G G Gwalles Anthony Quinn's Zorba became a point of reference, in fact I'm writing this review 54 years after its first release. He is everything and more. Alan Bates is outstanding walking that very thin line but totally committed to that duality that makes him so human, so real. Lila Kedrova won an Oscar for her performance, deservedly so. Simone Signoret had been offered the part and she was the one who suggested Lila Kedrova to the director, Michael Cacoyanis. I love that story. Zorba has also the power of Irene Papas who makes her silent calling absolutely riveting and the contagious Mikis Theodorakis's score all together in a beautiful, savage, compelling film that doesn't show any signs of aging

guedesnino Reviewing "Zorba" is always a pleasurable invitation. Personally, it is a film that brings back several memories of the most diverse phases of my life. The most admirable thing about the film is its simplicity inherited from neo-realism, something almost impossible to see in today's cinema, and probably by the characteristics of our individualistic generation. The paradox in "Zorba" is in its simplicity traits that gain a splendid dimension. Everything is so well done that even slips end up being irrelevant, though they exist. The film's occasional mistakes may be characterized by the adaptive relationship of Nikos Kazantzakis's novel with the script and direction signed by Michael Cacoyannis.By fragmenting a moment of life between the meeting of the young Basil (Alan Bates) with Zorba (Anthony Quinn) through the relations of work, companionship and ending with the farewell of these friends, we have in this fragment of moments, insertions in style of chronicles of the Life that do not always punctuate or construct relations, besides, by centralizing the film in relaunching between these two friends, we lose, and in total merit by the artistic and interpretative quality, very interesting figures like the brilliant Madame Hortense (Lila Kedrova), the Widow Irene Papas) and the crazy / silly city (Sotiris Moustakas). In addition to all these characters, add the inhabitants of the village of Crete (where most of the history goes), which oscillate between a great chorus of representation of the local inhabitants and at other moments, this mass of the population obtains the prowess of being the Protagonists of "Zorba", influencing in the plots and determining situations.Perhaps the weakest point of the script, in the non-relationship in particular, with the women's history of the film, the widow and Madame, both seem to be a resource to symbolize, a specific love relationship in the life of the two friends, but Are only one in front of the others that have already come and the others that will still come, by the way, the film provides few clues about the past and even fewer about the future of the characters Zorba and Basil, which is not a bad thing, if there is something That neo-realism clearly points out, is the coming and going of stories that cross us.A special highlight for the photography of Walter Lassally and the art direction of Vassilis Photopoulos, both deservedly awarded the Oscars in their respective categories and which are striking to this day, a true composition class and artistic feature, the reflection of this is remarkable also Quality of the movie.One aside that is necessary here, is for the quality in the work of all the actors, indisputably excellent, with special attention to the female performance and in great prominence, Anthony Quinn, an undoubtedly enviable actor. When we know a little about the story of this Mexican actor, who was boxing fighter ... finally, when we know a little more about his life and career, our chin falls and we are even more admired for his work. Quinn, performed in "Zorba" a rare feat for many other actors, composing a timeless character, which until today is referenced and revered. Without doubt, a brilliant work by an equally brilliant actor.

