Nous Deux Encore[Together Again]

“Live to make yourloved one live again.”

A short film by

Heather Harlow

SynopsisSynopsisSynopsisSynopsisSynopsis

Filmed on the eve of her 80th birthday, 22 years after her husband’s sudden

death, former French television journalist Maxie Leoussis takes us into the

soul of one of the greatest love stories ever told. Made possible by funding

from prominent art curator Tessa Papas, Nous Deux Encore is a compelling

portrait of one couple’s profound passion for life and each other, captured

visually through actual photographs from the extensive collection of images

shot by Yiannis Leoussis from the moment they met.

CreditsCreditsCreditsCreditsCreditsProduced and Directed by Heather Harlow

Executive Producer Tessa Papas

Music by Michael Hoppé

Cinematography and Editing by Jacob Pander

Interview by Chantal Lasbats

Photography by Yiannis Leoussis

Voice – Maxie Leoussis

Mixed at Studio Bard by Michael Bard, C.A.S.

Translations by Sidney Ayers, Jen Westmoreland Bouchard, Pascale McInerny

Running time: 17 minutes. Presented in French with English sub-titles.

Production NotesProduction NotesProduction NotesProduction NotesProduction Notes“One day I asked myself – ‘If you could have

known that all this was only for twelve years and

that you would suffer what you have suffered,

would you have done it or not?’

“The answer was ‘yes.’ It was twelve years so rich

that I will never regret having gone through it.”

“It’s a universal love story,” says producer and

director Heather Harlow of Nous Deux Encore

[Together Again], a 17-minute short film that

“crosses every culture. It’s timeless and

ageless. And everyone can relate to love. It’s

what we all look

for, and she found

it.”

Filmed on the eve

of her 80th

birthday, 22 years

after her beloved

husband’s sudden

death, former

French television

journalist Maxie

Leoussis takes us

into the soul of one of the greatest love stories

ever told. Made possible by funding from

prominent art curator Tess Papas, Nous Deux

Encore is a compelling portrait of one couple’s

profound passion for life and each other,

captured visually through actual photographs

from the extensive collection of images shot by

Yiannis Leoussis over the life of their courtship and

marriage.

It began in September 1971. Former French

television journalist

Maxie Leoussis had

just finished editing a

documentary special

on drug trafficking in

America before flying

to Greece, one of her

favorite destinations.

For the first time, the

still-single 42-year-

old would also stop

over in Athens, at the

insistence of a friend.

In a matter of hours, she would meet her perfect

match. At a party that evening, Maxie was just

about to leave when Yiannis Leoussis stepped

through the door, then froze at the sight of her. “It

was like a tile had dropped on his head,” she

recounts in the film. “I’m thinking: I am living a

novel where one meets someone and he is

smitten in love. This is incredible. It really

happens in life!”

He drove her home that night – and every night

for the next two weeks. But Maxie insisted it

remain platonic. That didn’t stop either of them

from falling madly in love. By the following

August they had tied the knot, and to the

surprise of her

colleagues, the

woman who had

been married to her

career since

breaking into

television in 1955

in Monte Carlo, was

leaving it all behind

to join Yiannis full-

time in Athens.

After all, Maxie was

one of the most

successful

producers and on-

air reporters in

France. She not

only travelled

extensively to

conduct in-depth interviews with major

newsmakers and celebrities, such as Bridget

Bardot, Maxi was the first journalist to interview

Jimi Hendrix and the last to cover Otis Redding

in what would be his final concert before dying

in a plane crash. “I knew that Yiannis loved me.

I knew that I loved him. But it was very tough

to leave my career, because I had a real career.

And not only that, I loved what I was doing. But

I did not hesitate. I did it!” she says.

For the next 12 years, the Leoussis lived in the

passion of the moment – spending their weekdays in

Athens and weekends sailing off the coast of

Ermioni, a quaint fishing village where they owned a

classic Greek home.

Did they ever fight? “Of course we argued! Many

times! I used to say, you cannot find two more

different people – from where we were born, from

where we come, to

religion to

everything. This is

the proof we were

really in love,” she

laughs.

Nous Deux Encore’s

executive producer

Tessa Papas agrees.

Few knew the

Leoussis’s as well as

Papas and her

husband, Bill, an

internationally-

renowned political

cartoonist and artist,

who lived part-time in

his ancestral home in

Ermioni from 1971 to

1983. “They absolutely adored each other. But, of

course, they fought!,” Tessa recalls with a chuckle.

