Directed by:
Jean CocteauScreenplay:
Jean CocteauCinematography:
Nicolas HayerComposer:
Georges AuricCast:
Jean Marais, François Périer, María Casares, Marie Déa, Juliette Gréco, Roger Blin, Jean Cocteau, Jean-Pierre Melville, Jean-Pierre Mocky, Pierre Bertin (more)Plots(1)
Poet, playwright, artist and filmmaker, Jean Cocteau was one of the most significant artists of the twentieth century and Orphée his finest work of cinema. This magical retelling of the Orpheus myth turns the lyre-playing singer of Greek Legend into a famous left-bank poet in post-war Paris. Fallen out of favour and lost for poetic inspiration, Orphée becomes obsessed with a mysterious black-clad princess who first claims the life of a rival poet, and then Eurydice, his wife. With its unforgettable imagery the dissolving mirror through which characters pass into the next world, the leather-clad, death-dealing motorcyclists, and Cocteau's magical special effects, Orphée is a work of haunting beauty that follows the poetic logic of dream. (British Film Institute (BFI))
(more)Reviews (1)
This isn't the style of films I usually enjoy. I like Surrealism, and I appreciate the effects used here, but overall it felt somewhat... maybe too artistic? I don't know. I didn't enjoy the film very much. Not that I suffered through it, but I just didn't enjoy it. But it's clear that Cocteau knew what he wanted to make and how he wanted to make it.
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