Orfeu Negro
Tags: atmospheric

Plot synopsis:
In Rio, a group of black people playing musical instruments shimmies its way past a bunch of women carrying containers on their heads. Carnival is approaching. One black woman runs to the edge of a cliff and looks over it. She is Serafina (Léa Garcia). She watches a boy play with a kite blowing in the wind.On the coast, a boat crowded with boogieing black people reaches land. A blind man walks nearby, bumping into Eurydice (Marpessa Dawn) as she stares at the water. He frightens her. He gives her a yellow lei to help her forget about it. She offers to help him around. He says that he knows Rio well and will manage.Eurydice leaves the blind man, mixing into a crowd of dancing people nearby. She passes merchants selling goods and more dancers. Eurydice reaches a barer part of the city, and is met by a trolley conducted by Orfeu (Breno Mello), who whistles at her and tells her to come aboard. Then, a different man grabs her and she jumps onto the moving vehicle.Orfeu stops the trolley at the end of the line. A man named Hermes (Alexandro Constantino) asks him if he's going to get his paycheck. Orfeu notices Eurydice sitting alone in the back of the streetcar and calls out to her. She doesn't know her way around. Orfeu calls Hermes to help her find her way to her cousin's house, then steps over to a window and gets his paycheck from a man. A woman named Mira (Lourdes de Oliveira), crossing a road, calls out to Orfeu. Hermes asks Eurydice if she's going to Carnival. She says no. He tells her she'll end up going and how to get to it.Orfeu asks Eurydice as she walks away if she got directions. She says yes. Mira asks him why he's giving Eurydice so much attention, and reminds him that they are going to get a marriage license. They walk away.Mira and Orfeu enter a government building and she tells him to fix his clothes. Orfeu tells an official at a desk that he and Mira are getting married. The official asks Orfeu his name, and when he answers, the official responds that the bride's name must be Eurydice. "Orpheus loves Eurydice," the man says, "Everyone knows that." When Mira asks what this is about, the official replies he was referencing an old story.Outside the government building, Brazilian music is being played and Mira dances heartily to it. She draws close to Orfeu and asks him if he's going to buy her a ring, since they're engaged. Orfeu answers that he has to get his guitar out of hock with Carnival coming tomorrow. He tells Mira to get her own ring since he has no money; Mira tells Orfeu she can loan him some for one.At the pawn shop, Orfeu is given his guitar. He plays it a bit, then is bumped by a man carrying a phonograph. The man says that the shop's workers aren't interested in his phonograph, and has Orfeu hold it for him. Orfeu tells the man he's onto him. The man says he needs 100 cruzeiros for Carnival, so Orfeu gives them to him. The man tells Orfeu it's his phonograph, but takes the horn part of it with him, pretending to blow through it. Orfeu runs into Mira, who tells him he got a good deal. She shows him a ring on her hand, telling him he owes her 110 bucks.In her house, Serafina examines a pretty dress. A merchant comes to her window, offering her bread. Serafina says she spent all of her money on her costume for Carnival. There's a knock at her door. She answers it, and standing outside is Eurydice. Serafina lets her inside, saying she thought it was Chico Boto, her boyfriend, at the door. Serafina asks Eurydice if she came for Carnival. Eurydice says she ran away for fear of a man who came to her farm and chased her. Eurydice believes the man wants to kill her. Serafina asks her if he knows she's with her. Eurydice says no. Serafina tells her to rid it from her mind, remarking that she must be hungry. Neither of them has money, but Serafina tells Eurydice that "the Portugese grocer will do anything for a kiss."Outside, the two women run across a group of musicians playing instruments, and Serafina dances with Zeca, a boy who shakes a tamborine. Eurydice meets another boy, Benedito, who gives her an amulet. Eurydice says she will keep it forever. Benedito asks her, "Even after I die?" Serafina tells him to run along, and the women make their way to the grocer's place of business.Eurydice and Serafina get to the grocer's place and the latter woman puts her hands over his eyes from behind. He immediately says that this woman, not knowing who she is, is going to ask him for credit. At first, he doesn't want to give her and Eurydice a break, but after they both kiss him, he looks eager to