What was it about Yiannis that drew Maxie to him?

“He enjoyed life to the fullest. He was like an

epicurean. He loved pleasure. And it fit with his

generosity. I believe he was one of a kind with many

imperfections. And he had the most important

qualities, ones of the heart. He understood others.

Production Notes - 2

What I liked most about him were his faults. I

loved his quirks.”

As if he knew it couldn’t last, Yiannis took

literally hundreds of snapshots with the

Rolleicord twin-lens reflex camera he had

received at the age

of 12. “Yannis

loved

photography. He

was always taking

photos,” Maxie

recalls. “His

camera had a self-

timer, so wherever

we went, Yiannis

set it to take

pictures of us –

whether we were in

Budapest or

Patmos or Venice.”

Then, in February

1984, tragedy

struck. Yiannis

was rushed to a clinic with appendicitis.

Inexplicably, the doctors chose not to operate.

“By the third day, he had developed

peritonitis,” says Maxie. “Immediately, they

proceeded with the surgery. And for a period of

three weeks, two of which he was in a coma, I

spent my nights in the waiting room. I didn’t

want to leave and I felt like a dog by his master’s

bed knowing he is dying. Somehow, I knew he

wasn’t going to make it.”

The last day he was alive, “I was talking to him

about life, of his sailing boat, being built for his

birthday coming in March. He loved sailing. It’s

going to be great. I was encouraging him to look

forward to a beautiful future. I really saw him

gathering his energy from the tip of his toes to the

top of his head, an incredible strength to be able to

move his head towards me like that. And he looked

at me and I felt like, it’s really hard for me to live

these moments again,

but he soaked up my

face. He was in a deep

coma.”

With Yiannis gone,

Maxie was paralyzed

with grief. “It was so

tough. I just wanted to

die. I would never

commit suicide, but I

wanted to die. I

wanted just a miracle

and I would be dead.

But I was not dead, so I

did not want to stay in

Athens like this, and I

went back to work in

TV.”

By April, she was back in Paris. For the next year,

she worked on a major corporate film, just to stay

busy. At the end of it, she made the decision to

leave television and filmmaking permanently.

“Here it was, 13 years later and he’s dead and I’m

just going back to do what I was doing when I met

him,” she explains. “I said, ‘I cannot do it, because

the most important thing of my life is this 13 years I

spent with Yiannis. For me it was like I was saying

he never existed.”

Soon after, Maxie moved back to Athens, which

continues to be home as she travels the world,

Production Notes - 3

visiting friends and assisting renowned

multimedia artist, Andre Heller, on his latest

production, Afrika! Afrika!.

Even as a young widow, Maxie says there was

never a moment of doubt in her mind that “this

was my first and last marriage.” She has never

even dated. “I did not have to make any

decision. Every time someone would ask, the

‘no’ would come out of my mouth. I could not.

I live all the time with Yiannis, and you cannot

date bringing your husband with you!”

Yet, she says, she would never advise other

widows to do the same. “It’s tough and life is

not to be lonesome. And, frankly, I’ve met men

who are very interesting. But I could not. It

was to me to be unfaithful,” she says.

The Making of the Film

Brought onto the project by Papas, producer/

director Heather Harlow met Maxie in early 2008.

Despite an almost four-decade age difference, they

hit it off immediately. “I just fell in love with Maxie

the second I met her. She has such an incredibly

vibrant energy about her that I knew I had a lot to

learn,” says Harlow. “She has such incredible

insight into love and life and happiness. It’s like she

knows something that we don’t know. She’s figured

it out.”

A year spent in France, as well as a several-week

visit to Greece, allowed Harlow to match Maxie

words with a visual tableau of both Yianni’s

photographs and new footage shot by Jacob

Pander, who recently won the prizes for best

Producer/Director Heather Harlow, Maxie Leoussis, Executive Producer Tessa Papas

Production Notes - 4

feature and editing for his debut feature film,

Selfless, at the BendFilm Festival. “So I

understood where she lived and what they

experienced, because I’ve been there and seen

the beauty of Greece. So the story just really

appealed to me on many levels.”

Tessa Papas felt compelled to provide the funding

and find the right director because of “the

familiarity of being in Greece at the same time.

