130
(Orpheus)
Release date 29th November 1950
Country : France
Running time : 95 mins
Genre : Fantasy
Starring Jean Marais, Maria Casares
Screenplay by Jean Cocteau
Directed by Jean Cocteau
The poet Orphee becomes obsessed with Death who appears in the glamourous form of a Princess. His wife is killed by the Princess' henchmen and Orphee follows her into the underworld. The Princess though in love with the poet sends him back to reality with his wife.
A beguiling fantasy with simple but
incredibly cinematic special effects, characters go into the other
world by entering a mirror. The director was a poet and this is the
nearest thing to poetry on film, it subverts the real world by opening
up many ambiguous possibilties around the twin concerns of love and
death.
The bulk of the scenes set in the underworld were shot in the ruins of the St Cyr military academy.
The other two films in
the so-called Orphic trilogy are Blood of a Poet (1930) and The
Testament of Orpheus (1960).
DVD
available from the Criterion Collection as part of the Orphic Trilogy
boxset :
http://www.amazon.com/
DVD Collector's Haven
DVD Beaver
(Orphic Trilogy boxset review)
131 129
Written content copyright Derek McLellan,2005.
Copyright © The Fedora Chronicles
Orphee image from
http://esquizoide.tripod.com/
