Zorba the Greek (1964)

Anthony Quinn plays a shy Englishman that goes to Greece and ends up in a business enterprise with a jovial Greek playboy. While the Englishman is pallid and timid, the Greek is a dancing whirlwind who has his way with the ladies. ... Already from this description, I hope you realize what kind of movie Zorba the Greek is. Greece is depicted as a very, very exotic country with almost zombie-like villagers, and then this Zorba, who supposedly is to embody the good spirit of Greece. Michael Cacoyannis directed the film and I suspect he had non-Greek audiences in mind when he made the film. Basically, the film revolves around Zorba and his unruly Life Force that cannot be tamed. The business he and the Englishman has together seems to be a mere plot device in the movie that is there as an excuse to show off the old man's courtship charm and dancing moves. Exuberance, exuberance, exuberance. The only thought in my head while watching Zorba the Greek (it's a mystery that I was actually able to finish this movie) was this: can you imagine a female Zorba? This unstoppable, unabashed life force of a person? Have you ever watched such a movie? There is a representation of female - what should we call it? - lust for life in the movie. She's an old 'coquett', an owner of an unkempt inn. She recalls the old adventures and the men that used to court her during the war. Stories of sex and romance. In all these stories, she is the recipient of male attention, and it is this role that is upkept through the film, in which Zorba of course does not hesitate to try out his charms on her. But when Zorba moves on to other female territories, the inn-keeper is shattered: without a man, she is nothing. It's not the same with how Zorba is shown in the movie. He's Zorba, and nothing can take his life energy from him.