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CELEBRATING NIKOS KAZANTZAKIS

ON THE 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF HIS DEATH

Presented by the Media Resource Centre & SACGCM Festival Hellenika 07

2007 is the 50th aniversary of the death of Nikos Kazantzakis, world famous writer and Greek icon. We pay hommage to this great artist with screenings of cinematic adaptations of Zorba The Greek and The Last Temptation of Christ. We also screen Jesus of Montreal which was influenced by Kazantzakis work. The prolific writer, whose works include essays, novels, poems, tragedies, travel books, and translations lived most of his artistic life outside Greece (like his hero, Odysseus). Niko’s fame and acheivments make him one of the great writers of the 20th Century. In 1957 he lost the Nobel Prize by a single vote, to the French writer Albert Camus.
Nikos Kazantzakis was born in Megalokastro, the Ottoman Empire, now Iráklion, Crete the son of Michael Kazantzakis, a farmer and dealer in animal feed. He was raised among peasants and although he left Crete as a young man, he returned to his homeland constantly in his writings. Kazantzakis attended the Franciscan School of the Holy Cross, Naxos and the Gymnasium at Herakleion (1899-1902). Kazantzakis then studied four years at the University of Athens, becoming Doctor of Laws in 1906.

Tickets: $10 / $8 concession

Popular Greek Mediterranean music presented by Greek duo DIO FILLI.

The Last Temptation of Christ, Fri 13 April || Zorba the Greek, Sun 15 April || Jesus of Montreal, Fri 20 April

7:30 PM FRIDAY 13 APRIL

the last temptation of christ

Dir: Martin Scorsese, USA, 1988, 164 mins, 35mm, (M).

Martin Scorsese’s controversial film The Last Temptation of Christ, based upon the novel by Kazantzakis, explores the conundrum of faith where Jesus Christ is seen both as God and as a human.

Scorsese’s approach was a deeply sincere exploration of how an ordinary man might discover that he is divine but was seen as a challenge to Christan belief and dogma.

The scene where Jesus (intensely played by Willem Dafoe) making love to Mary Magdalene (Barbara Hershey) caused uproar but is a vision produced by Satan’s temptation of Christ on the Cross. The film still causes angst among believers and disbelievers.

Most often this film is now seen as a work where Scorsese was at the height of his powers, with a small budget, a superior screenwriter (Paul Schrader) and an ensemble cast (Harvey Keitel, Harry Dean Stanton, David Bowie) to die for!

"The Last Temptation of Christ is, without question, one of the most serious, literate, complex, and deeply felt religious films ever made. Written in 1955, The Last Temptation of Christ, according to its author, shows that “that part of Christ’s nature which was profoundly human helps us to understand and love him and to pursue his passion as though it were our own. If he had not within him this warm human element, he would never be able to touch our hearts with such assurance and tenderness; he would not be able to become a model for our lives.” David Ehrenstein

"Scorsese's film is a work of passion and faith, and admirable for the way it fearlessly explores its themes, disregarding canonical dogma in search of human truth." Phil Villarreal

Kazantzakis: "My principal anguish, and the wellspring of all my joys and sorrows, has been the incessant merciless battle between the spirit and the flesh. . . . Every man partakes of the divine nature in both his spirit and his flesh. That is why the mystery of Christ is not simply a mystery for a particular creed; it is universal. . . . Struggle between the flesh and the spirit, rebellion and resistance, reconciliation and submission, and finally-the supreme purpose of the struggle-union with God: this was the ascent taken by Christ, the ascent which he invites us to take as well, following in his bloody tracks. . . .

If we are to be able to follow him, we must have a profound knowledge of His conflict, we must relive his anguish. . . . In order to mount to the Cross, the summit of sacrifice, and to God, the summit of immateriality, Christ passed through all the stages which the man who struggles passes through. All-and that is why his suffering is so familiar to us; that is why we pity him, and why his final victory seems to us so much our own future victory. That part of Christ’s nature which was profoundly human helps us to understand him and love him and to pursue his Passion as though it were our own. If he had not within him this warm human element, he would never be able to touch our hearts with such assurance and tenderness; he would not be able to become a model for our lives. We struggle, we see him struggle also, and we find strength. We see that we are not all alone in the world; he is fighting at our side. . . . This book was written because I wanted to offer a supreme model to the man who struggles; I wanted to show him that he must not fear pain, temptation, or death-because all three can be conquered, all three have already been conquered."

2:00 PM SUNDAY 15 APRIL

zorba the greek

Dir: Michael Cacoyannis, USA/Greece/UK, 1964, 142mins, Digital, (M).

Nikos’ best-known novel became one of the most loved films ever. Anthony Quinn is Zorba and Alan Bates (Kazantzakis’ alter ego) is the writer and intellectual who has a lesson in living life from Zorba the uneducated man who drinks, works, loves and lives like a force of nature. His character has been seen as the personification of Henri Bergson’s ideas of élan vital. Zorba values more the experience and understanding of life rather than scholarly learning.

The narrator meets Zorba in Piræus. He plans to reopen an mine on the island Crete and Zorba becomes his foreman. Kazantzakis weaves the narrator’s childhood memories and thoughts against the life and teaching of Zorba. After a series of tragedies, failures and small victories, the narrator leaves Crete but asks his friend to teach him to dance.

“How simple and frugal a thing is happiness: a glass of wine, a roast chestnut, a wretched little brazier, the sound of the sea.”

Oscars for actress Lila Kedrova, cinematographer Walter Lassally and art director Vassilis Fotopoulos.

"Gained international acclaim for Anthony Quinn in a role many believe he was born to play and one that he's become best-remembered for." Dennis Schwartz

FRIDAY 20 APRIL 7:30 PM

JESUS OF MONTRéAL

Dir: Denys Arcand, Canada/France, 1989, 120mins, 35mm, (M)

A troupe of actors attempt to stage an unconventional version of the Passion Play leading to vocal objections from the Catholic Church. As the production continues to develop, the personal lives of the actors begin to mirror the characters they play.

From the acclaimed director of The Barbarian Invasions and Love & Human Remains, Jesus of Montreal presents a powerful and contemporary interpretation of the story of Jesus.

Nominated for the 1989 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, the film also won 12 Genies (Canadian Academy Awards), including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor. Winner of the Jury Prize in Cannes in 1989.

Denys Arcand's intelligent, audacious ''Jesus of Montreal'' attempts to shake up stale religious assumptions, undermine religiosity with wit, and question the Gospels with a new reverence that springs from our modern, commercial world. Creating a band of actors hired to modernize a Passion play within the film, Mr. Arcand needs to balance satire and seriousness with the greatest daring and delicacy. N.Y. TIMES CARYN JAMES

Melancholy and uplifting. Simply beautiful to watch. Jesus of Montreal approaches the possibility of the sacredness in a supposedly fallen humanity. The mystery play of the passion becomes the mirror for the mystery play of the lives of the people involved as they explore their lives inside the grey areas untouched by the catholic dogma that permeates their culture.

The emptiness of a godless faith is replaced by the joy of learning about the subtle faculties of the human spirit in this bittersweet tragedy of decidedly human proportions. eFilmCritic

Jesus Of Montreal is about maintaining integrity in a worid which is losing its grip on reality, and affirms Arcand's position as a player on the international film scene while remaining astutely Canadian.

Inventive, witty, illuminating: about a contemporary staging of the Passion play, the institutional church's reverence for the status quo, & the false gods of secularism. Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat Spirituality and Practice