Zaphiratos, Henry

(Henri Thano Zaphiratos / March 3, Hanoi, Vietnam-)

   He started as a stage director in Paris in 1951 (Les Sonderlings). The same year, he wrote his first play (L'Anti-Oedipe). His second play (Plantation, 1954) was about the Indochina War. In 1955, he created a film distribution company in Saigon, Vietnam, and he nota­bly released movies produced by RKO and Allied Art­ists (and many French and Italian productions). A film director since 1960, he also produced and supervised Les Idoles (Marc'O, 1968) and financed a horror pic­ture directed by his son, Fabrice A. Zaphiratos (1985 Blood Beat). He resumed his career as a film distribu­tor in France (1971 Les Mâles, Gilles Carle, Canada; 1975 O Thiaso / UK and USA: The Travelling Players, Théo Angelopoulos, Greece). He also published sev­eral collections of poems (1947 Les Sept Coupes, Edi­tions du Temps present; 1998 Voyages & Confessions d'un Rêveur, Athéna), a literary and historical essay (1999 Flâneries dans Saigon, Athéna), and a few novels (2002 Le Bal du Printemps, Athéna; 2007 La Conjuration des Anges, Chiron Editions).

 Filmography

1961 ◘ Les Nymphettes / USA: First Taste of Love (also screenwriter; adapter)

        ◘ Le Fils de Tarass Boulba / Tarass Bulba, il Cosacco (supervised by Ferdinando Baldi; also screenwriter, dialogist; France / Italy)

        ◘ Des Enfants sages (medium-length)

        ◘ El Pampero (short)

        ◘ Rythmes et Chants d'Argentine (short)

1971 ◘ Les Lionnes / Le leonesse (as Oscar Roy, also screenwriter, dialogist, co-producer; France / Italy)

1975 ◘ La Vie sexuelle des Français (as Henri Thano; also screenwriter, producer)

        ◘ La Grande Frime / A nous, les Minettes (also co-screenwriter)

        ◘ Paradise Girls / Champagne Graffiti (also screenwriter, producer)