"The highest point a man can attain is not Knowledge, or Virtue, or Goodness, or Victory, but something even greater, more heroic and more despairing: Sacred Awe!"..... I love you more than words can say, my Zorba...
***
Zorba the Greek 1964. ~~~
Zorba, played by Anthony Quinn, says to his boss played by Alan Bates: " A MAN NEEDS A LITTLE MADNESS OR ELSE HE NEVER DARES CUT THE ROPE AND BE FREE".
***
HERE WE HAVE THE INDOMITABLE HUMAN SPIRIT'S TRIUMPH OVER A TEMPORARY SETBACK, THIS IS HOW ZORBA SEES IT; AND IT IS INFECTIOUS, FOR WE SEE THE UPTIGHT ALAN BATES LOOSENING UP, HAVING A LAUGH ABOUT IT AND HE STARTS TO DANCE.
~~~
Walter Lassally won the Oscar for the great cinematography, Mikis Theodorakis wrote the immortal music and Michael Cacoyannis directed.
Based on a novel by the Greek literary giant Nikos Kazantzakis. Shot on the island of Crete.
Zorba the Greek is a novel written by the Greek author Nikos Kazantzakis, first published in 1946. It is the tale of a young Greek intellectual who ventures to escape his bookish life with the aid of the boisterous and mysterious Alexis Zorba. The novel was adapted into a successful 1964 film of the same name as well as a 1968 musical, Zorba.
The book opens in a café in Piraeus, just before dawn on a gusty autumn morning in the 1930s. The narrator, a young Greek intellectual, resolves to set aside his books for a few months after being stung by the parting words of a friend, Stavridakis, who has left for the Caucasus in order to help some ethnic Greeks who are undergoing persecution. He sets off for Crete in order to re-open a disused lignite mine and immerse himself in the world of peasants and working-class people.
He is about to dip into his copy of Dante's Divine Comedy when he feels he is being watched; he turns around and sees a man of around sixty peering at him through the glass door. The man enters and immediately approaches him to ask for work. He claims expertise as a chef, a miner, and player of the santuri, or cimbalom, and introduces himself as Alexis Zorba. The narrator is fascinated by Zorba's lascivious opinions and expressive manner and decides to employ him as a foreman. On their way to Crete, they talk on a great number of subjects, and Zorba's soliloquies set the tone for a large part of the book.
On arrival, they reject the hospitality of Anagnostis and Kondomanolious the café-owner, and on Zorba's suggestion make their way to Madame Hortense's hotel, which is nothing more than a row of old bathing-huts. They are forced by circumstances to share a bathing-hut. The narrator spends Sunday roaming the island, the landscape of which reminds him of "good prose, carefully ordered, sober... powerful and restrained" and reads Dante. On returning to the hotel for dinner, the pair invite Madame Hortense to their table and get her to talk about her past as a courtesan. Zorba gives her the pet-name "Bouboulina" and, with the help of his cimbalom, seduces her. The protagonist seethes in his room while listening to the sounds of their impassioned lovemaking.
The next day, the mine opens and work begins. The narrator, who has socialist ideals, attempts to get to know the workers, but Zorba warns him to keep his distance: "Man is a brute.... If you're cruel to him, he respects and fears you. If you're kind to him, he plucks your eyes out." Zorba himself plunges into the work, which is characteristic of his overall attitude, which is one of being absorbed in whatever one is doing or whomever one is with at that moment. Quite frequently Zorba works long hours and requests not to be interrupted while working. The narrator and Zorba have a great many lengthy conversations, about a variety of things, from life to religion, each other's past and how they came to be where they are now, and the narrator learns a great deal about humanity from Zorba...
Some of the movie's best quotes:
---------------------------------------------
We must both have been hungry because we constantly led the conversation round to food.
"What is your favorite dish, grand dad?"
"All of them, my son. It's a great sin to say this is good and that is bad."
"Why? Can't we make a choice?"
"No, of course we can't."
"Why not?"
"Because there are people who are hungry." I was silent, ashamed. My heart had never been able to reach that height of nobility and compassion.
***
"The highest point a man can attain is not Knowledge, or Virtue, or Goodness, or Victory, but something even greater, more heroic and more despairing: Sacred Awe!"
***
"How simple a thing is happiness: a glass of wine, a roast chestnut, a wretched little brazier, the sound of the sea. All that is required to feel that here and now is happiness is a simple heart."
***
No copyright infringement intended.
Loading...
4:08
Zorba's Dance in colour version 2 from the film Zorba the Greekby raystube9580,056 views
CAN SELL
whotaughtyou 2 months ago
Thank you for sharing your video with the SilverScreenPoet and his audience on fb. OPA :-)
SilverScreenPOET 6 months ago
Multumesc, Zorba!!! De cate ori te privesc...imi amintesti de cineva foarte, foarte drag mie.. :))
FulgDeNeaJin 7 months ago
Terrific scene, I love this film and the dancing is SPLENDIFEROUS.
eccentricoldcow 1 year ago
Zulhilgon Zoba el grigo...¡¡
Zulhilgon 1 year ago