Lila Kedrova as Madame Hortense in Zorba the Greek
Best Supporting Actress at the 37th Annual Oscars (1964)
Notable Quote:
“In my age, monsieur, one is never well ... especially on the holidays.”
Synopsis:
In this wide-ranging comedy/melodrama, Basil the English (Alan Bates) travels to Crete, where he meets Zorba the Greek (Anthony Quinn) and stays in a hotel owned by Madame Hortense the French (Lila Kedrova).
The character:
Madame Hortense is a less thrilling version of a character that we’ve seen many times in fiction: the “past her prime” woman who sees herself as jilted by the world. She’s a nicer Mrs. Havisham, although strangely, the character that she most brought to my mind is the dumbwaiter lady from Harriet the Spy. I’d call Madame Hortense “colorful”: she’s always dripping in bangles and boas, and she’s desperate for attention from men, and will literally put on a song and dance to keep eyes on her. She carries herself with an incredibly off-putting coquettish vibe, flirting with everyone in this mewling way.
Madame Hortense sounds right up my alley, both kooky and tragic, but the portrayal rubs me the wrong way. I think it’s the idea that her life is somehow tragic: her biggest struggle is that she’s desperately sad about getting old, which is fair, but c’mon, she’s fifty, you’ve got tons of life ahead of you girl! She’s had four husbands and a wild life, which makes her fascinating, but the movie seems to see it as embarrassing. And it’s not that I need her to be a likeable character, but there’s a shitty double standard when it comes to the general aura of sadness about her aging, while Zorba, the same age, hooks up with a young woman, and takes on countless adventures.
The performance:
Lila Kedrova is another new discovery for me: she’s a French actress, but her winning performance in Zorba the Greek was actually her English language debut. Kedrova’s biggest strength is that she fully leans in to the wacky, over-the-top character that she’s given. She carries herself with a swish, and she’s got a perfect breathy coo. Madame Hortense is so often mortifying to watch, and Kedrova is willing to lean into the cringe, like when she’s so desperate for any hint of romantic reciprocation from Zorba that she begs to know whether he’s mentioned her in a recent letter.
Here’s the problem: while I ultimately feel for Madame Hortense, it’s mostly pity, not the fully rich empathy that I most appreciate in an off-putting character like this one. There’s a missing element that makes the performance feel surface-level. Maybe I wish that Kedrova had given the character an inner fire that made her less pathetic, or maybe given the performance a bit more restraint, so that Madame Hortense could exist in a version of reality. There’s something that doesn’t work.
The movie:
Zorba the Greek is a bizarre movie: it’s very long, and all over the place in tone and in storyline. Like, plot developments would get picked up and dropped for long stretches of time, and the movie very much felt like it was trying to say something, but I was never sure what. With that being said, I absolutely loved the lead performance by Anthony Quinn, a two-time Academy Award winner in his own right. Quinn imbues Zorba with so much personality, giving us comedian, hero, and total asshole, often within the same scene. It’s a really great performance, and one that I’m sad not to be discussing in this column.
Was the Oscar deserved?
No, this didn’t work for me.