Irene Popes

Irini Lelekou, known worldwide as Irene Papas (or Ειρήνη Παππά, if we use the Greek alphabet), was born in Chiliomidi, on the outskirts of Corinth, Greece, on September 3, 1926. She is, without a doubt, the most prestigious in his country, with a long and never interrupted film career behind him, a very declared love for the tragedies of the Greek classics, which he has represented on stage, and a dedication to the musical world together with his compatriots such as Vangelis .

Irene trained at the National School of Greek Theater in Athens to later join the National Theater of Greece, with which she participated in performances of works as powerful as “The Trojan Women” by Euripides, and “Medea” and “Electra” by Sophocles. . Regarding the strength of these works, she has commented that “they are enduring texts because they go to the bottom of reasoning, to the existence of good and evil.” In that youthful time she met her only husband, Alkis Papas, with whom she was married between 1943 and 1947; As can be seen, he got married at the early age of 17. He would never marry again, although he did have long love relationships and periods of “widowhood”, as she says. She has not had children, and she affirms that she has been marked by her experience of suffering the war, the Nazi occupation and the internal struggle.

In cinema, he started his career in Greece in 1948 with Hamenoi angeloi . In 1953 she filmed two titles in Italy as a secondary, one of them the notable Los infieles , by Mario Monicelli and Steno. In the 50s, she would peck at various European titles of quite debatable quality, but that allowed her to be on the screen. Her Hollywood debut would come from the hand of a western, The Law of the Gallows , a title by Robert Wise where she was accompanied by the tough James Cagney . It is attributed to Elia KazanIf the mecca of cinema was set on Papas, without a doubt the filmmaker and theater director knew the mastery of the actress in the representation of classical Greek tragedies. And indeed, they would go to her again for the war of hers The guns of Navarone (1961) and the disneyana The bay of the emeralds (1964).

It was absolutely logical that if Papas was very good on stage making great tragedies, someone would end up taking them to the movies. Thus, the actress embodied the Greek heroines par excellence in Antigone ( Yorgos Javellas , 1961) and Elektra ( Mihalis Kakogiannis , 1962). If a year should be marked in the film career of Papas, that year is 1964. It is not only the year of Navarone, but that of Zorba, the Greek , where he was directed again by Kakogiannis, with the unforgettable music of Mikis Theodarakis. There she coincided with Anthony Quinn , with whom in 1954 she had already made a peplum, Attila, hombre o demonio , and whom she would have as a co-star inDream of Kings (1969), Muhammad, the Messenger of God (1976) and The Lion of the Desert (1981).

Her Mediterranean face, dark and full lips, which could well have given rise to a classic Greek bust, and her theatrical training, made her an ideal actress for period films, so that she was in titles such as the miniseries The Odyssey (versions of 1968 and 1997), Iphigenia (1977) and The Trojan Women (1971), where in addition to directing Kakogiannis once again, he had Katharine Hepburn , Vanessa Redgrave and Geneviève Bujold as co-stars . Other historical titles in which she was involved are Ana of the thousand days (1969) and The Bible: Jacob(1994). It was truly curious that his bearing was used for royal characters or of a markedly popular character.

Although select in the films in which he participated, Papas did not despise any genre, so that he has even made terror such as Angustia de silencio (1972). Ella e ella intervened in films about social concerns, with notable titles such as Z (Costa-Gavras, 1969) and Christ stopped at Éboli ( Francesco Rossi , 1979). She would work again with Rossi in the impossible adaptation of a work by Gabriel García Márquez , Crónica de una muerte anunciada (1987).

A woman, Clara Peploe, directed it in High Season (1981), a pleasant and light film where the issue of European Greek heritage flutters. Undoubtedly, sharing cultural concerns has led him to repeat with the Portuguese director Manoel de Oliveira in Party (1996), Restlessness (1998) and A Talking Film (2003). Her last Hollywood work was in the unsuccessful La mandolina del capitán Corelli (2001), where she also saw the Spanish Penélope Cruz . And precisely in Spain she shot Yerma (1998), based on the homonymous work by Federico García Lorca .

Papas has been recognized for his strong commitment to the performing arts. Regarding the value of classic works, he said that they are “first-hand food for young people used to receiving answers without asking questions, they are bombarded by products that deny them the logic of act and result: everything is programmed in advance”, which It has led him to get involved in theater teaching. So that she, already old, created an International School of Interpretation with offices in Athens, Rome and Sagunto. In addition, she has been fully committed to the project of the City of Performing Arts in Valencia, where she has even shared the direction of works with La Fura dels Baus.