help them. The grocer mentions a black woman's man. Another woman nearby tells her that some women are smarter than she is -- to which she replies, "I don't care." Serafina says if this man is getting married, it's too bad for him. The woman who mentioned some women being smarter than others says that the lucky couple is coming their way. Serafina tells Eurydice to take whatever groceries she wants, then joins the couple: Mira and a guitar-toting Orfeu.Serafina confronts Orfeu, asks him if he's getting married, then goes to Mira, hugging her in an effort to distract her from what Orfeu is doing. Orfeu joins the black woman, whom he clearly knows, then leaves, saying he has to tune his guitar for rehearsal.Orfeu steps into Serafina's house and tunes his guitar. Zeca and Benedito step inside. The latter boy asks Orfeu if he can make the sun rise tomorrow by playing his guitar. Orfeu agrees to this, since it will be Carnival. Zeca says he'd love to make the sun rise, so Benedito tells Orfeu to lend him his guitar so he can make a melody up. Orfeu says no, explaining that the guitar is very old, pointing out where it says "Orfeu is my master" on it. Orfeu says there was an Orpheus before him, and there may be another when he is gone, but for now, he is the guitar's boss.Orfeu tells the boys not to be sad, and starts performing a song he just wrote for them. As he does, Eurydice steps into the house through a different door. She dances to Orfeu's song. Orfeu notices two women fighting outside through a window and tells the boys to take his guitar, insisting that they didn't see him. Orfeu runs outside where he can watch what happens next through a window. The two women step into the house, asking where Orfeu is. Zeca tells them that he left with another woman, and they leave. Zeca plays Orfeu's guitar.Orfeu notices Eurydice and asks her what she's doing there, then realizes that her aforementioned cousin is Serafina. He says that they are already close friends. She reminds him that her name is Eurydice, and he brings up the story that "Orpheus loves Eurydice." Orfeu tells her to remember the tale of how thousands of years ago, Orpheus was sad, but one day, a voice spoke to him of Eurydice's lost kisses. Orfeu starts to kiss Eurydice, but she pushes him away. He responds that she's "too young to remember." But she says she remembers, and it was the melody of his singing that she liked best of all. She steps outside and Orfeu follows her to where she sits. Orfeu puts his hand on Eurydice's hand, telling her to forgive him. He places his head on her hand and they share a tender moment.The boys rejoin Orfeu and tell him people are waiting for him at rehearsal. He tells Eurydice he has to go. Orfeu says he'll perform for her, asking her if she'll come to Carnival. She says she will. Orfeu leaves with one of the boys, carrying his guitar.At rehearsal that night, scores of people dance to exhilarating music, including Mira, Serafina, Zeca, and Orfeu. It's a joyful celebration. Mira asks Orfeu why he's not paying attention to her, and he responds that he has no time for her. Eurydice, standing by Benedito, watches Orfeu. Eurydice asks the boy who Mira is; he says she's Orfeu's fiancée. Eurydice is dismayed by this information. Orfeu asks Mira and Serafina if they've tried on their costumes, and the women head off together.Orfeu sees Eurydice sitting down, and invites her into the crowd. They dance fervently with each other. Orfeu pulls Eurydice out of the dancers' area into a room where women work to give her a costume. Serafina steps into the room, and Orfeu says he wants a nice costume for Eurydice. Serafina says that he doesn't know her. Serafina realizes Orfeu is in love with Eurydice, and tells the women to leave Eurydice to her. As Orfeu starts to depart, Zeca tells him that a man is looking for Eurydice.Serafina tells Zeca to tell the man Eurydice is gone. Zeca walks off. Serafina screams as she sees Death (Ademar Da Silva), a man standing outside the place's window in a skeleton costume. Eurydice says, "It's him," as he leaves. Mira steps into the room. Eurydice runs off, and Mira asks what happened. Serafina says her cousin Eurydice is scared, as Orfeu chases her. Mira asks, "Her name's Eurydice?" and Serafina pursues her cousin. Mira runs to the window as Orfeu heads to it outside, carrying a bloodied Benedito. The boy says he followed the costumed man, who threw him to the ground and escaped.Orfeu puts Benedito down and steps outside. He's stopped by Mira, who asks him who Eurydice is and if they had an affair. He tells her to let him pass; she orders