Black Orpheus

My husband had never seen this film and he loves the Greek Myth of Orpheus and Eurydice...so I thought it was high time that he saw this classic. I took the opportunity of this year's Mardi Gras celebration (2024) to share it with him and fell in love all over again.

I am a huge Antonio Carlos Jobim fan, thanks to my father, and grew up listening and dancing to his music. So, you could say the musical backdrop of this film had a big impact on me in addition to the physical location or backdrop which is absolutely spectacular. If those two things aren't enough to bring you to this film, you can add in a modern retelling of the Greek love story/tragedy of Orpheus and Eurydice.

It is easy to see why this won best foreign film during its time. The Carnival celebration during Mardi Gras is almost a character all of its own as opposed to just being a background theme intertwined with the story. There is so much culture depicted...everything from the preparation, to local bands and troupes or clubs, to the parade itself, to the practice of voodoo or a santaria like religion.

There are a lot of newcomers to acting, but the film doesn't suffer for it. In fact the fresh faces give this film some of its charm. And charming are both Breno Mello (Orfeu) and Marpessa Dawn (Eurydice). The foil to these two innocents is the sultry Lourdes de Oliveira (Mira), she was one of the few cast members with some experience under her belt and I couldn't take my eyes off of her when she was on screen...she was stunning. The two neighborhood boys who end this film together are wonderfully sympathetic and enjoyable strictly for their sweet innocence as they share the joy of a sunrise.

There is some controversy over the portrayal of this Brazilian neighborhood, but controversy or not I think this is a must see for fans of both foreign and classic film.

"Black Orpheus" sets the classic myth of Orpheus and Eurydice against the cacophony of color and music that is a carnival in Rio de Janeiro. The film is as much a celebration of culture as it is a rendering of the Greek story. A love of life comes bursting off the screen as the people in it literally never stop breaking into impromptu singing and dancing, which makes the specter of impending death and doom that haunts the carnival all the more striking in comparison. For the first half of the movie, I thought how wonderful it would be to immerse myself in such a culture, where people are uninhibited and feel so free to express themselves. It's so different from the uptight white American culture to which I belong. But by the end of the movie, the introvert in me was like, "Ok, it would actually be really exhausting to be around that much energy for any prolonged period of time."

I thought the ending of this film was terrific, capturing the cyclical nature of life and death and suggesting that the primary motivations that drive humanity will be carried on forever by those who succeed us.

"Black Orpheus" won the 1959 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

Grade: A

If it does nothing else, seeing "Black Orpheus" will make you want to pack up immediately and go to Rio de Janeiro. The movie convinces you that the city's sparkling harbor and dramatic green hills must be one of the most beautiful landscapes on earth, especially when accompanied by a soundtrack of energetic samba and smooth bossa nova music. The cliffside shantytowns teem with vitality, and are never too poor to rig up an elaborately costumed samba show for Carnival. Even the fact that the movie retells a tragic Greek myth barely detracts from the overall effect. It makes Rio seem even more magical, a place where archetypal stories of love and death still hold their power.

In this version, Orfeu (Breno Mello) is a streetcar conductor who moonlights as a musician, and Eurydice (Marpessa Dawn) is an innocent country girl. The movie starts as a simple love triangle (Orfeu has an inconvenient fiancée) but becomes increasingly surreal as it progresses. Death, represented by a man in a skeleton suit, literally pursues Eurydice while going unnoticed by everyone else, who may assume he is just dressed up for Carnival. (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.

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.

Black Orpheus is one of the truly great movies, and may be considered as part of the heritage of every true movie lover. The setting of the Orpheus story in the hillsides and streets of Rio, with the brilliant actors, is nothing short of a miracle. Everything in the movie is beautiful to look at, and the music becomes as much a part of the atmosphere as the very air these beautiful actors breathe. The final scene, with the children, being magically prepared to fall into the roles the adults have just left, must remain with the viewer as one of the most affecting things in this magnificent movie. Do yourself a great favor, and see it.