ZORBA: We make a bargain or I cannot come. In work, I am your man; but in things, like playing and singing, I am my own.
BASIL: How do you mean?
ZORBA: I mean free.
What a strange film. Strange to my expectations, that is. I always thought Zorba the Greek was a goofy musical, like Fiddler on the Roof (1971) but without the pogroms. Au contraire. Zorba is hilarious and terrifying, less a dialogue-driven Hollywood narrative than a hand of loosely dealt episodes.
Some of these episodes are stories unto themselves, stories that communicate silently through the movement of bodies, but also those we associated with camera and film (angles, zooms, cuts, etc.) -- like the killing of the widow, which seems classical. The author of the source novel, Nikos Kazantzakis, is a Cretan who I'm sure tucked into his book (Life and Times of Alexis Zorbas,1946) some of his island's myths and legends.
Tonight I will watch another recently-purchased DVD that does wonderful things with camera, editing and movement -- Bob Fosse's All That Jazz (1979).
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