higherall7 This is a curious and strange film. There is something sparse and barren about it, and all the hype about its life affirming leave a few things to be desired. That being said, it cannot be denied that in the end it does affirm the demonstrable fact that Life will go on and shuffle its way through all the pathos and bathos and pathetic misery and tragedy and ridiculous, hilarious comedy of its errors and even here and there step lively to a simple tune.Perhaps it is the very meanness of this Greek environs that serves to highlight the fact that life in the end is what you make and not the other way around. There is no use in pretending that Quinn does not dominate every frame he is in and even seems to be hovering over the frames he is not in with regard to this film. As Alexis Zorbas, the lovable, womanizing rogue now engaged in a peripatetic discussion of all things animal, vegetable and mineral with a young English intellectual played by Alan Bates named Basil, Quinn seems to justify the lofty aims of the film even when the mean spirited surrounding characters act to suggest otherwise. Zorba here, of course, is meant to represent the soul and to some degree the national character of the Greek people. The best and the worst aspects of that character in constant interplay. Quinn never misses a beat representing this. He towers over the story like some kind of Greek Paul Bunyan or Pecos Bill, which is exactly what Nikos Kazantzakis had in mind in the much deeper and more probing novel on which this movie is based.I have read the other reviews about this film and several reviewers before me made some excellent points. They are correct the representation of women here leaves a lot to be desired. The artistic sensibility of Quinn's Zorba can easily be interpreted as the tricks of a confidence artist more interested in seducing women than in promoting the business interests of his boss. But these thumbnail analyses beggar the point. Zorba is a hard worker who simply falls prey to his own passions more often than not. He is a fighter and a lover too involved with real life to sequester himself in the intellectual abstraction and introversion that is proving such a prison for his young friend reading Dante's DIVINE COMEDY.Irene Papas smolders as the earthy Greek widow who encounters Alan Bates' intellectual, engaging in a lover's tryst with him that results in tragic consequences for her. Lila Kedrova shines as Madame Hortense whom Zorba wines and dines and promises love while running off to embroil himself in further adventures afar. She accomplishes a performance that is heartfelt and touching and elegiac and fully deserving of an Oscar win. Mikis Theodorakis' score is as magical as Quinn's looming, iconic presence, and the minor characters often seem like black and white photographs out of LIFE magazine.However, for all the bombast of the music promising great and triumphant things, this film leaves you with a wry smile here and there. Zorba, for all his splendiferous declaiming and passionate outbursts in the end makes nothing work in a lasting way or saves anyone or anything except the lamb roasting on the spit. While it may not be true that he simply shrugs and walks or dances away, for it becomes obvious that he feels things deeply, perhaps to a fault, it is true that his particular tragedy is that for all his great energy and enthusiasm, he is still a victim of his own cultural conditioning and social education. He comes across as ironically being just as trapped in his Greekness as Alan Bates is in his books.These three questions occurred to me after reading the comments of other reviewers: 1) What if Zorba had somehow made the Lignite Mine work and turn a profit? 2) What if Zorba and the Young Intellectual had somehow saved the Widow's life? 3) What if Zorba had thoroughly tested his logging contraption until he himself knew and could demonstrate it would be successful? One could also add a sugarcoated ending for Madame Hortense and her home, but perhaps that would be going too far.All I know is that when I played the various versions of the ZORBA theme listed on Youtube and got up the next morning, members of my family seemed energized and smiling.There must be something to this ZORBA THE Greek...

gsygsy Let us now praise big performances, and the actors who dare to put them on screen. Charles Laughton, Orson Welles, Bette Davis...Risk-takers who sometimes fail but more often than not succeed. Much more satisfying to watch than the ever-increasing number of dare-nothings whose skills have been forged on TV soaps or by modelling knitwear.Here we have three very different actors taking those risks under the aegis of a first-rate writer-director, Mihalis Kakogiannis.First, Anthony Quinn in the title role, who apparently was giving such an over-the top performance that Mr Kakogiannis was concerned he'd have to rein him in. To what extent he did so I don't know, but the result is Quinn's brave, multi-layered, superbly wrought characterization.Next, Irene Papas, who brings all her skills as a tragedienne to a role with few lines of dialogue. Everything has to be expressed in her gestures, her face, her eyes...The sheer intensity of Ms Papas, the furnace of passion that powers her through the film, takes your breath away.Finally, Lila Kedrova, who won a thoroughly deserved Oscar for her role as a vulnerable, care-worn French woman with a huge heart. What we have here is a performance of utter fearlessness, ranging from broad comedy to heart-rending pathos. And these emotions change in a flash. That is what is so remarkable about Ms Kedrova. She gives pretty much the same performance in Hitchcock's TOPAZ: it may well be she gives the same performance in everything she ever did. Doesn't matter. It's worth watching. It is drawn from a deep well of emotion, filtered through a considerable technical imagination, an extraordinary tightrope-walk between pillars of sincerity and artifice.Against these three titans, a somewhat miscast Alan Bates does as well as he can. Bates played a wide variety of roles in his distinguished career, and in most he was unbeatable (A KIND OF LOVING, THE GO-BETWEEN, THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE, AN ENGLISHMAN ABROAD to name just four of many) but he also could struggle a bit when the fit was not perfect, and here, as in GEORGY GIRL, he isn't quite right, not believably upper-class donnish. The story ZORBA tells gives its two remarkable female characters a tough time. Whether this was intended as a critique of the misogyny of the Cretan peasant society of the time or simply a reflection of it is difficult to say. What is shocking is that the fate Ms Papas' character endures is one that is still common in parts of the world today.ZORBA THE Greek is beautifully filmed and edited, the music - by one of Greece's great composers - is life-affirming, but the movie as a whole, though shot through with humour (both warm-hearted and cruel), is darker than its original advertising campaign seemed to realise.