Never on Sunday
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Despo Diamantidou, George Foras, Giannis Fermis, Koula Agagiotou, Nikos FermasBrand: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT
Primary Contributor: George Foundas
Primary Contributor: Mercouri, Melina
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: Greek (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD, Letterboxed, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.66:1
Running Time: 93 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-07-01
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
Movie Reviews of Never on Sunday
Movie Review: Sophisticated joie-de-vivre film, or "Happy Hooker Goes to Greece"?
Summary: 4 Stars
This movie is a classic, and justifiably so. At the same time, it's easy to criticize this 1960 film from the standpoint of today's morality for the romanticized portrayal of the lifestyle of its main character, the Piraeus prostitute Ilya.
The central dramatic conflict is between the live-for-today attitude of the happy hooker Ilya, and the stifled, overintellectualizing bent of the male lead, the ironically named American tourist Homer -- stiffly played by the film's writer-director, Jules Dassin.
This underlying conflict is the film's saving grace. The film is really not all that dissimilar to "Zorba" (which came later, in 1964) in terms of its message, and the bouzouki music and drunken Greek dances strengthen the sense of parallels between the two. The live-for-today mindset wins out, but still, Ilya does briefly achieve a deeper happiness when she gives Homer's bookish ways a try.
I'm not sure that romanticizing the prostitute's lifestyle is the best way for a film to go. I think most people today would say it isn't, but what do I know -- maybe things were different in Greece in 1960. If you can hold back your probably justified indignation, this movie has some worthwhile things to say.
There are a lot of jokes and references to ancient Greek history and culture. For example, the prostitutes of Piraeus go on strike for better living conditions, which I'm sure is a reference to the Aristophanes play "Lysistrata", in which the women of Greece withhold sex from their men until they agree to stop the Peloponnesian War. Also, the poet Homer was traditionally said to be blind -- just as the film's Homer is figuratively blind to the simple pleasures of life. I'm sure there many more Greek references I didn't pick up on.
On an even more obscure note, the film's story has interesting parallels with the opera "Tha?s" by Jules Massenet: the prostitute-priestess (and that description fits Ilya perfectly as well) converts, becomes a nun, and is much happier for it. The difference is that Tha?s dies a happy nun, but here, the happy hooker returns. Which one was better off?
Summary of Never on Sunday
Nominated* for five Academy Awards?(r), including Best Actress, Director and Original Screenplay, and featuring the Oscar?(r)-winning* song "Never on Sunday," this "racy, arty comedy"(The Hollywood Reporter) is as intoxicating as fine Greek wine...and a "rambunctious" (Time) delight! Glasses are smashing, fingers are snapping and everyone's dancing to the sultry music of the bouzoukies! It's just another glorious moment in the carefree world of Illia (Melina Mercouri), Greece's most radiant lady of the night. Sensuous Illia adores her life, and every man in her seaport paradise adores her. But when Homer (Jules Dassin), a stuffy American intellectual, sails into town and tries to reform her, Illia shows him that she's one free spirit who's happy with her wild life and not about to be tamed. *1960: Original Song (won), Costume DesignThirty-two years before My Big Fat Greek Wedding brought Greek-American culture to a mainstream audience, Never on Sunday took mainstream culture to Greece, with similarly popular results. Expatriate director Jules Dassin wrote, directed, and costars in this vibrant and (in retrospect) rather simple-minded celebration of good living, as embodied by the vivacious Melina Mercouri in the Cannes award-winning role of her career. She's Ilya, a fiercely independent prostitute who hand-picks her clientele, and Dassin plays Homer, an American intellectual enamored of all things Greek, and determined to steer Ilya onto the straight and moral path. He's out of his depth, of course; it's not long before his efforts are exposed as naively self-serving, and half the fun of Never on Sunday comes from watching Mercouri amiably deflect any attempt to dampen her indomitable spirit. Innocently good-natured by latter-day standards, Dassin's delightful film still retains its popular charm, and its familiar bouzouki theme is an irresistible invitation to join in the fun. --Jeff Shannon
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