him to stay and he says no. Mira says, "If you go . . . ", but doesn't finish her thought. Orfeu follows Eurydice.Eurydice runs to Serafina's house, looks into it, and keeps fleeing. Chico Boto gets up in a bed inside of it, wondering if Serafina has come home. Serafina arrives next, looking around the place, then Chico scares her from behind. Serafina asks Chico where her cousin went, explaining she must find her; he says that he came from Montevideo to see her and Orfeu runs in, looking for Eurydice. Chico points him in the right direction and Orfeu heads off.Eurydice rushes into a cul-de-sac and is cornered by Death. She pounds on a wall, then Orfeu leaps down between her and Death. The man tries to trip Orfeu, who pulls out a knife. Eurydice warns Orfeu, "he'll kill you," then faints in his arms. Death tells Orfeu they'll meet again and departs. Orfeu carries Eurydice away.Orfeu takes Eurydice back to Serafina's house where roosters and dogs walk around. Orfeu notes that Chico showed up and asks Eurydice if she would like to stay there. She says yes. Orfeu states that Eurydice need not be frightened. A dog noisily pulls at a piece of fabric in Orfeu's hand, and Serafina calls to him from another room, beside Chico. Serafina listens to the wall to try to figure out what's going on in the next room. Serafina says her cousin is in good hands. Chico asks if Eurydice ran away. Serafina tells Chico to open his mouth and close his eyes. She slams a thick slice of watermelon that she's been feeding him into his mouth, sending juice flying everywhere.While Serafina and Chico fight in the other room, Orfeu and Eurydice enjoy each others' company until he announces that he's going outside to sleep. The ruckus in the next room ends with Serafina and Chico going to bed. Orfeu whistles outside in a hammock, then Eurydice beckons him to come inside with her.The next morning, Benedito knocks on the outside wall of Zeca's house to wake him up, saying it's time. Zeca grabs Orfeu's guitar and sneaks out of the house to join him. The two boys go to Serafina's house, where Orfeu gazes at a sleeping Eurydice. Orfeu sees one of the boys put the guitar into the room through a door. The two boys go look at the sun as they hear Orfeu singing a song to Eurydice, whom he awakens. The sun rises on the horizon.Later that day, a costumed Mira greets Serafina, who tells her that she's tending to Chico. Serafina goes to her house and finds Orfeu and Eurydice together, undressed behind a wall. Serafina tells Eurydice to get her costume on, saying that Mira is on her way to the house. Orfeu declares that he's in no hurry. The two women go inside the house, and Serafina puts on her costume, which includes a veil over her face. Serafina says Carnival is fun, but she'd like to be with Chico since he's leaving tomorrow, while Eurydice states that she'd rather dance with Orfeu. Outside, Mira calls to Orfeu to open the door to his room. Serafina asks Eurydice if she'd like to dance in her place, putting her veil over Eurydice's head.Orfeu lets Mira into his room. He is disinterested in her and this annoys her. Mira notices a scarf that Orfeu wears and asks him about it. He explains that it's covered with signs of the zodiac. Mira asks Orfeu if the girl next door, meaning Eurydice, took him to Heaven last night. Orfeu continues ignoring her, and Mira tears up the scarf. The two argue, and Mira threatens to kill Eurydice if she sees her with Orfeu again. Benedito and Zeca enter the room, saying that they came to help Orfeu carry part of his costume and Mira leaves them alone. In the next room, Eurydice asks Serafina if it was Mira shouting in the next room. Eurydice says Orfeu promised he'd talk to Mira about what's happened.Serafina tells Eurydice to pull the veil she wears down, as Mira calls to her from outside. Serafina wakes up Chico, explains to him that Eurydice is her now, and tells him to kiss Eurydice just outside her front door. Chico does as he's told. Outside, Mira walks with a bunch of costumed people to Carnival, along with Orfeu. Orfeu tells Benedito to ask Serafina (whom he mistakes Eurydice for) if Eurydice is coming; Benedito goes to Eurydice, who raises her veil and says her true identity is a secret only Orfeu can know. Benedito goes to tell Orfeu the secret. They are trailed by Eurydice.On Rio's streets, revelers are everywhere, dancing rhythmic steps in elaborate costumes and pounding out music with instruments. Mira dances in one of the throngs. Another woman tells Mira to look at Serafina, so she turns toward the veiled Eurydice -- who dances with Orfeu. Mira