And I’ve always admired the courage with which

Maxie somehow got through it.” Sadly, Papas

would experience the same profound loss when

her husband Bill was killed in a small plane

accident in Alaska in 2000.

Maxie originally planned to turn the photographs and

her memories into a book, but it never seemed to

progress. Then a few years ago, a friend in television

suggested a documentary accompanied by Maxie’s

own voice-over.

The first time Maxie saw Nous Deux Encore [Together

Again], the impact of the images projected on a screen

was far greater than she expected. “I cried like a baby

for hours,” she says. “For me to be able to do this

movie with these photos, it’s something so good. It’s

so tender. So loving. It’s really for me a big

achievement. When you look at the film, you don’t

think of Yiannis as a dead man, do you?

Production Notes - 5

Biographies

Maxie Leoussis – As Herself

Nous Deux Encore [Together Again] is narrated by

Maxie Leoussis, based on her own story, and was

filmed on the eve of her 80th birthday.

Born Josette Barellis in 1929 (the same year as Grace

Kelly), Leoussis grew up in Monaco long before the tiny

principality became a Mecca for the rich and

glamorous. “It was just a village. Very provincial,” she

says, noting that everyone knew each other.

In 1947, at the age of 18, she headed to Paris to attend

college. Several years later, Leoussis returned to

Monaco for the opportunity to break into broadcasting

with the launch of Télé Monte Carlo, the first private

television channel in Europe. By the time she returned

to Paris, she was a full-fledged television director and

reporter – paving the way for her to join the staff of a

top-rated “60 Minutes”-style program for which Leoussis conducted in-depth interviews with major

newsmakers and celebrities, including Bridget Bardot.

Before quitting her career to marry Greek businessman Yiannis Leoussis in 1971, she had become the first

French television journalist to interview Jimi Hendrix and the last to cover Otis Redding in what would be

his final concert before dying in a plane crash. During visits to the U.S., she had also produced and filmed

two major television specials, including a hard-hitting look at drug-trafficking in America – which took

her to such unlikely places as the campus of a top ten Ivy League university.

Following her husband’s sudden death in 1984, Leoussis returned to Paris, and spent a year working on a

corporate film, before retiring from television altogether. She ultimately returned to Athens, her former

home for 12 years, and began working in theater and entertainment – including as an assistant to André

Heller on his acclaimed extravaganza, “Afrika Afrika!,” and international opera star Jessye Norman.

Leoussis is featured in Living in Greece by Barbara Stoeltie, published in 2002.

Heather Harlow – Producer/Director

Scientist-turned-filmmaker Heather Harlow began her

career in 1999, in Northern Himalayan, India, filming

interviews for a research study on the use of plants in

traditional Tibetan medicine.

Her unusual background includes an undergraduate degree

in fine arts (photography) from the University of Oregon,

and two masters degrees, in botanical sciences, conservation

biology and ethnobotany, from the University of Hawaii.

While specializing in medicinal plants and their cultural

uses, Harlow conducted field research in Nepal and

Polynesia, as well as India.

In 2002, she co-founded the non-profit Northwest

Documentary Arts & Media and spent two years on the team

that made the award-winning one-hour documentary, Sun

Gu Ja: A Century of Korean Pioneers, which traces the 100-

year history of Korean immigration to the Pacific Coast.

Harlow has worked on over 60 commercials, industrials and videos to date, and currently serves as the

resident production manager for the Emmy-winning @Large Films, which produces commercial films

and videos for such clients as Nintendo, Ubisoft, and AAA.

Her extensive background in filmed entertainment includes serving as the associate producer on the

Pander Bros.’ award-winning feature, Selfless; as a member of the team that cast Gus Van Sant’s

Elephant and Paranoid Park and Hideo Nakata’s Ring II; as the production coordinator on such projects

as Oregon Public Broadcasting’s “America’s History in the Making” and the Ben Folds’ music video,

“Landed”; and the assistant producer of The Shins’ music video, “St. Simon.”

Tessa Pappas – Executive Producer

Born and raised in England, Tessa Papas has

spent her life in the visual arts. As one of

America’s leading curators for art in

commercial spaces, her work has been

featured in such publications as USA Today,

Travel + Leisure, Condé Nast Traveler, Self,

and Details, as well as “The Today Show” and

other network programs.

From 1988 to 2003, Papas co-owned and

managed the distinguished Chetwynd

Stapylton Gallery in Portland, Oregon. She is

also the co-author of four coffee table books,

as well as a notable artist who has had solo

exhibitions in Greece, Geneva, Jerusalem, and

the U.S.

