Kazantzakis

Kazantzakis is one of my favourite writers. I think I know him well, although he looks very ugly and scary in his photos. He really was a good Christian and nice person, despite the try of the Greek Church to present him as "satan". The film shows the real Kazantzakis, something that was not for granded before the movie came out. Something bad in the movie are the plans. They are all short, like focusing only on the person that speaks every time. This is I guess due to the modern environment, where the movie had to be shot. You cannot show modern cars, elektricity pillars, internet caffees, people taking selfies next to the actors, as the film is supposed to take place in 1920-30s. The quality of the actors: they are almost all excellent. Papaspiliopoulos (or how they call him) was good in Zitite Pseftis, but I couldn't imagine that he would be like 10 times better in this film! I cannot even believe what I just saw. Excellent in the role of the priest Stathis Psaltis. He was so calm, like there was an angel on earth. A few days after the shooting he truly became an angel (died). A strange thing, director Smaragdis gave a role to Moustakas, 2 days after the shooting Moustakas dies. For his next movie calls Psaltis, 2 days after the shooting Psaltis dies too! Stiv Douzos surprisingly is excellent playing the father of Kazantzakis. Of course Douzos is a bully in his real life, could play that easily, but still. Atheridis in the role of Zorbas was rather a caricature of Antony Quinn, I would play him as more Cretan, than international figure. The Cretan song he sings in the farewell may be a Medieval poem, but the melody was written by Xylouris many years after the death of Kazantzakis. The woman that plays Eleni Kazantzaki was for me a disappointment. In some cases she plays real bad. Also, I think Eleni was in fact 50 or 60 years younger than Nikos! In the movie she looks quite older than him, making a bad impression. The guy who plays Angelos Sikelianos gives a gay tone to the poet, thank God it didn't ruin the film. The film improves a lot the figure of Sikelianos, in reality he was a hater of the Christians, trying to revive the Paganism in Greece, and to recruit Kazantzakis for his cause. The film covers their real conversations deliberately! In overal it is a very good film, giving to the young people inspiration to become something better in their lives. Is not like the Hollywood rubbish!

After having read most of Kazantzaki's books i decided to watch the movie. Even though, i think, they tried their best, it is really hard to portray the depth of the author's book in a 2 hour movie. Therefore it looked really shallow and some of the times it made me cringe. I hope someone could give it a go once more.

I mean no disrespect to anybody, because i do appreciate some of the actors playing in this film, but this movie is as bad as it gets. No real character development, no realistic dialogues, it all looks too pretentious. The direction is awful as well. i constantly felt like those who made that movie, haven't even read the majority of kazantzakis work! So, i encourage everybody to read kazantzakis books, read all of them, read ZORMPAS, read it again and again! But you gain nothing by watching this movie..

The film about the prominent author Nikos Kazantzakis is lacking the depth that the author itself had. It's un unskillful patchwork of Nikos Kazantzakis lines from his many marvellous books with no real coherence. It's an awkwardly made 2 hours video clip of Nikos Kazantzakis famous parts of his books with the sole intention to make a part of the Greeks (apparently those who are not familiar with his work but only with his famous book characters eg Zorbas)feel proud about the great compatriot. The level of acting is deplorable in every sense. The film is annoyingly bad.

Like it or not, Nikos Kazantzakis has had a decisive influence on Greek letters and the intellectual life of modern Greece. This is probably why it makes me wonder how was it possible for such an experienced director as Smaragdis to present a work so superficial and profoundly dull. We were waiting for a thrilling biopic, but instead of that we got another cliched fairy tale.

Everything in this film is based almost entirely on overused platitudes, idealizations and simplifications. And it's not the cast's fault. All of the leads here are accomplished actors and are honestly doing their best to get something good out of this whole cinematic mess. But the dialogue is so pretentious and the direction so naive that the viewer gets more puzzled and frustrated by the minute. And, by the way, who had the bright idea to have Zorba dance literally every time he's on his feet? It's cheesy and unfair for somebody whose character had had a profound impact on the protagonist's life. The same thing happens with the poet Sikelianos, as he is caricatured as a conceited odd fellow.

Kazantzakis as a writer deserves so much better! This unnecessary idolization doesn't really serve any purpose.