicilian aristocrat, scars an aging gangster who has set out to take away his property. The gangster vows to obtain vengeance, and Francesco is forced to flee across Greece with his girl friend, pursued by his antagonist's vicious henchmen.
Zorba the Greek
Original Music Composer
An uptight English writer traveling to Crete on a matter of business finds his life changed forever when he meets the gregarious Alexis Zorba.
Le Couteau dans la plaie
Original Music Composer
Immediately after Lisa declares that she is leaving her immature, abusive, but easy-going husband Robert, he is reported dead in a plane crash. Secretly still alive, he convinces her to collect his life insurance, although she knows that it's a bad idea. Lisa must contend with the complications of the scheme, which involve an aggressive suitor, Robert's jealousy, and her own guilt.
The Lovers of Teruel
Music
This puzzling experimental film is written and directed by Raymond Rouleau, who uses effects like changing color tones and masks to put across a drama within a dance drama. The set is a sound stage and the actors in this film are dancers on the stage, performing a mime-ballet derived from one particular legend. Both the enacted legend and the actual events affecting the dancers are parallel. The lead dancer Isa (Ludmila Tcherina) is still nursing her wounds after her first love left her to stand alone at the altar. Now one of the dancers wants to expand his relationship with Isa -- and soon after, the cad who jilted her suddenly shows up again. Tragedy follows closely behind.
Electra
Original Music Composer
Living in exile after the death of their father, the grown children of a murdered and usurped king converge to exact eye-for-an-eye revenge.
Phaedra
Original Music Composer
A retelling of the Greek myth of Phaedra. In modern Greece, Alexis's father, an extremely wealthy shipping magnate, marries the younger, fiery Phaedra. When Alexis meets his stepmother, sparks fly and the two begin an affair. What will the Fates bring this family? Alexis's roadster and the music of Bach figure in the conclusion.
Synoikia to Oneiro
Music
The stories of poor people living in a neighborhood in Athens and their difficulties.
The Shadow of the Cat
Original Music Composer
Tabitha, once the placid, gentle and devoted pet, adopts all the characteristics of a ferocious, wild animal following the murder of her mistress. The three guilty people are all trapped by the cat's power and each will come to untimely deaths of horrific proportions without anyone being able to solve the mystery that surrounds their brutal death.
Ill Met by Moonlight
Original Music Composer
Led by British officers, partisans on Crete plan to kidnap the island's German commander and smuggle him to Cairo to embarrass the occupiers.