flashes them a jealous look. Orfeu and Eurydice tell each other, "I love you." Mira asks Orfeu if he loves her and he rebuffs her, dancing with Eurydice again. Serafina and Chico watch a nearby Orfeu and Eurydice. Benedito and Zeca see Death overseeing the celebration from atop a platform.Eurydice loses her amulet and it's grabbed by Benedito. Mira asks Orfeu why he chose Serafina to dance with him and he rejects her again, going to the jury stand. Mira angrily looks around. Serafina, seeing this, tries to hide her face behind a fabric that Chico wears on his head. Mira goes to Eurydice, yanks up her veil, and sees her true identity. Mira shoves Eurydice to the ground. Serafina yells to Chico that they need to help Eurydice, but a security guard blocks them.Eurydice escapes Mira as the festivities go on around them. Orfeu hands a flag to someone on a platform. Mira yells that she'll kill Eurydice and yanks a handhold with spiked ends out of a platform, pursuing her through the crowd with it.The fleeing Eurydice falls into Death's arms, then sees who's holding her. She runs away, then Mira is caught by Death, who forces her to drop the handhold before she spits in his face. Death throws Mira to the ground.A terrified Eurydice is stopped by Hermes, the man from the trolley station. Hermes tells her to go to his house, saying that he'll tell Orfeu what's going on. She does as Hermes says. Death follows her.Eurydice makes her way to the dark trolley station. Death stalks her. She sees him and runs farther into the yard, evading him as she climbs some stairs to a platform. Death climbs a rope after Eurydice. She takes a leap, grabbing hold of an electrical wire for support. Orfeu runs into the yard, calling for Eurydice. He goes to an electrical board and turns on a switch, sending electricity through the wire and accidentally electrocuting Eurydice. She falls to the ground, dead.Orfeu runs to Eurydice's body, then Death leaps in front of him, saying, "She's mine now." Death hurls Orfeu to the ground, knocking him unconscious.Moments later, an ambulance drives past the partying crowd with Death riding on its side. Hermes and Benedito stand beside the out cold Orfeu as a man wipes his face. Orfeu wakes up and runs to where Eurydice was. Hermes tells him that she's dead, and the man says they took her to the morgue.Orfeu gets to the hospital, asking at a counter for some information. A man at the counter ignores Orfeu, who searches around. He sees a blue veil that resembles the one Eurydice wore earlier jutting from an elevator door. He runs up several flights of stairs, still hoping to see her alive. Orfeu exits the hospital, trudging away with Benedito, who tells him not to be sad.In front of a police building, police arrest costumed people and place them into cars. Orfeu shows up and is recognized by a policeman who asks him to sing and dance, but he is far too depressed to oblige the officer. The policeman directs Orfeu to the missing persons door of the building.Orfeu exits an elevator on the building's twelfth floor, which is quiet and empty, and asks if anyone is there. A janitor asks Orfeu what he's looking for. The janitor tells him that there's no one in the missing persons office, only stacks of paper. The janitor asks Orfeu if he's in pain, and Orfeu answers that he is after losing Eurydice. The janitor tells him to call out to her. Orfeu says he's been doing that. The janitor guides Orfeu down a staircase.At the ground floor, the two men exit the building, coming to a gate guarded by a dog named Cerberus. Benedito follows them to the fence, but is scared by Cerberus and runs away. The janitor shows Orfeu into a building where an Umbanda ritual takes place with numerous black people. The janitor tells Orfeu to sing and call out to Eurydice, so he does. A voice speaks out, and Orfeu recognizes it as Eurydice's. She tells him he must not look back, or he'll never see her again.Eurydice's voice says that she's getting closer, asking Orfeu if he loves her enough to hear her voice but not see her. He replies that his arms are empty. Orfeu says she's not there and is tricking him. We see that Eurydice's voice is coming from an old woman who is taking part in the ritual. Orfeu repeats that he wants to see Eurydice. The voice from the old woman replies that Orfeu is killing her. Orfeu turns to the old woman, who says, "Farewell, Orfeu. You'll never see me again." Orfeu grabs the woman, angrily shaking her and feeling that she lied to him. Orfeu runs out of the building against the janitor's protest.Not far from the building, Orfeu lies on the ground, where