Evening star., 1951-01-31

you IN q new suit ana SendS you {
There. in the course of time. y
printing. In large type, to make
them forevermore into your sms
words say: This is a Dog. This
you knew long before that it was a.
dog, and that a dog is no more of
dog because some one puts it
In writing.
Gradually, however, this system
which is called education beats
down the most resistant spirit
and, in one degree or another, one
has learned to communicate with
his fellow man. Most humans
think this is good thing, but
some are not so sure.
One of the latter is Jean Coc-
teau, the Frenchman who writes,
directs and produces movies, the
latest of which. "Orpheus, opened
today at the Dupont Theater.
This is like no other movie you
ever saw, which is not so much
an oblique way of saying how
original it is as it is a way of
saying that maybe you will not
went to bother with it.
Cocteau is a surrealist and it
ia ses something of wide open
mind even to give him a hearing.
If YOU have that type of mind, you
may be one of those who saw and
was delighted by Beauty and
the Beast" Or. you may have
seen THE Eternal Return" a
surrealistic mish-mash that de-
lighted mostly Cocteau himself.
"Orpheus' lies somewhere be-
tween these two in its fascination,
its ability to divert the mind into
wonder at just exactly what Coc-
teau is trying to say, if anything.
This is to say that, of it's kind, it
represents an intellectual and
emotional adventure that is not
visualized in any education which
began with: This is Dog.
AS Beauty and the Beast" was
based upon pet fairy tale, so
"Orpheus" is based upon an old
Greek legend. The basis is utterly
tenuous, for once he has found
himself an idea and title,
Cocteau embroiders it with that
strange decadent magic of which
he is the modern master.
"Orpheus" in his febrile imag-
ination becomes a blend of myth
and melodrama, the story of a
handsome postwar poet in Paris
and of its strange and almost fatal
wooing of a beauty that lies be-
yond Life itself. Amid the con-
fused movement of the story be-
tween this world and the under
world Of death, the screen shines
with an eerie beauty that at least
has the virtue of being different.
The death with which the poet
(Jean Marais) falls in love is an
enticing brunette female who
drives around in a Rolls Royce
with uniform chauffeur. She is
a girl whose powers of suggestion
are far closer to infinite than those
of any other girl any one ever met.
A poet living in the world of fancy
naturally would find any such
creature irresistible and this con-
temporary Orpheus is willing to
follow where she leads.
Where she leads symbolically is
not altogether clear, but on the
material plane, Cocteau cultists
will have no trouble following.
This latter is represented by tot
tering, remote mansion. The place
reeks with the atmosphere of
death, but it is an extremely lively
atmosphere in which Cocteau sees
that things never become dull.
Everybody here and at Orpheus'
home Is extraordinarily handsome
and up to energetically mysterious
business. The dead, semi-dead
and living mingle in dramatics
and curious relationships which
somehow seem the most diverting
for being never quite understood.
In Cocteau's own words, which
may or may not make things
clearer: Realism in the unreal
Is trap set from minute to min
ute. One may always tells me:
That is possible, or that is i'm
possible, but how much do we
understand of the mechanism of
fate. It is this mysterious mech
anism that I am trying to render
plastic"
If he fails to render this, he at
least renders it impossible for you
to escape the trap of fascination
he is setting.
X Il X X
Like earlier Cocteau films.
"Orpheus" is exquisitely reinforced
in its employment of imaginative
photography and perfectly made
supplemental music. It's actors
are not always able to make it
clear just what is happening to
them, but they go along in the
ADJUSTMENTS.