Hi everybody! Can anybody tell me, where on Crete the film was made? This would be the perfect aim for a holiday. Who can help??
shareI think it was made mostly in the Chania region and Chania town. Chania is in fact a very popular holiday destination. At least for scandinavians like myself =)
shareFrom Wikipedia:" The movie was shot on location on the Greek island of Crete. Specific places featured include the town of Chania, the Apokoronas region and the Akrotiri peninsula. The famous scene, in which Quinn's character dances the Sirtaki, was shot on the beach of the village of Stavros."
From Wikipedia:" The movie was shot on location on the Greek island of Crete. Specific places featured include the town of Chania, the Apokoronas region and the Akrotiri peninsula. The famous scene, in which Quinn's character dances the Sirtaki, was shot on the beach of the village of Stavros."
Yes, the film was indeed filmed in Chania (Pronounced Ha-nia) it is a very nice place, lots of good beaches an excellent food, i should know, i'm from Chania.
shareYou're a lucky man. It's gorgeous there. I love Crete! Who could ever be depressed in Crete?
If the Kingdom of Heaven is like a grain of mustard, It can also be like a chicken-pox mark.
Zorba the Greek is one of my all time favorite movies. Why this movie was shot in black and white is a mystery to me - IMO, this movie is screaming to be COLORIZED - the beautiful Cretan countryside and beach scenes, etc. - it's a dirty rotten shame it was not shot in color. "The Longest Day" was colorized, and it made a BIG difference. The Disney movie, "The Moon Spinners" was also shot in Crete and released the same year as ZTG. Wow - the scenery was just gorgeous. Does anyone know whom to petition to get ZTG colorized??
shareDon't tell Walter Lassally, he would be furious! He won an "O" for B/W camerawork in 1965. (I think it was the last time they had this category.) He chose to make the film in B/W on purpose together with the director.
In his interesting autobiography ("Itinerant cameraman". London : Murray, 1987) he writes, that he wanted "to control the landscape" by using B/W, in order not to distract the audience from the plot by the incredible colourful Cretan landscape. - Or as Zorba might have said: "Life itself does not always come in colour!"
I have also seen "Moonspinners" and I like it. It is a nice Disney film with Technicolor appeal - but nothing compared to piece of art such as "Zorba". Could you really imagine the young widow searching for her goat in colour? Or her death? I think nobody would really like to see, for example, a coloured version of Casablanca. B/W is part of the appeal - and Zorba plays in the same league.
By the way, you could run into Walter Lassally at the beach of Stavros, as he still lives there - and his "O" is on display in the Taverna Christiana. As far as I know the only famous film trophy displayed in a Greek taverna!
I met him and talked to Walter and he is a very interesting man full of memories when film-making was still an art and films were really hand-made throughout the whole process - not created in computers.
Thank you so much, brightonghouse, for your great reply - I waited such a long time for my post to be answered, I didn't think it ever would be. I don't care - ZTG is one of my top 5 favorite movies, (I also read the book the movie was based on, and it's one of my favorites) and I would STILL LOVE TO SEE IT IN COLOR - IMO, it would not distract me at all - IMO, it would add immeasurably to my enjoyment of the film. Also, I WOULD ABSOLUTELY LOVE to se Casablanca in color. If this offends the die hard lovers of Black and White, I don't care, sorry. When I see a B&W movie with beautiful costumes and scenery, I ALWAYS wish it were in color. Sorry, Zorba, I don't agree with you - Life does not always come in color (what an ugly, joyless life) - only if you are colorblind. You miss out on so much beauty and richness without the color.
Rita Taddeucci Raffanti
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Thanks so much for your post, mylesag! I'm so sorry I took so long to respond to it. It's heartwarming to see that others who love this movie as much as I do feel the same way! I'm very surprised to read that Anthony Quinn didn't project very well on stage in the performance you saw. Evidently he'd been doing movies too long. He was no stranger to Broadway - He replaced Marlon Brando as Stanley Kowalski on Broadway in "A Streetcar Named Desire" when Marlon left that show to go to Hollywood. WOW, AQ as Stanley Kowalski - THAT would have been something to see!!
I don't know about "The Day The Fish Came Out." I never saw it and it's the first I've heard of that movie. I'll have to look tnat one up.
Rita Raffanti
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I beg to differ, mylesag, the Kowalski character did not make mostly grunts and primal sounds. If you saw the play, Kowalski had plenty of dialogue.
The book the movie was based on is "Zorba the Greek" by Nikos Kazantzakis.
http://www.amazon.com/Zorba-Greek-Nikos-Kazantzakis/dp/0684825546
BTW, the Zorba character and the Madame Hortense character were based on real people Kazantzakis knew.
Hope you make it to Greece and Crete, places I'd love to visit one day.
I don't know of any book based on the filming of the movie. If I do run across one, I'll post the information.
Rita Raffanti
in the scene when the young man is found dead on the beach the akamas mountains can be seen clearly in the background. this is in cyprus and i know the area very well. the scene is shot in the pomos area looking across the polis chrysochous bay towards the akamas peninsula.
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