The recipient of the 2008 Hospitality Design

International Award for “Best Use of Art in a

Hotel,” Papas has served as the curator of the art collections that form the central theme in five of the

Provenance Hotels’ acclaimed properties: the Hotel Lucia and Hotel deLuxe in Portland, Hotel Max in

Seattle, and Hotel Murano in Tacoma, Washington.

Indisputably, her pièce de résistance as a curator was the recently-completed. meticulously-assembled

world class glass sculpture collection for the Hotel Murano, which opened to a groundswell of critical

praise. The intensive two-year project took Papas on an international three-week tour of studios in

England, Greece, Venice and Milan, Prague, Denmark, Holland, and Chicago. Among those represented

are contemporary legends Dale Chihuly, Costas Varotsos of Greece and Vibeke Skov of Denmark.

Raised in the countryside of Kent, outside London, Papas is the daughter of a well-known author and

journalist who penned official biographies about the Royal Family (as a friend of the Queen), children’s

books, and columns for the Daily Telegraph and popular magazines.

Following graduation from boarding school, Papas spent a year in Crete teaching English, then took a job

in London with the Greek government, where she met her future husband, Bill Papas. Then the political

cartoonist for the Guardian, the Sunday Times, and Punch magazine, he had already achieved

international acclaim as the only artist allowed to cover Nelson Mandela's treason trials in Pretoria.

At her parents insistence, Papas spent the next four years in Australia, only to marry Bill immediately

upon her return, in 1970. The couple settled in his ancestral home of Ermioni, an idyllic fishing village

that became their base while sailing the Aegean and Ionian seas during the summer for the next 13 years.

In 1979, they collaborated on the first of four books together – People of Old Jerusalem, following a six-

month sojourn there at the invitation of the Jerusalem Foundation. Ready for a lifestyle change, they

moved to Geneva in 1983, then settled in Portland, Ore., a year later. In 2000, Bill Papas died in a small

plane crash in Alaska.

Photo Credit: Erin Kistner

Michael Hoppé – Composer

Michael Hoppé is a Grammy-nominated composer,

producer and recording artist from the United Kingdom

who has recorded 22 albums. Among them, Solace,

performed by the Prague Symphony Orchestra, was

featured in the soundtrack for HBO”s documentary on the

making of Clint Eastwood’s Flags of our Fathers, and

nominated for a New Age Grammy Award in 2003. The

Yearning: Romances for Alto Flute won “CD of the Year”

and Afterglow was honored with “Best Album” from the

AFIM Indie Awards.

Hoppé’s critically-acclaimed music is frequently heard on

“The Oprah Winfrey Show,” and has been featured in

HBO’s “The Sopranos,” Michael Moore’s documentary

Sicko, and David Volach’s My Father, My Son; and as the

official music for both the Palm Springs and Santa

Barbara International Film Festivals. He also composed

the score for the feature film, Misunderstood, starring Gene Hackman.

His songs have been recorded by leading vocalists and instrumentalists, including Vangelis, Tim Wheater,

Martin Tillman, Zamfir, Frank Mills, Eliza Gilkyson, Cecilia, Louise Di Tullio, Lou Anne Neill, Eugene

Fodor, Lily Haydn, Heidi Fielding, Dwain Briggs, Alyssa Parks, Libbie Jo Snyder, and Joe Powers. And

Hoppé’s music is extensively used by such renowned authors/teachers as the celebrated environmentalist

Jane Goodall, Julia Cameron (“The Artist’s Way”), Sarah Breathnach (“Simple Abundance”), Robert

Cooper (“The Emotional Intelligence”), and others in their workshops.

Hoppé is a former senior executive at PolyGram, responsible for signing such diverse talents as Vangelis,

Kitaro, The Who, Jean-Michel Jarre and ABBA to the label.

