alr

Never on Sunday
(Pote tin Kyriaki)

Director in Person
Screening on Film
Directed by Jules Dassin.
With Melina Mercouri, Jules Dassin, Georges Foundas.
Greece, 1959, 35mm, black & white, 97 min.

At the time of its release, this spirited comedy defined Greek cinema, if not Greece itself, for the world—an accolade that has many built-in ironies. Mercouri established a worldwide reputation with her portrayal of Ilya, the happy Piraeus hooker who bucks the system and helps organize her fellow prostitutes to do the same. Dassin plays a Connecticut Yankee, Homer Thrace, who comes to seek an ancient truth, believes he discovers in Ilya the “departed glory of Greece,” and sets to work remaking her. Ilya—and the film—however, argue for a modern Greece that wants to be known for itself: a vital community of politics, joy, and sensuality. Mercouri won the Best Actress Award at Cannes and the film won an Academy Award for well-known theme song, written by Manos Hadjidakis.

Part of film series

Read more

A Dynamic Duo: Jules Dassin and Melina Mercouri

Current and upcoming film series

Read more

Harvard Undergraduate Cinematheque

Read more

Albert Serra, or Cinematic Time Regained

Read more

Wang Bing’s Youth Trilogy

Read more

The Shochiku Centennial Collection

Read more

Planet at 50

Read more

The Yugoslav Junction Continues!

Read more

Theo Anthony, Subject to Review

Read more

The Ideal Cinematheque of the Outskirts of the World

Read more

From the collection – Satyajit Ray