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Product Details
Thirty-two years before My Big Fat Greek Wedding brought Greek-American culture to a mainstream audience, Never on Sunday took mainstream culture to Greece, with similarly popular results. Expatriate director Jules Dassin wrote, directed, and costars in this vibrant and (in retrospect) rather simple-minded celebration of good living, as embodied by the vivacious Melina Mercouri in the Cannes award-winning role of her career. She's Ilya, a fiercely independent prostitute who hand-picks her clientele, and Dassin plays Homer, an American intellectual enamored of all things Greek, and determined to steer Ilya onto the straight and moral path. He's out of his depth, of course; it's not long before his efforts are exposed as naively self-serving, and half the fun of Never on Sunday comes from watching Mercouri amiably deflect any attempt to dampen her indomitable spirit. Innocently good-natured by latter-day standards, Dassin's delightful film still retains its popular charm, and its familiar bouzouki theme is an irresistible invitation to join in the fun. --Jeff Shannon
Product Reviews
 (4 stars) - Sophisticated joie-de-vivre film, or "Happy Hooker Goes to Greece"?
This movie is a classic, and justifiably so. At the same time, it's easy to criticize this 1960 film from the standpoint of today's morality for the romanticized portrayal of the lifestyle of its main character, the Piraeus prostitute Ilya.
The central dramatic conflict is between the live-for-today attitude of the happy hooker Ilya, and the stifled, overintellectualizing bent of the male lead, the ironically named American tourist Homer -- stiffly played by the film's writer-director, Jules Dassin.
This underlying conflict is the film's saving grace. The film is really not all that dissimilar to "Zorba" (which came later, in 1964) in terms of its message, and the bouzouki music and drunken Greek dances strengthen the sense of parallels between the two. The live-for-today mindset wins out, but still, Ilya does briefly achieve a deeper happiness when she gives Homer's bookish ways a try.
I'm not sure that romanticizing the prostitute's lifestyle is the best way for a film to go. I think most people today would say it isn't, but what do I know -- maybe things were different in Greece in 1960. If you can hold back your probably justified indignation, this movie has some worthwhile things to say.
There are a lot of jokes and references to ancient Greek history and culture. For example, the prostitutes of Piraeus go on strike for better living conditions, which I'm sure is a reference to the Aristophanes play "Lysistrata", in which the women of Greece withhold sex from their men until they agree to stop the Peloponnesian War. Also, the poet Homer was traditionally said to be blind -- just as the film's Homer is figuratively blind to the simple pleasures of life. I'm sure there many more Greek references I didn't pick up on.
On an even more obscure note, the film's story has interesting parallels with the opera "Thaïs" by Jules Massenet: the prostitute-priestess (and that description fits Ilya perfectly as well) converts, becomes a nun, and is much happier for it. The difference is that Thaïs dies a happy nun, but here, the happy hooker returns. Which one was better off?
 (5 stars) - "But never ever on a Sunday a Sunday a Sunday, cause that's my day of rest"
Melina Mercouri stars as Ilya, a Greek prostitute who charms everyone she meets. Ilya is the fabled "hooker with a heart of gold" who enjoys her work and has throngs of customers who respect and adore her. Yes, it sounds like a (twisted) fairy tale, but Melina is so good in this role that it succeeds surprisingly well. The plot is thrown into action when she meets Homer, a dense American tourist played by the film's director (and later Mercouri's live-in love), Jules Dassin. Homer is smitten with Ilya but believes that she can be so much more; plus, he kind of wants Ilya for himself. So he embarks on a plan to make her into a lady. Yes, the movie cribs shamelessly from "Pygmalion," but it adds enough sauciness to make us forget that movie quickly. Ilya's transformation is rapid and not too drastic, helping keep the film breezy and brief. Will Ilya end up a cultured bride for Homer or continue her ways as a free-spirited prostitute?
The film score was wildly popular at the time, with the familiar instrumental title song winning the Oscar for composer Manos Hatzidakis. The song makes use of the unique sounding bouzouki, which is similar to a mandolin. Mecouri also sings a version of the song in the movie, and it later was remade by numerous 60s stars, including Connie Francis and Petula Clark. You'll be humming the song for days after watching "Never on Sunday."
However, the true star is the leading lady. Mercouri was nominated for an Oscar for her role; she lost to Elizabeth Taylor (who also played a hooker in the atrocious "Butterfield 8") but became an international star in the process. She made movies and starred in plays for the next two decades before ending up in politics; she was eventually voted into the Hellenic Parliament and became Greece's Minister for Culture. Although she made relatively few movies during her career, her work in "Never on Sunday" is memorable enough to cement her place in cinema history.
(5 stars) - Excellent DVD !
Excellent DVD, a masterpiece. The story was writte specially for her and also the main song (Never on Sunday). An unforgatble performance by M. Mercouri. Don`t miss it if you are a wise collector of such very good things with a very good quality.
(5 stars) - Great, entertaining movie
This is a great movie. The characters are realistic, the actors natural. People can really be like this, and the Greeks are. Not to mention Melina's rendition of Never on Sunday (The Boys from Pireus). I may be partial because I'm Mediterranean too, but this is a great movie regardless.
(5 stars) - Joyous Movie
I saw this movie when it first came out and it is one of my top 10 list of all time favorite movies.
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