Zorba the Greek (film)

Zorba the Greek
Original film poster
Directed by	Michael Cacoyannis
Screenplay by	Michael Cacoyannis
Based on	Zorba the Greek 1946 novel by Nikos Kazantzakis
Produced by	Michael Cacoyannis
Starring	Anthony Quinn Alan Bates Irene Papas Lila Kedrova Sotiris Moustakas Anna Kyriakou
Cinematography	Walter Lassally
Edited by	Michael Cacoyannis
Music by	Mikis Theodorakis
Distributed by	20th Century Fox International Classics[1]
Release dates	14 December 1964 (1964-12-14) (Greece) 17 December 1964 (1964-12-17) (New York City)[1]
Running time	142 minutes[3]
Countries	United States[2] Greece
Languages	English Greek
Budget	$783,000[4][5]
Box office	$23.5 million

Zorba the Greek (Greek: Αλέξης Ζορμπάς, Alexis Zorbas) is a 1964 drama film written, produced, edited, and directed by Greek Cypriot filmmaker Michael Cacoyannis. It stars Anthony Quinn as Zorba, an earthy and boisterous Cretan peasant, and Alan Bates as Basil, the buttoned-up young intellectual he befriends. The cast also includes Lila Kedrova, Irene Papas, and Sotiris Moustakas. The musical score was composed by Mikis Theodorakis. The film is based on the 1946 novel The Life And Times Of Alexis Zorba by Nikos Kazantzakis.

It centers on Zorba and Basil's misadventures in trying to build a lignite mine through an impoverished Cretan village, as their polar different personalities lead them into affairs and schemes that have disastrous results, culminating in the village's evacuation by its populace. Much of the film's interactions focus on the lead characters' views and attitudes, culminating in the final scene where they dance joyfully before parting ways.

Though the film has elements of comedy, and Kazantzakis's anti-hero Zorba has been generally understood as a 'life-affirming' personality (faithfully reproduced in Cacoyannis's screenplay). It features a gruesome femicide, and Zorba's cynical, egotistical and manipulative personality combined with his determined optimism is explicitly shown to be a response to, and in defiance of, the cruelties and vicissitudes of life.

Produced in Greece for under $1 million, Zorba was a considerable critical and commercial success, grossing over nine times its production budget at the U.S. box office alone. At the 37th Academy Awards, the film won awards for Best Supporting Actress (Kedrova), Best Cinematography and Best Art Direction. Other nominations included Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Anthony Quinn, whose performance has been cited as one of the most iconic in film history,^[6][7] and which spawned the folk dance known as the sirtaki. The film and its source novel were later adapted into a Tony-winning stage musical, in which Cacoyannis, Quinn, and Kedrova all participated.

Cast[edit]

• Anthony Quinn as Alexis Zorba (Greek: Αλέξης Ζορμπάς), a fictionalized version of the mine worker George Zorbas (Greek: Γιώργης Ζορμπάς 1867–1941)^[8]
• Alan Bates as Basil
• Irene Papas as the Widow
• Lila Kedrova as Madame Hortense
• Sotiris Moustakas as Mimithos
• Anna Kyriakou as Soul
• Eleni Anousaki as Lola
• George Voyadjis as Pavlo
• Takis Emmanuel as Manolakas
• George Foundas as Mavrandoni
• Pia Lindström (deleted scenes) as Peasant girl

Plot[edit]

Basil is a staid, middle-class Greek-British writer raised in the United Kingdom. While at the Athens port of Piraeus waiting to catch a ferry to Crete, he meets a middle-aged peasant and musician named Zorba who carries only a santouri in a case. Basil explains that he is travelling to a Cretan village where he owns land with the intention of re-opening a lignite mine and curing his writer's block. Zorba inveigles a position as Basil's foreman and factotum.

When they arrive at the Cretan village, they are greeted enthusiastically by the impoverished populace. They lodge with an elderly French former cabaret dancer named Madame Hortense in her self-styled "Hotel Ritz". Hortense relates her glamorous past as a courtesan. Zorba tries to persuade Basil to enter into a relationship with Madame Hortense, but he is reluctant so Zorba seizes the opportunity, cynically exercising his charm on the lonely woman.

Over the next few days, Basil and Zorba attempt to work the old lignite mine, but it collapses and Zorba narrowly avoids injury. Zorba then has an idea to use the forest in the nearby mountains to source lumber to make new pit-props to replace the rotten timbers of the mine. The land is owned by a monastery. Zorba tricks the monks into believing that a miracle has occurred as a ploy to get them to give up the timber. Exultant, when he gets home, he breaks into a dance, the so-called 'butcher's dance' or sirtaki.

Among the other residents is a young widow who is resented by the villagers for not remarrying. A local boy, the son of one of the more important peasants, is madly in love with her, but she has spurned him repeatedly. One rainy afternoon, Basil offers her his umbrella, which she reluctantly takes. Zorba, who treats his 'Boss' as a pupil, knowingly suggests that she is attracted to him, but Basil refuses to pursue her.

Basil gives Zorba some money and sends him to the large port of Chania to buy supplies. But in Chania, Zorba gets drunk, visits at a cabaret, and spends money on presents and on drinking champagne with a cabaret dancer/hospitality girl. In a letter to Basil, he details his exploits. Angered by Zorba's irresponsibility, Basil untruthfully tells Madame Hortense, who is smitten with Zorba, that Zorba intends to marry her. Meanwhile, the widow returns Basil's umbrella by way of Mimithos, the village idiot. Basil goes to the widow’s house, and they spend the night together. However, their assignation has been observed by the jealous men of the village.

