Melina Mercouri and Jules Dassin: "Never on Sunday" (1960)

Melina Mercouri stars in Never on Sunday (1960), directed by Jules Dassin. Melina plays  Ilya, a prostitute plying her wares in the port of Piraeus. Ilya only sleeps with men who meet her standard of decency. At first blush, the film's premise might suggest a repeat of "the whore with a heart of gold" storyline or a misogynistic exploration of female sexuality. Mercouri does create an incredible feminine presence on the screen; but her performance bursts with a graceful, mature sexuality (40 years old) and I couldn't help but think of  the painted figures on an  ancient Greek vase when she moved across the screen.  Ilya's combination of innocence and strength reverberate like symbols of the character of the entire Greek people. Mercouri's death from lung cancer in 1994 caused the whole of Greece to go into an extended mourning and this movie role explains her indelible influence on Greek society.

Dassin and Mercouri married in 1966. Dassin plays the role of Homer Thrace, a goofy, camera-toting American tourist, with a professorial, philosophical bent. He decides that Ilya embodies the whole gamut of Greek history, from the ancient glory days of Classical Athens to the humdrum realities of a working class existence in the port of Piraeus in 1960. Mercouri's performance somehow proves the truth of Homer's outlandish thought!

Mercouri won Best Actress award at the 1960 Cannes Film Festival for Never on Sunday. She received an Academy Award nomination that year for Best Actress and Dassin was nominated for Best Director. The film cost $150,000 and, as the old saying goes, Dassin got all the money up there on the screen. The film's cinematography, with hints of Italian neorealism, offers a sympathetic, anthropological view of Piraeus before the masses of tourists arrived. 

I spent 1972 in Athens. The Greek military dictatorship, a junta of ruling  Colonels, took control of  in 1967 and still controlled the country during my year-long visit. I studied the Greek language that year and taught English as a Second Language (ESL) classes that year. I had a magical experience-- a great, life-altering change from my American youth spent in New York City and Long Island. My knowledge of Greek language has withered from lack of use in the intervening 45 years but this film brought me back to the magic of that year.