Encyclopedia of French Film Directors

ZABAT, OLIVIER (1965, Grenoble, Isère, France–)
Having trained at the Beaux-Arts school of Grenoble,
he graduated from the Beaux-Arts school of Paris.
A plastic artist using photography as a medium, he
received a scholarship from the Villa Medici “hors les
Murs” that allowed him to shoot his fi rst documentary
in Brazil. He exhibited his work in several Parisian
museums (Centre Georges Pompidou, Galerie
Nationale du Jeu de Paume, Musée d’Art Moderne)
and foreign museums (Walker Art Center, Miami Art
Central, Conton Museum, Museu d’Art Contemporani
Barcelona, Imperial War Museum of London).
Filmography
2000 Zona Oeste (documentary; short; also screenwriter,
cinematographer, producer)
2001 La Femme est sentimentale (documentary;
short; also screenwriter, cinematographer,
producer)
2002 Miguel et les Mines (documentary; short; also
screenwriter, cinematographer, producer)
2004 1 / 3 des Yeux (documentary; also screenwriter,
cinematographer, producer)
ZAPHIRATOS, HENRY (Henri Thano Zaphiratos
/ March 3, Hanoi, Vietnam–)
He started as a stage director in Paris in 1951 (Les
Sönderlings). The same year, he wrote his fi rst play
(L’Anti-Oedipe). His second play (Plantation, 1954) was
about the Indochina War. In 1955, he created a fi lm
distribution company in Saigon, Vietnam, and he notably
released movies produced by RKO and Allied Artists
(and many French and Italian productions). A fi lm
director since 1960, he also produced and supervised
Les Idoles (Marc’O, 1968) and fi nanced a horror pic-
Z
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ture directed by his son, Fabrice A. Zaphiratos (1985
Blood Beat). He resumed his career as a fi lm 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 Saïgon, 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)
1964 Le Fils de Tarass Boulba / Tarass Bulba, il Cosacco
(supervised by Ferdinando Baldi; also screenwriter,
dialogist; France / Italy)
1965 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)
1977 La Grande Frime / A nous, les Minettes (also coscreenwriter)
1978 Paradise Girls / Champagne Graffi ti (also screenwriter,
producer)
ZARIFIAN, CHRISTIAN (September 24, 1942,
Grenoble, Isère, France–)
Born of an Armenian father and a French mother, he
was seventeen years old when his parents settled in
Brazil, the country where he shot his fi rst Super-8