George Tzavellas

{{Short description|Greek film director (1916–1976)}}

{{For|the footballer|Georgios Tzavellas}}

George Tzavellas, also rendered Giorgos Tzavellas, Yiorgos Tzavellas, or Yorgos Javellas ({{langx|el|Γιώργος Τζαβέλλας}}, 1916, Athens – October 18, 1976),{{cite web | url = https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0419485/ | title = Yorgos Javellas | publisher = Internet Movie Database | accessdate = 2011-12-11}} was a Greek film director, screenwriter, and playwright. His filmmaking was particularly influential, with critic Georges Sadoul considering him "one of the three major postwar Greek directors" (along with Michael Cacoyannis and Nikos Koundouros).{{cite encyclopedia | article = Tzavellas, Georges | encyclopedia = Dictionary of Film Makers | author = Georges Sadoul | author-link = Georges Sadoul | author2 = trans. Peter Morris | year = 1972 | isbn = 0-520-02151-7 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/dictionaryoffilm00sado_1/page/256 256–257] | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/dictionaryoffilm00sado_1/page/256 }}

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 (1950), and Antigone (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, and attempting to convey the same information via setting and dialogue.{{cite book | author = Kenneth MacKinnon | title = Greek Tragedy Into Film | publisher = Fairleigh Dickinson University Press | year = 1986 | isbn = 0-8386-3301-3 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/greektragedyinto0000mack/page/72 72–74] | url = https://archive.org/details/greektragedyinto0000mack/page/72 }} In 1964 he was a member of the jury at the 14th Berlin International Film Festival.{{cite web |url=http://www.berlinale.de/en/archiv/jahresarchive/1964/04_jury_1964/04_Jury_1964.html |title=Berlinale 1964: Juries |accessdate=2010-02-16 |work=berlinale.de}} 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.