Executscan Expected more

Matrixiole Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Verity Robins Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

Kamila Bell This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The_Film_Cricket There's nothing quite like discovering a talent that you've never seen before. That's what I got from Melina Mercouri. Directed by her then fiancé Jules Dassin. Not classically beautiful but possessing a smile and a personality that could light up Chicago, Mercouri plays Ilya, a prostitute in a small Greek village of Piraeus who brings life and music to those around her. Surrounded by a small troop of male groupies, she is a fountain of joy and life.Into the picture comes Homer Thrace (Dassin), an American who is smart but does not possess a great deal of common sense. Watching her turn a local tavern into a place of life and music, he explains that he has become disillusioned by the sadness in the world and has returned to Greece, the cradle of civilization, in an attempt to discover what went wrong. Through this woman, brimming with happiness, he hopes to find out.Homer loves Ilya's spirit but he's troubled by her profession which he finds demeaning. He also finds it a little troubling that she reinterprets the Greek tragedies she attends, having misconceptions about Oedipus Rex. He asks for a little time to be alone with her, to educate her on the great philosophers who walked on the very same ground under her feet. He rearranges her apartment, giving her the books to educate her and trying to turn her toward Greek intellectualism. But, as we see, a little knowledge is a good thing but too much knowledge turns away the jollier sides of her personality. He doesn't realized it but by pruning her, he has cut away the bits of her mind that make her happy. She becomes modest and more serious . . . but not for long.Mercouri gives a performance of a character we don't see much in American films, the kind of person with a lust for life, the kind of person who absolutely lives to get out of bed in the morning. Her looks wouldn't get her work as a fashion model, but standing at the center of this film it is impossible to resist what she brings to the screen. When she dances, it isn't choreographed; it bubbles up from inside her. When we see her in the throng of men at the tavern, there is a reverence in their eyes. They don't see her as a sex object but more of a fountain of happiness; they respect her even though she engages in a profession that doesn't warrant it. There is a moment late in the film, a beautiful moment, when we see her in her apartment. She pulls out her record player and puts on Manos Hadjidakis's "Never on Sunday" and dances about her apartment like she is propelled by something wondrous. It is a moment when we see the seriousness that Homer had instilled in her, and the flower begins to bloom once more.

suedoise-761-21972 I'm surprised at the grim take some reviewers have on this film. The misconceptions about it being "shocking" in 1960 are amusing. It wasn't; by this time US audiences were veterans of home-grown films showing rape/incest ("Peyton Place"), drug addiction, urban violence, etc. Only people who weren't there think "Happy Days" is a reflection of the 50s, in many ways a dark, confused decade. The prim suburbanism, the emphasis on respectable conformity, was in part a defensive mask, which was always slipping. The year NOS came out was not only the start of a new decade, but was on the cusp of a transition toward more open social attitudes, and I think that was one reason the film was such a hit. Take a look at the marketing: the late 40's-50s saw a LOT of H'wood movies sold as shocking/graphic/dirty, but NOS was presented as fun. The Cannes award for Mercouri earlier (in May; US release was in Oct), Dassin's name as a prestige director, and its Greekness shielded it from the sleaze approach. The main character being a prostitute was not sensationalized, appropriate as the film didn't sensationalize it either. Dassin's Homer, a gently goofy parody of a naive American provincial let loose in the big bad Old World, is the only one who's negative about Ilya's profession. As she says, "Oh, Homer, I think you have big problems with your morals." NOS is a romantic vision of personal freedom working for the best: Ilya can conduct her business independently because her clients are also friends who will protect her from the local gangster - and her clients are friends because that's the way she conducts her business, on a basis of personal liking and trust rather than the bottom line. She's constructed a modus operandi that brings her freedom and happiness, and doesn't like sad things (like Greek tragedy!) to intrude. Of course it's a fable; it takes place in a circumscribed neighborhood world where that kind of personal relationship can rule, and the only downside for Ilya seems to be her uncertainty whether she is "someone who it is good to love" now that she's feeling more deeply for her lover Tonio - which is why she lets Homer try his experiment. But once she sees he's let himself be corrupted she's on her feet, and fighting.Side note: several reviewers expressed surprise that a 40 year old female could be sexy on screen. (Does anyone believe women in real life somehow stop being sexual or attractive the second they pass 39??) Not sure where this comes from, unless it's the general pop culture of the last 30-40 years that's diminished the role of personality in female screen stardom. Adult moviegoers in the 60s - even high-school kids like me - had grown up seeing great stars of both sexes projecting sex, emotion, and vitality well past their 20s and 30s.

preppy-3 An American scholar (Jules Dassin) in Greece meets earthy, happy prostitute Ilya (Melina Mercouri). He attempts to "reform" her and make her better.The plot is old, clichéd and entirely predictable but this works. It shows what Greece (supposedly) was like in 1960 and you get caught up in the spirit of it. Everybody is happy, sex is seen as a great thing, everybody gets drunk and there's no problem with it and all the Greek men know how to dance and sing. It's actually refreshing to see a film that doesn't condemn all these things! Also Mercouri is just fantastic is Ilya. She's full of energy and fire and is drop dead gorgeous. It's hard to believe she was 40 when she did this! Also Tonio, her boyfriend (sort of), is played by the extremely handsome Giorgos Foundas. Him and Mercouri work well together and their scenes really sparkle. They also almost show Mercouri topless a few times and almost show Foundas nude also. These scenes are tame today but they must have been shocking in 1960. Mercouri also sings the title song in Greek.The bad things--there's some badly overdubbed dialogue in the beginning (watch the fighting scene), Dassins' character is extremely annoying and unlikable and this was so predictable I started to get bored. Still it's pleasant and enjoyable. Slightly recommended.

gelman@attglobal.net I haven't seen "Never on Sunday" in ages but I remember it as a really wonderful comedy. This was the very first time I saw Melina Mercuri -- and it's she and the Greek musical sound track that made it so pleasurable. The story doesn't matter really: It's enough to know that Mercuri plays a prostitute with a gift for joy and denial of harsh realities. If I remember correctly, she has a way of rewriting Greek tragedies in her head so that, at the end, "everyone goes to the seashore." I imagine that the film isn't as vivid as it was in its day because while the scenery was beautiful the photography was not special. You might not like Jules Dassin as Mercuri's foil -- he acted in as well as wrote and directed the film -- but see it for Mercuri. She played roles of greater significance in films that were perhaps more artful. But she is luminous and funny and sweet and gorgeous in this picture.