The best Melina Mercouri’s drama movies
If you love cinema, you will share this ranking of the best Melina Mercouri’s movies, although you may have ordered them differently. In any case, we hope you love it and with a little luck discovering a movie that you still don’t know about Melina Mercouri.
Never on Sunday
7.3/10
An American scholar in Greece sets about improving the prostitute with whom he is infatuated.
He Who Must Die
7.5/10
Greece, in the 1920s, is occupied by the Turks. The country is in turmoil with entire villages uprooted. The site of the movie is a Greek village that conducts a passion play each year. The leading citizens of the town, under the auspices of the Patriarch, choose those that will play the parts in the Passion. A stuttering shepherd is chosen to play Jesus. The town butcher (who wanted to be Jesus) is chosen as Judas. The town prostitute is chosen as Mary Magdalene. The rest of the disciples are also chosen. As the movie unfolds, the Passion Play becomes a reality. A group of villagers, uprooted by the war and impoverished, arrive at the village led by their priest. The wealthier citizens of the town want nothing with these people and manipulate a massacre. In the context of the 1920s, each of the characters plays out their biblical role in actuality.
Phaedra
6.8/10
A retelling of the Greek myth of Phaedra. In modern Greece, Alexis's father, an extremely wealthy shipping magnate, marries the younger, fiery Phaedra. When Alexis meets his stepmother, sparks fly and the two begin an affair. What will the Fates bring this family? Alexis's roadster and the music of Bach figure in the conclusion.
The Victors
6.9/10
Intercutting dramatic vignettes with newsreel footage, the story follows the characters from an infantry squad as they make their way from Sicily to Germany during the end of World War II.
The Uninhibited
5.8/10
French novelist Henri-Francois Rey adapted his novel Les Pianos Mecaniques with director Juan Antonio Bardem for this French/Italian/Spanish co-production, set in Spain. Vincent (Hardy Kruger) is recovering from a nervous breakdown in a seaside village on the Costa Brava. He enters into an affair with nightclub owner Jenny (Melina Mercouri), but their relationship changes when she falls for alcoholic author Pascal Regnier (James Mason), who is struggling to resume his writing career. Vincent eventually returns home, leaving Jenny to stay on with Pascal and his young son Daniel (Didier Haudepin). Their love enables him to start writing again.
The Gypsy and the Gentleman
5.5/10
About to enter a marriage he wants no part of, rich nobleman Mitchell takes up with gypsy Mecouri. They marry, but she soon discovers he's deeply in debt. (TCM)
The Law
6.7/10
A gorgeous housekeeper turns the tables on the men in a small Mediterranean coastal town by using their own vicious drinking game.
Jacqueline Susann's Once Is Not Enough
4.6/10
An over-the-hill movie producer marries a wealthy, spiteful woman and closeted lesbian just to please his spoiled daughter who then, in an attempt to spite him, seduces both a wealthy playboy and a local screenwriter.
10:30 P.M. Summer
6.4/10
A female traveling companion seduces a married man and his alcoholic wife.
Stella
7.9/10
The story of a young,wild woman who doesn't want to compromise and settle down. Stella is a restless, rebellious Greek woman who plays with men and enjoys her life as much as she can. But when she meets a young football player, things get mixed up. She loves him but she loves her freedom too. So it's about time she made an important choice.
A Dream of Passion
6.8/10
Melina Mercouri plays Maya, a jet-setting Greek actress who returns to her homeland to undertake the role of Medea. Searching for inspiration and clues as to how a mother could kill the children she loves, Maya discovers Brenda (Ellen Burstyn), a bible-spouting American woman serving time in an Athens prison for that very crime.
