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Tom,

I am afraid you are a bit confused about the films that were shot on Hydra.

Firstly, as far as I know Dassin NEVER made a dozen of films with Mercouri on Hydra.

The only one that he made is “ Phaedra “with Melina Mercouri and Anthony Perkins.

Thus, the film that Ira Nadel mentions in his book is “Phaedra” and not “Never on Sunday” (which as the Oscar winning song “Ta paidia tou Peirea” * that Melina sings in the film suggests was shot in Piraeus and Athens)



Jarkko,

when I was on Hydra in the summer of 2003, the cinema had showings and the last time I was on the island this past October, I was told that it was now used by the Film Club of Hydra.

I have also met a man who was working as a young boy there and he still remembers Cohen going sometimes to watch a film.

Dem

*) Manos Hadjidakis, the composer of the song never considered this as one of his best songs and he actually throw the Oscar statue that he had won in the garbage bin only to be saved by his sister and as a journalist recently discovered his (adapted) son keeps it today in a self facing the wall! (How many actors, composers etc do you know that have thrown to the garbage their Oscar? But Hadjidakis was an extraordinary man in every respect and if you want to have a taste of his music go to his official site http://www.hadjidakis.gr)

It seems you're right, Dem, I know they made ten or so film together, and I thought they were all made in Greece. I was sure Never On Sunday was captured on Hydra. I never heard that Dassin filmed Phaedra before (the quote under probably shows why), but according to this DVD I have, it seems I am not missing nothing... if this is their "best" movie. I presume it was Piraeus, when she sings that song and the harbour in the movie is pretty big.

Anyway, film encyclopaedia says "the most famous of all Dassin-Mercouri collaboration being Never On Sunday (Ποτέ την Κυριακή), 1960, which had world succes thanks to music by Manos Hadjidakis". Mercouri "increased her popularity thanks to French movies directed by her future husband Jules Dassin, He Who Must Die (1957) and The Law (1958). Her biggest succes was the role of happy Piraeus prostitute in Dassin's Never On Sunday (1960); the song "The Children of Piraeus" by M. Hadjidakis, which she sung in her characteristically harsh voice, became a world hit. Her role in Dassin's Phaedra remained on conventional level of adaptations of Greek tragedies, while her role in Dassin's thriller Topkapi was on usual but convenient standards, as was her last role in Dassin's A Dream of Passion (1978), modernised version of Medea."

According to IMDB, she had leadings role in more Dassin's films: The Rehearsal (I Dokimi, 1974), Promise at Dawn (1970), 10:30 P.M. Sunday (1966).


Greece on movies

In Never on Sunday, director Jules Dassin plays an American scholar in Greece who is infatuated with a prostitute. He tries to improve her and pull her from her wayward ways, much to the dismay of his family and friends. Late Melina Mercouri, Greece's world-famous actress and cultural ambassador, won Best Actress awards from the Cannes Film Festival and New York Film Critics Circle. The film won an Oscar for Best Song, composed by Manos Hadjidakis and sung by Merkouri.

In the Boy on a Dolphin, Sophia Loren plays a peasant girl from the island of Hydra who works as a sponge diver. When, in one of her dives, she discovers a golden statue of a boy riding a bronze dolphin, chained to the body framework of an ancient wrecked ship, she tries to look for a rich American sponsor for the raising of the sunken statue. Her two alternatives are US archeologist Jim Calder (Alan Ladd), devoted to return lost artifacts of great value to their home countries, and Victor Parmalee (Clifton Webb), an ambitious art collector, prepared to pay a high price to cool his insatiable desire for ancient treasures.

There's no Phaedra on list of best movies shot in Greece also... http://www.nyloo.com/html/ent/376/ent.37376.1.asp

But, if Athony Perkins has a role...

I took three Hadjidakis songs as soundtrack for the opening slide show at the Hydra event 2002. It was then that I learnt that my favorite Georges Moustaki song "Le facteur" is a Hadjidakis cover. Now I never can decide which version I like more. The instrumental version by Hadjidaks and or the sung version by Moustaki.

Here are the the lyrics of "Le facteur" written by Moustaki. Can you imagine that a love has to die because the postman has passed away ?

Le jeune facteur est mort
Il n'avait que dix-sept ans

L'amour ne peut plus voyager
Il a perdu son messager

C'est lui qui venait chaque jour
Les bras chargés de tous mes mots d'amour
C'est lui qui tenait dans ses mains
La fleur d'amour cueillie dans ton jardin

Il est parti dans le ciel bleu
Comme un oiseau enfin libre et heureux
Et quand son âme l'a quitté
Un rossignol quelque part a chanté

Je t'aime autant que je t'aimais
Mais je ne peux le dire désormais
Il a emporté avec lui
Les derniers mots que je t'avais écrit

Il n'ira plus sur les chemins
Fleuris de roses et de jasmins
Qui mènent jusqu'à ta maison

L'amour ne peut plus voyager
Il a perdu son messager
Et mon cœur est comme en prison

Il est parti l'adolescent
Qui t'apportait mes joies et mes tourments
L'hiver a tué le printemps
Tout est fini pour nous deux maintenant

A plus tard
H.

Hi Henning ~

Might there be an English translation, so I can try to imagine a little more ? My knowledge of French is too limited to get me beyond more than a few words here and there throughout this.

~ Lizzy

Hi Henning!

Hadjidakis' music is nice, isn't it?

Tom,

“Phaedra” may not be on a list of best movies shot in Greece
but if you want to have a glimpse of Hydra from the sixties when Leonard
was living t there this is the best film IMHO.

It has excellent black and white photography and both
Melina Mercouri, Anthony Perkins and the island are all shining with youth and beauty.

In “Phaedra” Melina sings again a song, this time by the
other great Greek composer, Mikis Theodorakis.
Again, in my humble opinion one of the best songs in
the Greek discography.

Dem


PS) And from today my tiny country assumed the rotating monthly Presidency of the Security Council in the UN.
Wow!

You're right, Dem, that's why I watched this Never On Sunday after all... I hoped for Hydra!

Hope that your country's term will be fulled with even more good will:-) World's gonna mad last few years. - But, who could change the world in a month?

Here's a translation, Lizzie, I hope it helps.

'The young postman is dead
He was only seventeen

Love can no longer travel
It has lost its’ messenger

It was he who came each day
His arms full of my words of love
It was he who held in his hands
The flower of love picked in your garden

He is gone into the blue sky
Like a bird at last free and happy
And when his soul took its’ leave
A nightingale somewhere sang

I love you as much as ever
But I can no longer tell you
He has taken away with him
The final words I wrote you

He will no longer walk the paths
Bordered with roses and jasmine
Which lead to your house

Love can no longer travel
It has lost its’ messenger
And my heart feels as if it’s in prison

He is gone, the adolescent
Who brought you my joys and my torment
Winter has killed the Spring
It is over for the two of us now'

Thank you very much, Linmag, for that very 'romantic' [albeit from a tragic perspective] view of how the postman's death links to one's own expressions of love getting through.