Film: The shock of the old Michael Cacoyannis's latest film - a lachrymose version of The Cherry Orchard - may seem a far cry from Zorba the Greek. But, as he tells Michael Church, his blood's still boiling

How do you like your Chekhov? Done to a turn in the furnace of passion, or cool and regretful in the wan winter light? I once saw a student production of The Cherry Orchard in which, after 10 minutes of soulful mooching around, the actors rose up in revolt, summoned the author, and forced him to turn "Cherry" into "Cheery", and rewrite his tragedy as farce. At the other end of The Cherry Orchard spectrum comes Michael Cacoyannis's ruminative film, due to open later this month, in which the lachrymose farewells seem to go on for an eternity.

This clearly struck a chord at its first…