These interviews, filmed over four days in September 2008, were intended as the backbone of the first full-length portrait of Vangelis, 'The Journey to Ithaca.' The film I made has never been released, principally because Vangelis and his spokesman in London, the director Hugh Hudson, demanded numerous editorial changes which were unacceptable to me. Hudson did his best over some months to find a compromise, but it became clear Vangelis did not want any kind of compromise. Since the investors, who loved the original film, lost a considerable amount of money as a result, and given Vangelis's notorious aversion to giving interviews, I felt it important to make these interviews available to anyone who might be interested, especially students of him and his music. They are completely uncut, and exist on DVD exactly as they were on the days they were filmed. Vangelis appears relaxed and affable in the interviews. We had known each other for some time; he admired my work, such as those of my films he knew, and I of course admired him as a musician, a composer, and as someone who had clear thoughts about the role of music in the world, both artistically and from a business perspective. I did not have a preconceived list of questions, which he had not requested anyway, and he did not set any limits on what we could talk about. I interviewed him in his house in Athens and in a house he had rented near the beach. My crew and I were made to feel most welcome, and he entertained us to lunch and dinner as the conversation progressed. He had been sent a simple Letter of Agreement beforehand. Although he had not signed it, his acceptance was clear in that he was well aware of the contents before we began filming. The Letter clearly stated that Vangelis had no editorial control whatsoever over the film, with the exception of any 'live' music recordings which he could replace or re-film if he was not satisfied. My lawyers in London confirmed that his agreement to be interviewed after seeing the document was tantamount to tacit acceptance of its terms. In assembling material for the film, Vangelis freely made available a considerable amount of home-movie footage, previously unreleased music tracks, and earlier public performances (especially the World Games of 2006 and a concert of his opera oratorio 'Mythodea'). He gave me unrestricted access to his studio, his art collection, his painting studio (he is also a considerable artist), and his private apartments. I also interviewed numerous filmmakers and musicians with whom he had collaborated, notably Sean Connery, Ridley Scott, Oliver Stone, Hugh Hudson, David Puttnam (producer of Chariots of Fire), violinist Julian Rachlin, Jon Anderson of the rock group 'Yes', Montserrat Caballé, the great Spanish soprano, Peter Gelb, hitherto his record label boss, and several others. In view of all this, you might well ask why the film I made has never been released, only a bastardised version dictated by Vangelis, from which I withdrew my name. Vangelis constantly objected to sequences, sent his representative Hugh Hudson (whom he also asked to 'take over the film' – Hudson refused) to give me a primer on film making. Hudson even told me at one point that only Vangelis could say what was acceptable in a portrait of him, that I – even as the film's director – had no rights in the editorial content. Vangelis vetoed certain contributors and wanted to impose various others who in the event contributed nothing to the film other than ridiculous platitudes. The film thus tilted towards becoming a shameless piece of self-promotion, to which Vangelis had not contributed a single penny, and that was what I had spent my entire career avoiding doing. In retrospect, I should have heeded warnings; one contributor told me to consider why Vangelis has changed record labels so frequently in his career. Worse was to follow. Although we had already obtained an MCPS (Mechanical Copyright Protection Society) Licence for music in the film, Vangelis then arbitrarily copyrighted 'new versions' of each piece used (he had a copy of my film by this point) with instructions to the MCPS that these were not to be Licensed to us. The film was therefore blocked until he had his way. And my version continues to be so. I still have some admiration for him as a composer of pretty and sometimes memorable tunes, but he aspires to be a great classical symphonic composer. This he is not. He is also an interesting man with often profound observations to make about the role of music in the world and the whole business of writing music for films – hence my decision to release these interviews uncut so that his fans and others can make up their own minds about him. He is a gifted, if largely untaught, pianist and a gregarious host – provided you do as he wishes. I did not. Some years later, a reluctant interviewee asked about the film; after I explained, he remarked, "Now you know why I won't work with him again."
Tony Palmer