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Tuesday, June 3, 2014

HIT ME WITH YOUR BEST SHOT: Zorba the Greek


This week's pick for Hit me with your best shot is a seemingly overlooked film - "Zorba the Greek". This was my first time seeing it myself and I'm honestly not sure how I feel about it. It's well-acted and handsomely mounted, but I found its abrupt tonal shifts to be quite jarring.

There's no denying that it's a worthy Oscar winner for Best Cinematography though, as it really is lovely to look at. As I watched the film, there were three shots that stood. All of them turned out to be images of the villagers, framed within the setting's landscape. For my final choice, it turned out that I went with something unexpectedly prescient.

Click below for my favourite shot...


My favourite comes from an early scene where the men are going off to work in the mine. As they make their way chanting a Greek song, we get a brief glimpse of some women in a field. The composition was instantly striking to me. The black-and-white cinematography gives the land a barren look and the dark silhouettes made the women look like vultures scavenging for food. Little did I know, this analogy would prove to be rather accurate in one of the film's climactic moments (following a certain character's death).

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