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 is not the style of movies that Surrealism should have gotten. I like it, I like the effects that are used here, but the whole thing seemed kind of... maybe too artistic, or I don't know. I didn't enjoy the movie too much. Not that I suffered through it, but it just didn't really entertain me. However, it is clear that Cocteau knew what and how he wanted to film it.
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