Next stop: Greece, for a delightful little flick from 1960 called NEVER ON SUNDAY, written and directed by Jules Dassin. Dassin also stars, as a nebbish American philosopher. As a tourist in Greece he meets a prostitute (Melina Mercouri) who he becomes infatuated with and determined to enlighten to the finer things in life and get her away from selling herself.
From her first moment on screen, Mercouri brings an electric, energetic presence that injects the movie with enthusiasm. It’s no wonder all the men in Greece, and Dassin, love her. She has no qualms with her lifestyle and answers to no one, including an ominous pimp (Alexis Solomos) who controls all the other prostitutes in town and wants to shut Mercouri down for fear of her giving his ladies ideas of independence.
Dassin’s character is pretentiously obsessed with the idea of Greece as a once great civilization that has fallen into degredation, and feels that Mercouri is a perfect example of this – instead of appreciating the pleasures of the mind, like art, music, literature and philosophy, she unabashedly revels in the pleasures of the body.
To be fair, Mercouri actually does appreciate art – she’s a fan of Greek tragedy and visits the theater regularly, and clearly loves music. It’s just, as far as Dassin is concerned, she doesn’t love the tragedies the right way – that is, he feels she doesn’t understand their “true” meaning and likes them for the “wrong” reasons. Additionally, she may like music, but as far as Dassin is concerned, it’s the “wrong” music.
Dassin’s main concern is that Mercouri is living in a fantasy world, in denial about the tragedy of her life. He takes her on as his student and attempts to “rescue” her from her own life. Of course, as you might imagine, this leads to a series of problems.
NEVER ON SUNDAY takes full advantage of the Greek locations and culture, with lots of great music, dancing, scenery and flavor. This movie is light, airy and very funny while still dealing with some real ideas and original thoughts. It doesn’t play like a treatise, because Dassin’s thoughts as writer/director differ from his main character’s thoughts – it’s like a study of a false premise, with Mercouri being a great, vivacious example of another way of thinking.
For as much as I loved this movie and as much of a personal project it seems to have been for Jules Dassin, I’m surprised I’ve never really seen anything by him before. I’m going to have to check out more of his stuff. Discoveries like this are why it is fun watch things I might normally have never watched if I hadn’t of made a list for myself and stuck to it.
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