For more information: www.MichaelHoppe.com

Jacob Pander – Cinematography and Editing

Jacob Pander is a critically-acclaimed comic book creator

and illustrator, as well as a filmmaker. He made his feature

film directorial debut in 2008 with the award-winning

Selfless, which recently swept top honors at the BendFilm

Festival, including “Best Editing” and “Best Feature.” An

official entry in the Santa Fe, Sedona, and Northwest

International Film & Video Festivals as well, the Oregonian

has called Selfless “stylish, smart and compelling…”

Panders’ previous work in film includes 15 music videos

(seven of them for Palm Pictures); the concept for Gus Van

Sant’s “Runaway” video for Deee-Lite; the award-winning

cult classic, The Operation; the feature-length

documentary, Painted Life; and a series of shorts. He

directed his first 8mm film, War is Hell, at the age of 12,

followed by his first 16mm short, Time Gate, two years

later. After studying 16mm filmmaking at the Northwest

Film & Video Center and serving as an apprentice editor on the 35mm feature, Shadow Play, Pander

launched his professional career in the 1990s with a series of shorts infused with rebellious humor.

In 1992, Pander was hired by Frontier Records to shoot his first music video, “Light in You,” for Dharma

Bums, which received extensive play on MTV. Among the others, he and his brother, Arnold, conceived,

directed and produced the award-winning Hitting Birth’s “Drive On,” and the half-hour concept film,

“Suck it and See,” for Palm Pictures, which featured such international electronic artists as Howie B.,

Fantastic Plastic Machine, Spacer, and DJ Miku. Then came the 1995 cult classic, The Operation, which

took first place at the New York Underground Film Festival and second place at the Chicago Underground

Film Festival, as well as honors at festivals in Berlin and Copenhagen.

In 2002, Panders’ feature-length documentary, Painted Life, provided a riveting look into the creative

process behind the work of his father, internationally-known still life painter Henk Pander. Filmed over a

period of seven years and funded in part by a grant from the Oregon Arts Commission, the feature-length

documentary became an official selection of the Northwest Film Festival and was screened at Seattle’s

prestigious Fry Art Museum.

Photo by Marne Lucas

Pink Martini – song: “La Soledad”

“Pink Martini is like a romantic Hollywood musical of the 1940s or 50s – but with a global perspective

which is modern,” says founder and artistic director Thomas M. Lauderdale. “We bring melodies and

rhythms from different parts of the world together to create something which is new and beautiful.”

The Portland, Oregon-based ‘little orchestra’ was founded in 1994 by Lauderdale, a Harvard graduate and

classically trained pianist, to play political fundraisers for progressive causes such as civil rights, the

environment, affordable housing and public broadcasting. In the years following, Pink Martini grew from

four musicians to its current twelve, and has gone on to perform its multilingual repertoire on concert

stages and with symphony orchestras throughout Europe, Asia, Greece, Turkey, Lebanon, Canada and the

United States.

Lauderdale met China Forbes, Pink Martini’s “diva next door” lead vocalist, when the pair was at Harvard.

He was studying history and literature while she was studying painting, English literature and theatre.

Late into the night in their college dormitory on the Harvard campus, he would sing Verdi and Puccini

arias while Lauderdale accompanied her on piano, and their creative collaboration blossomed. Three

years later, Lauderdale called Forbes, who was living in New York City, where she’d been writing songs

and playing guitar in her own folk-rock project, and asked her to join Pink Martini. They began to write

music and lyrics together for the band, and their first song “Sympathique,” or “Je ne veux pas travailler” (I

don’t want to work) became a huge hit in France.

The ensemble made its European debut at the Cannes Film Festival and its orchestral debut with the

Oregon Symphony in 1998 under the direction of Norman Leyden. Pink Martini has since performed with

symphony orchestras across the country including four night nights with the Boston Pops in 2005,

multiple concerts with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra in 2000, two nights with the Los Angeles

Philharmonic on a co-bill with Sergio Mendes in 2002 and two nights headlining with the Los Angeles

Philharmonic in 2005. Other prestigious appearances include the grand opening of the Los Angeles

Philharmonic’s new Frank Gehry designed Walt Disney Concert Hall, with return sold-out engagements

for New Year’s Eve 2003 and 2004; the opening party of the New York Museum of Modern Art, the

Kennedy Center and the William Morris Agency’s 100th birthday celebration with soul legend, Al Green.

Pink Martini’s debut album, “Sympathique,” was released independently in 1997 on the band’s own label

Heinz Records (named after Lauderdale’s dog) and quickly became an international phenomenon,

garnering the group nominations for “Song of the Year” and “Best New Artist” in France’s Victoires de la

Musique Awards. Seven long years later the high-anticipated follow-up, “Hang on Little Tomato,” was

released and climbed to #1 on Amazon.com’s best sellers list.

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