he's found by Benedito and Hermes. Orfeu slowly gets up and says, "I have nothing left to live for. I'm poorer than the poorest of black men." Hermes hands Orfeu a piece of paper, who thanks him. Hermes tells Orfeu to save his thanks for Eurydice.Orfeu faces a man at a morgue who asks him if he'll take Eurydice's body. Without being told, the man understands that Orfeu will, and leads him to a room. Orfeu lifts a sheet off of a body, seeing that it's Eurydice. Orfeu picks the body up and carries it away. By voice over, Orfeu thanks Eurydice for this moment. Orfeu carries Eurydice's body to a faraway cliff, and then by voice over, he sings.Orfeu stops moving as he sees from not too far a group of people shouting and dancing around a fire. One of them, Mira, runs toward Orfeu, saying that she'll kill him. Orfeu backs away, and Mira, trailed by Serafina, hurls a stone at him, hitting him in the head. Orfeu falls backwards off of the edge, and his and Eurydice's bodies roll down the cliff, before stopping in a huge plant's growth, both of them dead.Benedito runs near another cliff, carrying Orfeu's guitar and yelling to Zeca to hurry up. Benedito tells Zeca to play the guitar and make the sun rise, urging him to make something up. Zeca takes the guitar and plays a lively melody. A small girl joins the two boys, saying that Zeca made the sun rise. The girl tells Zeca that he is Orfeu now, telling him to play a song for her, so he does. The girl dances around, then Benedito and Zeca join her in fast dancing, while Zeca goes on playing the guitar.

Review: (His motivations are never explained, but perhaps he is jealous of Eurydice's youth and beauty.) The movie finds clever ways to depict the events of the original legend, and adds a wonderful sense of atmosphere, as Orfeu goes through the "underworld" in the middle of the night.Lourdes de Oliveira and Léa Garcia give vivid supporting performances, as, respectively, Orfeu's jealous fiancée and Eurydice's exuberant cousin.
I also liked the two scrappy, unsentimental street kids who idolize Orfeu.Overall, "Black Orpheus" is a successful attempt to place a Greek myth in a modern context, retaining the story's original tragedy while adding new, contrasting flavors and rhythms.
I would especially recommend it to fans of Baz Luhrmann's "Moulin Rouge," another color- and-music-saturated film with a love story inspired by the Orpheus legend..
When this carnival is over.And if you watch this movie you will see that they do it very near the end of the last reel, as in the morning when the truck comes round spraying water, just one of a thousand little details that director Marcel Camus got right, and one of the most insignificant.
And then Orpheus sings, a new Orpheus perhaps, and the sun rises again, and a little girl in white, looking like Eurydice in miniature, begins to dance as the little boy Orpheus plays his guitar, telling us that time has come round again.Well, that's the plot as adapted by screen writer Jacques Voit from the play by Vinicius d Moraes as divined from the Greek mythology.
The very pretty Marpessa Dawn plays Eurydice, an innocent from the country who falls in love with Orpheus and his song.
Rarely have we encountered movies like this one: a timeless mythical story from Greece brought to screen in Brazilian context, the couple come from the very heart of Brazilian society, from Rio. Yet, what links them is the same sweet feeling that have linked the people for thousands of years no matter what nationality, beliefs or family background.
What is, in fact, the very uniqueness of BLACK ORFEUS that differs it from other movies and that makes it an interesting cinema production after all these years?
There are specifically two factors that make BLACK ORFEUS significant or still worth attention: the first one aforementioned timeless love story uniquely and accurately put in the context of Brazil, which, in itself, must have been a challenge due to its innovative nature but the task was beautifully crafted by the director; the second being the cinematography of the movie which still, after almost 50 years, appears to be astounding.
Lourdes Oliveira gives rather a funny performance as Mira but is also memorable.IL ORFEU NEGRO is a very valuable film, a sweet and authentic love story that will for long maintain in your memory as body in dance during the carnival and heart in love during romance.
I highly recommend it hoping that like the song of Orfeus was capable of bringing sunrise to the world, this movie will bring in many people the rise of quest for beauty and a profound admiration of tenderness.
