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.
The film 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 end unexpectedly. 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 murder, 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 also popularized 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.
Contents
Plot
Basil is an unadventurous middle-class Greek-British writer raised in the United Kingdom. While at the Athens port of Piraeus waiting to travel to Crete, he meets a peasant and musician named Zorba. Basil explains that he is travelling to a Cretan village with the intention of re-opening a lignite mine and perhaps curing his writer's block. Zorba explains that he has experience as a miner and inveigles himself a position as Basil's foreman and handyman.
When they arrive at the village, they are greeted enthusiastically by the impoverished people. They lodge with an elderly French former cabaret dancer named Madame Hortense in her self-styled "Hotel Ritz". Hortense relates her past as a courtesan among the competing Mediterranean powers, hinting that she was the lover of an Italian admiral named Cannavaro (which she has named her pet parrot). Zorba tries to persuade Basil to enter into a relationship with Hortense, but he refuses. Zorba charms Hortense instead.
Over the next few days, Basil and Zorba work the old lignite mine, but it collapses and Zorba narrowly avoids injury. He then has an idea to use the forest in the nearby mountains to source lumber and replace the rotten timbers. The land is owned by a monastery. Zorba tricks the monks into believing that a miracle has occurred, as part of a ploy to get them to give up the timber. Exultant, when he gets home, he dances the sirtaki. Zorba later designs a system for timber to be sent down the mountain via a wire.
Among the village residents is a young, widowed woman who is resented by the villagers for not remarrying. A local boy Pavlo is madly in love with her, but she rejects him. One rainy afternoon, Basil offers her his umbrella, which she reluctantly takes. Zorba suggests that she is attracted to him, but Basil shyly refuses to pursue her.
To get supplies to build the zip-wire for timber, Basil gives Zorba some money and sends him to the port of Chania to buy supplies. Instead, Zorba gets drunk, visits a cabaret, and spends money on presents, champagne, and a dancer with whom he spends the night. He dyes his hair to feel more youthful. Angered, Basil lies to Madame Hortense, who is smitten with Zorba but feels abandoned, that Zorba intends to marry her upon his return, exciting her. Mimithos, the village idiot, returns Basil's umbrella. Basil, while drunk, goes to the widow's house. They spend the night together, which is discovered by the jealous men of the village.
Cast
Anthony Quinn as Alexis Zorba (Greek: Αλέξης Ζορμπάς), a fictionalized version of the mine worker George Zorbas (Greek: Γιώργης Ζορμπάς 1867–1941)
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
Production
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.
Simone Signoret began filming the role of Madame Hortense; Lila Kedrova replaced her early in the production.
Reception
Box office
The film was a commercial success. Produced on a budget of only $783,000, it grossed $9 million at the U.S. box office, earning $4.4 million in U.S. theatrical rentals. At the worldwide box office, the film earned $9.4 million in rentals, placing the worldwide gross between $18.8 million and $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. By September 1970 it earned the studio an estimated profit of $2,565,000.
Critical response
Reviews of the film 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." 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."
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." 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." 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." 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."
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 80% of 15 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.8/10. 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.
Preservation
The Academy Film Archive preserved Zorba the Greek in 2004.