When Zorba returns, he is angered to hear of Basil's lie to Madame Hortense. Word spreads of Basil's visit to the widow, and the men of the village tell the youth who is in love with her, whereupon he drowns himself. When the widow attempts to attend the funeral, she is blocked from entering the church by the youth's father. Some of the men begin to stone her, encouraged by the villagers. Basil, unable to push through the crowd to intervene, sends Mimithos to fetch Zorba. Zorba arrives, but the dead boy's father pulls his knife and cuts the widow's throat. Basil laments his inability to intervene, and Zorba laments the meaninglessness of all deaths.

Some time later, Madame Hortense contracts pneumonia and is on her deathbed. Zorba stays by her side, along with Basil. Meanwhile, word spreads that "the foreigner" is dying, and since she has no heirs, the State will take her possessions. The poor villagers crowd around her hotel, waiting for her demise so they can steal her belongings. At the instant of her death, the women enter Madame Hortense's bedroom. Zorba leaves with a sigh as the hotel is stripped bare by the excited villagers.

Finally, Zorba's elaborate contraption to transport timber down the hill to the mine is complete, but it malfunctions and destroys the entire contraption. The watching villagers and monks flee in terror, leaving only Basil and Zorba amidst the wreckage.

They sit by the shore to eat roasted lamb and drink wine alone. Zorba pretends to tell the future from a lamb bone, saying that he foresees a great journey to a big city. He asks Basil when he plans to leave, and Basil replies that he will go in a few days. Zorba says that the one thing Basil is missing is the element of 'madness' which enables a man to 'break free'. Basil asks Zorba to teach him to dance, and the film ends with both men enthusiastically dancing the sirtaki on the deserted shore.

Production[edit]

The film was shot in black and white on location on the Greek island of Crete. Specific locations featured include the city of Chania, the village of Kokkino Chorio in the Apokoronas region and Stavros Beach in the Akrotiri peninsula. The scene in which Quinn's character dances the Sirtaki was filmed on the beach of the village of Stavros.^[9]

Simone Signoret began filming the role of Madame Hortense; Lila Kedrova replaced her early in the production.^[10]

Reception[edit]

Box office[edit]

The film was a smash hit. Produced on a budget of only $783,000,^[4] it grossed $9 million at the U.S. box office,^[11] earning $4.4 million in U.S. theatrical rentals.^[12] At the worldwide box office, the film earned $9.4 million in rentals,^[4] placing the worldwide gross between $18.8 million to $23.5 million. It was the 17th highest-grossing film of 1964.

According to Fox Records, the film needed to earn $3,000,000 in rentals to break even and made $9,400,000.^[13] By September 1970 it earned the studio an estimated profit of $2,565,000.^[5]

Critical response[edit]

The film has an 86% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.^[14] On both sides of the Atlantic, Zorba was applauded and Quinn came in for the best reviews. He was lauded as Zorba, along with the other stars, including Greek-born Papas, who worked with Quinn on The Guns of Navarone.

Contemporary reviews were generally positive, with Anthony Quinn and Lila Kedrova receiving numerous accolades for their performances, although a few critics found fault with the screenplay. Bosley Crowther of The New York Times lauded Quinn for a "brilliant performance" and Kedrova for her "brilliantly realized" character, citing the only real weakness of the film as a lack of "significant conflict to prove its dominant character. Zorba is powerful and provocative, but nobody gets in his way."^[15] Margaret Harford of the Los Angeles Times declared that the film would "stand among the year's best motion pictures, an unusual, engrossing effort" with spots both "outrageously funny" and "painfully sad and tragic."^[16]

Richard L. Coe of The Washington Post deemed it "a memorable picture" with a "bravura performance" from Quinn, adding that "Lila Kedrova as the dying Mme Hortense is spectacularly touching."^[17] Variety found the film excessively long (at around two hours and thirty minutes) and overstuffed, writing that Cacoyannis's screenplay was "packed with incidents of varying moods, so packed, in fact, that some of the more important ones cannot be developed fully."^[18] Brendan Gill of The New Yorker wrote that Cacoyannis had directed the film with "enormous verve" but had written a "not very tidy, not very plausible screenplay." Gill particularly praised Kedrova's performance and thought that she "comes within an ace of stealing the picture from Quinn."^[19] The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote that the film began well, but by the time the characters went to Crete "the pace slows to a crawl, and the narrative line becomes blurred in a series of unrelated incidents of doubtful significance." The review concluded that for all its length, "the film never gets down to a clear statement of its theme, or comes within measuring the distance of its vast pretensions."^[20]

Awards and nominations[edit]

Preservation[edit]

The Academy Film Archive preserved Zorba the Greek in 2004.^[22]

In popular culture[edit]

In a January 15, 1968 Peanuts comic strip, Snoopy is happily dancing atop of his doghouse with Lucy looking on until the final panel where she comments: "Zorba the Greek, you aren't!".^[23]

In a July 16, 1991 Big Nate comic strip, Nate mistakes the name of the movie as "Zorba the Geek".^[24]

See also[edit]

• "Zorbas", the theme song of the film by Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis
• Zorba (musical), a musical based on the book

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Zorba the Greek at IMDb
• Zorba the Greek at the American Film Institute Catalog
• Zorba the Greek at the TCM Movie Database
• Zorba the Greek at AllMovie
• Zorba the Greek at Rotten Tomatoes