Piraeus. Ilya is a free-spirited prostitute who spends her time at the port partying with her dozen clients, including her suitor, half-Italian Tonio. American philosopher and philhellene Homer shows up at the port, at first to explore Greece, but is then fascinated by Ilya and notices she enjoys attending the Greek play of Medea, except that she thinks it has a happy ending. He feels pity for her, assuming she can be so much more than just a prostitute. No Face is a rival pimp who feels threatened by Ilya, and thus proposes Homer a deal: Homer should cultivate Ilya and persuade her to give up prostitution, and No Face will pay for it. Homer persuades Ilya to try history and philosophy lessons for two weeks, but after she finds out about the deal with No Face, she quits and returns back to her partying life. Homer gives up on reforming her and leaves the port in a ship.
A gentle, albeit chaotic restructuring of the classic play "Pygmalion", just with an ironic twist, this comedy film presents a story of a modern man, Homer, trying to "convert" heroine Ilya, a prostitute, into an educated woman, seeing in her a symbol for the fall of Greek classic values, only to in the end find out that she prefers her lifestyle, which makes this film a contemplation on libertarianism and subjectivity of happiness, advocating that each person should live their life the way they want it, even if it means an outright embracing of Mediterranean hedonism. The most was achieved out of the leading actress, the excellent Melina Mercouri, who was nominated for several awards for her role, yet everything else in the film does not hold up well today: the screenplay structure is messy and disorganized, especially in the incomplete-abrupt ending (the disproportionate amount of time is spent on one of Ilya's a dozen suitors, Tonio, yet his character arc is left incomplete and vague in the plot); some of its attempts at humor feel forced (Homer applauds at a Greek man dancing in a bar, but the man considers that gesture an insult); the sole process of Ilya's education is never elaborated and is left only on a random montage with barely a running time of a couple of minutes whereas a lot of the moments seem as if they were made up on the spot, without some clear strategy prepared beforehand, as to know where this is going. One of the best jokes is when a man carrying a bunch of suitcases is running towards a streetcar, yet it just drives off without him—only for the conductor to randomly stop the streetcar just a couple of yards later, to pick up the attractive Ilya. "Never on Sunday" lacks highlights, not managing to be anything more than a standard-good film featuring a great isolated performance, and thus it stays in the shadow of Fellini's classic "Nights of Cabiria".
Grade:++
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