A lot of users will not believe it,but in his native France ,Marcel Camus's name is slowly fading.Worse,"Orfeo negro" is demeaned :it is given only one star in the French dictionary of films.Part of the reason can be found,I think ,in the rest of Camus's career which is mediocre and tarnished his magnum opus by association.But it's unfair.It's a shame a lot of young FRench young people do not even know the existence of this jewel."Orfeo negro" is perfection itself: -Its score is one of the most marvelous I can think of ,now stirring,now wistful as this unforgettable song to make the sun rise.-The Greek myth is superbly recreated ,and the exotic landscapes add magic to the script.-The actors are dynamic ;the three leads ,Breno Mello,Lourdes de OLiveira and the wunderkind Marpessa Dawn are excellent-why didn't she make the career she deserved?- -The original version is in Portuguese ,which shows Camus's respect for his audience.-Best scenes:perhaps the scenes in the house of death,with the walk in the papers;also the final scene where children are still there ,to help the sun rise again and again.The meeting with Death in a power station.An hymn to the sun and to immortality,"Orfeo Negro" is all this and more..
It's hard to say what aspect is best: the cinematography is superb (makes you want to take the first plane to Rio), the cast is wonderful, the music is haunting and beautiful, and the Orpheus/Eurydice myth is well suited to the setting in a Rio favela.
"Orfeu Negro" places the Orpheus legend in Rio de Janeiro at the time of its Carnival.
Marcel Camus' film is fast paced, shot it beautiful color, has lovely and vibrant music (by Luis Bonfa and Antonio Carlos Jobim) and a most attractive cast, particularly the two leads.
First, how many people know that prior to Marcel Camus making this film the late Orson Welles attempted to capture Rio Carnival but with no story, plot, or script?
In 1942, Welles discovered voodoo was at the root of the carnival samba, and started filming in the favelas, the slum shanty towns on the hills of Rio...it was considered by Hollywood to be anti-establishment and dangerous by Brazilian authorities.
Long outlawed as a dangerous expression of black slave culture, samba music eventually gained legitimacy and became a big part of carnival.Nearly 20 years later Black Orpheus achieves what Welles was trying for and goes beyond it.
In this version, Rio de Janeiro conductor Orpheus (Bruno Mello) falls in love with country woman Eurydice (Marpessa Dawn), but can't forget his relationship with Mira (Lourdes de Oliveira).
In a year that brought an academy award with Ben Hur, a corny Roman epic, The Nun's Story, Porgy and Bess and Some Like It Hot, there could be film so far above the fray as Black Orpheus.
Best to watch this beauty with English subtitles.And music is what makes this love story great.
Orpheus learns the meaning of true love with his neighbor's cousin, Eurydice, amid the relentless rhythms of Rio's Carnival.The film is a bit artsy.
Many years before Black Orpheus ???I didn't think Messrs Jobim, de Morais and Gilberto were that old ?A Brazilian who did not like the film has commented that to depict the lives of the poor in the favelas as carefree and happy as inaccurate ?
I had first watched this subtitled in French following my second viewing of Jean Cocteau's seminal masterwork ORPHEUS (1950); both these factors contributed to my being let down by the film, so I was anxious to give it a second - and proper - viewing.Still, I might go so far as to say that I liked it even less this time around: while the Rio Carnival certainly offers the tragic love story of Orpheus and Eurydice a vivid and uniquely offbeat - if relentlessly noisy - backdrop, there's simply too much local color here (the non-stop dancing is particularly grating) proceeding to rather overwhelm the plot itself...which is what drew me to it in the first place!
In fact, the figure of Death which pursues Eurydice doesn't turn up until 40 minutes into the film; its intermittent appearances create some genuine tension here, particularly the superbly-lit scene by the trains where Death finally catches up with its prey - through the unwitting aid of Orpheus himself!The latter stages see Orpehus searching for his beloved in the 'netherworld' - stumbling, at long last, on a (rather embarrassing) séance where she speaks to him through an old woman in a trance but, as legend has it, he's not content with just hearing her voice and so ends up losing her forever.
