Here's the wonderful dance scene from Michael Cocoyanis's film adaptation of Zorba the Greek, the 1946 novel by Nikos Kazantzakis. The story concerns the interplay of our earthy selves with our intellectual selves, represented by Alexis Zorba (played by Anthony Quinn) and Basil, a young English-Greek intellectual (played by Alan Bates), respectively.
At one point in the book, Zorba recounts: "I felt once more how simple a thing is happiness: a glass of wine, a roasted chestnut, a wretched little brazier, the sound of the sea. Nothing else. And all that is required to feel that here and now is happiness, is a simple and frugal heart."
In this famous scene, Basil ~ learning from Zorba how to enjoy life in all of its beauty and tragedy ~ asks Zorba to teach him to dance.
Click here for more about the book.
Click here for more about the film.
2 comments:
Basil was a quick learner; he knew the steps straight away.
Yes, that's Hollywood, and that's musicals too. Though Zorba was not a musical in itself, this choreographed interlude is a musical. This was lovely, Greg, and it brought back memories. I saw that movie when I was much younger than today. Nineteen or twenty, I think.
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