Countries & Movies: Greece

Two Greek films entered the FilmGourmand's Golden Thousand: "Topio stin omichli Τοπίο στην ομίχλη (Landscape in the Mist)" and "Alexis Zorbas Αλέξης Ζορμπάς (Zorba the Greek)". Our post today is dedicated to the film "Zorba the Greek".

Yes, we know that the American film company Twentieth Century Fox played a significant role in the creation of the movie “Zorba the Greek”. But! The director and producer of this picture was Greek Michael Cacoyannis, the literary basis of the script was the novel of the Greek writer Nikos Kazantzakis, the music was written by the Greek composer Mikis Theodorakis, one of the main roles was played by the great Greek actress Iren Papas, and most of the actors involved in the film are Greeks, the film was shot in Greece (on Crete) and, finally, it was the Greek film company Finos Films Athens that provided all the technical support. In other words, all the creative-substantive and all technical work was done by the Greeks. In addition, the premiere of the film in Greece took place on December 14, 1964 - three days before the American premiere. So, all this taken together, in our opinion, is sufficient reason to consider this film a product of Greek cinema.

At the beginning of 1965, “Zorba the Greek” received 5 nominations for the Golden Globe, including the most important ones: as Best Drama Film and for Best Director. In the nomination for the Best Drama film “Zorba the Greek” lost to the British film “Becket” by Peter Glenville, and in the nomination for the Best Director - Michael Cacoyannis lost to George Cukor, the director of the film “My Fair Lady”. The same thing happened again in the 1966 dispute over the British BAFTA Award: again, the “Zorba the Greek” lost to “My Fair Lady” and ended up in the same company of “relative losers” with “Hamlet” by Grigory Kozintsev and “The Hill” by Sidney Lumet.

Soon after, “Zorba the Greek” obtained 7 Oscar nominations, of which it won three. Two Oscars “Zorba the Greek” received in technical nominations, and one Oscar - for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. In the nominations for Best Film and Best Director, “Zorba the Greek” and Michael Cacoyannis lost to “My Fair Lady” and, accordingly, to George Cukor.

A few words about the Oscars received by "Zorba the Greek" for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. This Oscar was awarded to Lily Kedrova for her role as Madame Hortense. The background to victory in this nomination is curious.

Initially, at the insistence of American producers, the great French Actress Simone Signoret, by then already awarded an Oscar for her role in the film "Room at the Top", was supposed to play this role. And she started filming. Without preliminary casting. But her play already in the first scene Cacoyannis and Anthony Quinn, who played the title role, could not be called otherwise than a catastrophe. The fact is that Madame Hortense according to the scenario is an elderly woman. And Signoret explained as follows: "Hortense is an old woman, and I've got a young husband. I cannot let him see me like this."

So Cacoyannis had to look for a replacement Signoret. He went over all, at that time, great and not very, actresses. But everyone was either busy or did not want to fly to the shooting to the distant island of Crete. Due to the delay in filming caused by the search for Signoret’s replacement, the film’s originally planned budget of $ 400,000 rose to $ 750,000. And then Cacoyannis proposed to the president of Twentieth Century Fox Darryl F. Zanuck to invite for the role of Madame Hortense at the time little-known actress Lily Kedrova. Zanuck, not wanting to multiply losses, waved his hand and laid all responsibility for the choice on Cacoyannis.

And Lily Kedrova, as mentioned above, for this role received an Oscar. The role of Madame Hortense was played so brilliantly that even the ever-grumbling American film critic Bosley Crowther released several laudatory epithets against Lily Kedrova in his review written in The New York Times the day after the premiere of the film in New York. ЭThe old woman of Lila Kedrova is brilliantly realized, a wrinkled and tacky relic of a once successful coquette, stil hopeful, audacious and courageous."

A little about Lila Kedrova. Her real name is Elizaveta Nikolaevna Kedrova. She was born in Petrograd in 1918 in a family of prominent opera workers of pre-revolutionary Russia. In 1922, the Kedrov family, like many other representatives of the Russian intelligentsia, was forced to leave Bolshevik Russia. Especially for this role, she learned English. By the way, at that time she was only 46 years old, and she was only three years older than Simone Signoret. And the husband of Signoret at that time was Yves Montand. Her peer.

And one more curious moment concerning this film. If you ask random passers-by on the street what the Greek folk dance is called, I'm sure eight out of ten will answer: sirtaki. Meanwhile, the Greeks until 1964 had not any idea about the existence of this dance. The music of this dance was written specifically for this film by the Greek composer-communist Mikis Theodorakis. The movements of this dance were born completely by accident - due to the fact that Anthony Quinn broke his leg shortly before filming and could not make movements of the originally planned dance. And the name of the dance - sirtaki - was invented by Quinn himself. Such a "folk art."

Box office of the film was extremely successful: with the cost of its production in $ 783,000, the total fees around the world amounted to $ 23,500,000 dollars. As Russian film critic Yevgeny Nefyodov noted in his review of this film, “the picture was loved not only in the West, especially in the USA and Great Britain, but also in the Soviet Union, where it appeared on movie screens (alas, in the version shortened by 36 minutes) in 1968 - and caused a noticeable stir in the audience. The new political context, as well as the sincere sympathy that we had for the Greek citizens who were going through hard times after the usurpation of power by the “black colonels,” made us take the picture with great attention. "

64% of IMDB and Kinopoisk users gave this film a rating of 8 to 10. Based on this and other success indicators listed above, the rating of the movie “Zorba the Greek” according to FilmGourmand’s version was 8,407, which made it ranked 358th in the Golden Thousand.

The Golden Thousand, as mentioned above, includes another Greek film - "Topio stin omichli Τοπίο στην ομίχλη (Landscape in the Mist)". But talk about this film is ahead.