The final scene, too, is great: Orpheus has reclaimed Eurydice's body, but his going back to 'reality' and the general hubbub of the Carnival (which, given the debris, the flames and the highstrung appearance of Orpheus's former girl, seems to have turned violent in the couple's absence) results in his own unfortunate death; all is not lost, however, as the kids who hang around him throughout the film seem to have finally acquired his unique 'gift' of making the sun rise with the power of guitar playing!While undeniably interesting in itself and occasionally powerful, BLACK ORPHEUS is no match for the intellectual but totally fascinating poetic touch rendered the tale in Cocteau's definitive version (with which I hope to re-acquaint myself in the near future via the British Film Institute's R2 SE DVD that I purchased recently).P.S. It seems incredible to me that BLACK ORPHEUS not only won the Best Foreign-Language Film Oscar but the Palme D'Or award at the Cannes Film Festival - where it was competing against such superior films as Luis Bunuel's NAZARIN, Alain Resnais' Hiroshima MON AMOUR and Francois Truffaut's THE 400 BLOWS!
Modern updating of the Greek legend "Orpheus and Eurydice" set in Rio during Carnival.
But Death is stalking Eurydice and Mira will kill to get Orpheus...I only know the bare facts of the Greek legend and I think you DO need some knowledge of it to totally enjoy the film...but maybe not.
The music and the magic of Carnival in Rio. I would never have taken a look at this film except for that haunting theme by Jobim.
Perhaps most of the reason this film left me so cold was that Jean Cocteau's version of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice was so much better--with amazing camera work and acting.
Black Orfeu, albeit set in my beautiful city of my origin, Rio, is not, in my mind, a good film.
an imaginative transformation of the legend from classical Greece to the slums of Rio de Janeiro during Carnaval -- a marvelous soundtrack featuring compositions of Antonio Carlos Jobim, this film introduced the Bossa Nova to the rest of the world -- the cinematography is spectacular and the simple way in which the director tells his story is particularly effective.
Based on Greek mythology and transferred to modern day Rio at Carnival, Black Orpheus resonates with a colorful energetic euphoria that will have you dancing in the aisles or your living room in no time.
Lourdes De Oliveira as Mira is a whirling dervish of dance and vengeance to behold while Lea Garcia as Serafina provides comedy relief.Regardless of its tragic overtones Black Orpheus in the hands of Camus and his mostly non- professional cast remains a celebration of life and love amid a colorful tableau of unrestrained, defiant joy.
Eventually he and Eurydice fall in love, and the mythology is played out as the costumed Death lurks nearby.This is a astonishingly stunningly beautiful, exuberant film filled with color, scenery, gorgeous music, dancing, and beautiful people enjoying carnival in their bright costumes.
The most famous part of the film, of course, is its magnificent bossa nova score by Antônio Carlos Jobim and Vinícius de Moraes, though the most famous song, Manhã de Carnaval (A Day in the Life of a Fool) was written by Luiz Bonfa.I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the two children, Benedito and Zeca (Jorge Dos Santos and Aurino Cassiano) who follow Orfeu around and believe that his guitar playing causes the sun to rise in the morning.
Set in Rio de Janeiro during the Carnival Festival, this Brazilian (Portugese language) film is an updated re-telling of the Greek legend of Orpheus and Eurypide.
It might not be the first Brazilian movie to come to mind -that privilege will certainly go to "City of God"- but at the time of its release, the film made quite a sensation and started a real Bossa Nova craze, and I feel so ignorant to be only familiar with the Quincy Jones hit song.
I was literally hypnotized by the opening with the favelistas dancing to the Samba rhythm under a beautiful blue sky above the bay of Rio de Janeiro.We often say that "black and white" can serve a movie, there was no way the film could work in monochrome.
The carnival, the avalanche of colors, the dancing crowds are integral to its appeal, it's a film that never ceases to live so that the moment where Death strikes (it's the Orpheus myth after all) we're caught by a thermal shock.
Colors and music are like the flesh and blood of the film whose heart pound at the real rhythm of Breno Mello and Marpessa Dawn, two unknown faces immortalized as Orfeu and Eurydice.
And it's the best compliment the film can have, "Black Orpheus" is a Brazilian gift to the world.
The film takes the classical tale of Orpheus and Eurydice and adapts it to Brazil at the time of Carnival, and while I liked the mythological reference, it was the setting, cast, and overall vibrancy that really had me enjoying it.
There's also some great music, with the spontaneous wailing and drumming in the streets offset by a couple of love ballads with touching lyrics.The central characters of Orfeu and Eurydice are played by Breno Mello and Marpessa Dawn reasonably well, and it was fascinating to me to find out later that Mello had never acted before.
