Most of the reviews, if not all, have gone through the surface of the movie, looking at the comedy or the simple story aspect. However the movie has much more than this, and if one looks deep, probably it doesn't have any comedy left out. There are only a few movies like this I have seen (another that comes to mind is Ajantrik - of Ritwik Ghatak). For understanding both, we have to just look at the respective directors. Dassin was one of those who had been victimized by the "Red" paranoia of USA and was black-listed under McCarthy code, forcing him to move to Europe. Interestingly even Ritwik was red, in fact compared to him Mr & Mrs Dassin were pale pink. To go inside the skin, the movie there are two very important dialogues. Obviously one at the beginning when Homer(Dassin) indicates his quest, he wants to understand why the civilization is in this shape, captivating but decadent. The second was in the end, "Only way Ilya could be saved is by love" On allegorical level, the the two indicate something entirely different. Illya is the nature whereas Homer - I don't think anywhere he has been indicated to be an author or even philosopher - he is, as was told in the end "American Boy Scout", the up keeper of the moral-values of others, as he feels to be proper. We judge the morality of others through our tinted glass and thereby spoil the fine balance of the nature. This had been done through ages, at national level (Libya, Iraq, Vietnam, Korea, Ukraine, Poland, Czech,...) or at society level (various religious missionaries to educate and bring to light the barbaric natives.Naturally, we don't blame ourselves for the catastrophe, Homer too didn't. Fortunately in this case the nature didn't allow herself to be spoiled by the boy-scout. It is interesting to see that the movie got so many nomination for Academy, despite the director being black-listed till recently (a la Charlie Chaplin), he even got a nomination for best director, and that is doubly strange, considering the allegories (and also that during this time Vietnam war at its peak).

There's nothing quite like discovering a talent that you've never seen before. That's what I got from Melina Mercouri. Directed by her then fiancé Jules Dassin. Not classically beautiful but possessing a smile and a personality that could light up Chicago, Mercouri plays Ilya, a prostitute in a small Greek village of Piraeus who brings life and music to those around her. Surrounded by a small troop of male groupies, she is a fountain of joy and life.Into the picture comes Homer Thrace (Dassin), an American who is smart but does not possess a great deal of common sense. Watching her turn a local tavern into a place of life and music, he explains that he has become disillusioned by the sadness in the world and has returned to Greece, the cradle of civilization, in an attempt to discover what went wrong. Through this woman, brimming with happiness, he hopes to find out.Homer loves Ilya's spirit but he's troubled by her profession which he finds demeaning. He also finds it a little troubling that she reinterprets the Greek tragedies she attends, having misconceptions about Oedipus Rex. He asks for a little time to be alone with her, to educate her on the great philosophers who walked on the very same ground under her feet. He rearranges her apartment, giving her the books to educate her and trying to turn her toward Greek intellectualism. But, as we see, a little knowledge is a good thing but too much knowledge turns away the jollier sides of her personality. He doesn't realized it but by pruning her, he has cut away the bits of her mind that make her happy. She becomes modest and more serious . . . but not for long.Mercouri gives a performance of a character we don't see much in American films, the kind of person with a lust for life, the kind of person who absolutely lives to get out of bed in the morning. Her looks wouldn't get her work as a fashion model, but standing at the center of this film it is impossible to resist what she brings to the screen. When she dances, it isn't choreographed; it bubbles up from inside her. When we see her in the throng of men at the tavern, there is a reverence in their eyes. They don't see her as a sex object but more of a fountain of happiness; they respect her even though she engages in a profession that doesn't warrant it. There is a moment late in the film, a beautiful moment, when we see her in her apartment. She pulls out her record player and puts on Manos Hadjidakis's "Never on Sunday" and dances about her apartment like she is propelled by something wondrous. It is a moment when we see the seriousness that Homer had instilled in her, and the flower begins to bloom once more.

I'm surprised at the grim take some reviewers have on this film. The misconceptions about it being "shocking" in 1960 are amusing. It wasn't; by this time US audiences were veterans of home-grown films showing rape/incest ("Peyton Place"), drug addiction, urban violence, etc. Only people who weren't there think "Happy Days" is a reflection of the 50s, in many ways a dark, confused decade. The prim suburbanism, the emphasis on respectable conformity, was in part a defensive mask, which was always slipping. The year NOS came out was not only the start of a new decade, but was on the cusp of a transition toward more open social attitudes, and I think that was one reason the film was such a hit. Take a look at the marketing: the late 40's-50s saw a LOT of H'wood movies sold as shocking/graphic/dirty, but NOS was presented as fun. The Cannes award for Mercouri earlier (in May; US release was in Oct), Dassin's name as a prestige director, and its Greekness shielded it from the sleaze approach. The main character being a prostitute was not sensationalized, appropriate as the film didn't sensationalize it either. Dassin's Homer, a gently goofy parody of a naive American provincial let loose in the big bad Old World, is the only one who's negative about Ilya's profession. As she says, "Oh, Homer, I think you have big problems with your morals." NOS is a romantic vision of personal freedom working for the best: Ilya can conduct her business independently because her clients are also friends who will protect her from the local gangster - and her clients are friends because that's the way she conducts her business, on a basis of personal liking and trust rather than the bottom line. She's constructed a modus operandi that brings her freedom and happiness, and doesn't like sad things (like Greek tragedy!) to intrude. Of course it's a fable; it takes place in a circumscribed neighborhood world where that kind of personal relationship can rule, and the only downside for Ilya seems to be her uncertainty whether she is "someone who it is good to love" now that she's feeling more deeply for her lover Tonio - which is why she lets Homer try his experiment. But once she sees he's let himself be corrupted she's on her feet, and fighting.Side note: several reviewers expressed surprise that a 40 year old female could be sexy on screen. (Does anyone believe women in real life somehow stop being sexual or attractive the second they pass 39??) Not sure where this comes from, unless it's the general pop culture of the last 30-40 years that's diminished the role of personality in female screen stardom. Adult moviegoers in the 60s - even high-school kids like me - had grown up seeing great stars of both sexes projecting sex, emotion, and vitality well past their 20s and 30s.

To a committed hellenophile, this film represents all things that are great about Greece - the food, the music, the people.First, there is the incomparable music of Manos Hatzidakis, who won an Oscar for the title song.Then, there is Melina Mercouri, the star of the film, who won at Cannes for her role, as well as getting an Oscar and BAFTA nomination. The Minister of Culture after the fall of the dictatorship in Greece, she was magnificent.She later married the writer/director of the film, Jules Dassin, who received two Oscar nominations for this film, as well as a BAFTA nomination. Dassin is also well know for the film Rififi.Watching film is a trip back to the old Greece when the spirit was high and people lived life to the fullest. It is a trip worth taking many times.