Alexis Zorba (Zorba the Greek, Greece, 1964)

The most memorable scene was not even in the movie. It is an alternative beginning on the DVD that places the rest in context. In it Anthony Quinn is God, sitting comfortably on a cloud in heaven. He has a sponge in hand that he uses to wipe clean the table a sinner has listing all her sins. He just wants to send everybody to heaven no matter what they did. That’s one aspect of the character in the movie: goodwill. The others are captured by the tagline well: “Life. Lust. Love. Zorba.” He accompanies a reserved Englishman to his inherited island to make a mine work. More importantly to enliven his subdued, boring event- and emotion less life. He must have succeeded as Alan Bates is dancing by the end. But it is a critique of backward institutional religion in which people are ready to kill. They kill the Magdalen figure of the village they all covet and cannot get. Nevertheless Zorba’s lust for life overcomes death and destruction. He is God who appears through the misty window.

• IMDB
• DVD (@Amazon)