Never on Sunday, screened by the Williams Lake Film Club on Tuesday, Nov. 15, is a true gem.
Ilya, played by Melina Mercouri, explodes onto the screen with her zest for life, singing and dancing, her love for good wine and good company.
This film was produced in 1960, a time when most Western women supposedly were dreaming about a new toaster or washing machine, and were wearing starched petticoats and girdles.
Ilya is a lady of the night, a prostitute, who really loves her men. And then Homer, an American tourist arrives.
Homer is played by director/writer Jules Dassin, who later after this film actually married Melina Mercouri. Jules Dassin plays a slightly impish, befuddled intellectual and philosopher, a student of Greek culture, who is in search of the Truth in Greece, the land of logic and harmony. But what he finds is Ilya, a woman who defies all logic, and the whirling ambiguity of modern Greece. And now Homer would love to be Professor ‘iggins to Ilya.
The title refers to the fact that Ilya never works on Sundays. Sundays are reserved for the heady classics of Greek tragedy. However, she sees the dramas her way and is quite convinced that Medea is a fine and noble woman who never did kill her children.
After all, do they not come back on stage at the end of the play? And in her mind, Oedipus Rex is a fellow who simply loves his mother very much …
This film is a joy to watch, but also gives you something to think about.
The acting is superb, the musical score by Manos Hadjidakis is unforgettable and it is easy to understand that soon people all over the world wanted to dance to his music.
He received the Academy Award for his song Never on Sunday. Following this film, Greece became the first choice of many tourists from around the world.
“Never on Sunday” will be screened this coming Tuesday, Nov. 15, at 7 p.m. at the Gibraltar Room, Memorial Complex. Back doors open at 6:30 p.m.
Admission is $9 regular, $8 for members, and $6 for seniors and elders.
Proceeds assist the LDA, Williams Lake Chapter for Students with Learning Disabilities, to cover expenses for tutoring.
I think it is time that we get to see an intelligent comedy and that we can enjoy it together, laugh together, and maybe even dance the Sirtaki.
See you Tuesday.