There's never been a better time to be Greek. Against the odds they win the EuroCup, and despite the smog, Athens will host the 2004 Summer Olympics. And now Michael Cacoyannis's 1964 Zorba the Greek comes out on DVD. Shot entirely on Crete, this darkly beautiful black & white film tells the story of an uptight English writer (Alan Bates) who learns how to loosen up (a little) from his friendship with an enigmatic horny Greek peasant (Anthony Quinn). Special features include director's commentary and the A& E's Biography about Quinn, where we discover that as an award-winning actor, respected painter/sculptor and internationally acclaimed womanizer, the octogenarian just couldn't stop creating and procreating. The doc also reveals some sad parallels between Quinn and Zorba, like the pain of their first-born dying before the age of five.

From Greece we head over to France, the birth place of Jean Renoir. The filmmaking virtuoso's work is being celebrated with the release of a Criterion Collection box set. This Technicolor trilogy includes The Golden Coach (1953), a movie that gives Scorsese wood every time he talks about it. » Sarah Rowland