But during the carnival, the man Eurydice believes is trying to kill her tracks her down, revealing that he is in fact Death dressed in a skeleton costume and has come to claim her.Winner of the Palme d'Or at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival, as well as the Academy Award and Golden Globe for the Best Foreign Language Feature, Black Orpheus is a rather strange beast, and the surprise victor in a year that saw Francois Truffaut's The 400 Blows and Alain Resnais' Hiroshima Mon Amour released.
Many directors, including Orson Welles, had tried to capture the wonder of Rio's carnival, but French director Marcel Camus somehow manages to place you there amongst the samba and the sun, yet never letting the visuals overshadow this poetic, and actually very funny, re-telling of the Orpheus myth.Perhaps the most popular telling of this story in film is Jean Cocteau's Orphee (1950), the central film to his Orpheus trilogy.
The Brazilian carnival plays a large part within the movie its story, so you can expect lots of dancing, cheerful people and bright colors.
A retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth, set during the time of the Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro.Barack Obama notes in his memoir "Dreams from My Father" (1995) that it was his mother's favorite film.
It's not strictly a musical although it boasts a very good score by Luiz Bonfa and Antonio Carlos Jobim as it transposes the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice to Rio during carnival and it was for its score and for director Marcel Camus' superb use of colour, (DoP is Jean Bourgoin) that it became famous.
It's woven together fine, but I wasn't as moved by the romantic scenes so much as the others involving the real people.In fact, one wonders what this film could've been, either better or maybe not as good, if it was a straight documentary ala Orson Welles's It's All True about the lives of the poor in Rio who get together to Samba the night away.
The film is set in Rio de Janeiro during Carnival, with bright colors and sounds.
This is a film that is about color as seen in that photogenic city that is Rio de Janeiro, with its infinite cacophony of colors and sexuality at the time of carnival.Vinicius de Moraes play, "Orfeu do Carnaval", served as the basis of inspiration for French director Marcel Camus and his co-writer, Jacques Viot, for the movie.
Jean Bourgoin's camera loved them and they are photographed against the colors of the carnival and Rio. Lourdes Oliveira and Lea Garcia have good moments as Mira and Serafina, respectively and Jorge DosSantos is a natural as Chico.The other best thing in the film is the fabulous music by Luiz Bonfa, and Antonio Carlos Jobim.
The songs and the music we hear in the soundtrack proved these two men were on the way to establish themselves as the best composers and in the case of Mr. Jobim, interpreter of their creations which will culminate with the triumph of the Bossa Nova period that was produced in Brazil at the time.Marcel Camus, ultimately, is the man to be congratulated because of his vision in finding beauty even in the favelas where most of the action takes place in capturing the color and sensuality of Rio de Janeiro during carnival..
Taking the ancient Greek myth of a youth who travels to the land of the dead to bring back the woman he loves, and transporting it to the slums of modern day Rio de Janeiro, this bitter-sweet romantic tragedy has charmed audiences the world over with its beauty, color, and--above all--its music.
The original Eurydice was likewise high-born when compared to the film's heroine--a simple country girl visiting the big city of Rio for the first time in her life.
And I was moved by the ending, as Orpheu tries to invoke the blessings of a new day to keep his hope and his love alive.I haven't seen another film quite like this one-- I think this is reason enough to see it.
Marcel Camus' brilliant adaptation of this classic Greek myth moves to the hypnotic sounds of Rio de Janeiro during Carnival as parades of luminous brown bodies dance with abandon in a riot of color and sensual extravagance, set to the pulsating beat of the Bossa Nova.
For one thing, in the myth, Orpheus uses his music to soothe all the various creatures he encounters on his way through Hades to reach his wife Eurydice there; in this movie, Orfeu's guitar is used to entertain people, and its only (supposed) power is to make the sun rise.
The whole film is practically one long festival of song and dance, which while apropos for the setting- Rio de Janeiro's Carnival, nonetheless kills off any hope for a real story.
Basically in Rio De Janeiro, trolley conductor and musician Orfeus (Breno Mello) is engaged to Mira (Lourdes De Oliveira), and new in town is Eurydice (Marpessa Dawn) arrives during the time Carnival week.