Black Orpheus: Essential Art House
by Marcel Camus
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Bruno Mello, Marpessa DawnDirector: Marcel Camus
Brand: IMG
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); Portuguese (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, Color, DVD, NTSC, Special Edition, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 107 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2009-02-10
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Criterion Collection
Movie Reviews of Black Orpheus: Essential Art House
Movie Review: Retells the Ancient Greek Myth to a Samba Beat
Summary: 5 Stars
"Black Orpheus."("Orfeu Negro"), (1959), a classic, breathtakingly beautiful full-color comedy/romantic drama/musical, is a bit odd. It's considered a French film, as it was financed and made by Frenchmen, but it's set in Brazil, and filmed in the Portuguese that they speak in Brazil. The film retells the ancient Greek legend of Orpheus and Eurydice, in a tight, yet lyric 107 minutes, setting it against Rio de Janeiro's crazed Carnival. The movie, directed by Marcel Camus, earned the 1960 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
It gives us Orpheus (Breno Mello), a handsome trolley car conductor and talented musician, who gets engaged to the very pretty Mira (Lourdes de Oliveira), a city girl with all the usual faults of city girls. But then beautiful country girl Eurydice arrives in town to stay with her cousin, and Orpheus falls in love with Eurydice (Marpessa Dawn). An angry Mira and Eurydice's former lover, costumed as Death, pursue Orpheus and his new love through the fevered Carnival night. Can Orpheus conduct her to safety? As the Greeks say, don't look back.
I doubt Brazil has ever looked more enchanting, from its sugary white beaches, overlooked by the hillside statue of Christ, to its favelas, mountainside outskirts, huts in which the poor of the city, and our characters, live. The movie takes us all over the city, to its morgue, city hall, and even to a service of Candomble worshippers--that's a popular local voodooish religion with roots in Africa. The film's depiction of life in the favela, with its paper-thin walls, was particularly interesting to me. Residents of the favela are certainly shown as animal lovers: in his hut, Orpheus keeps a puppy, a kitten, a chicken, a pair of doves, and a kid (that's a baby goat to you.) Eurydice's cousin Serafina has at least a pair of doves. Another particularly interesting element of the film, to me, was that it was evidently made at a time when the Cariocas (as the natives of Rio call themselves) wore clothes--even at Carnival.
Mind you, much of the movie takes place at a consistently high emotional pitch, and I did think the performers sometimes overacted, but perhaps that's just the Latin way. However, I still do find it very intelligently done, and emotionally satisfying, too.
The most seductive element of the film has to be the music and dance: that samba beat that is synonymous with Carnival, with original music by Luiz Bonfa, and the most famous of Brazilian popular musicians, Antonio Carlos Jobim ("The Girl from Ipanema"). The film opens on a shot of a ferry disgorging its passengers, largely men, coming to Rio's Carnival: they are dancing aboard ship to live music furnished by a pickup band, and disembark while dancing. The entire population of Rio appears to be dancing at the Carnival parade, and Orpheus and Eurydice do a samba that could melt ice, if there was any. And the film closes, in a rather famous scene, on those two little boys who have been worshipfully following Orpheus around; one of them playing Orpheus's signature song, on Orpheus's guitar, to ensure that the sun comes up again, as an enchanting little girl dances. And the sun does come up; in as riveting a dawn as anyone could wish. Many critics believe that the later work of Camus became too sentimental, but I think he held it in check here. Just my opinion, of course.
Summary of Black Orpheus: Essential Art House
Synopsis:Item Type: DVD Movie
Item Rating: NR
Street Date: 02/10/09
Wide Screen: no
Director Cut: no
Special Edition: no
LanguageENGLISH
Foreign Film: yes
Subtitlesyes
Dubbed: no
Full Frame: no
Re-Release: no
Packaging: Sleeve Please note: This supplier will be closed on 11/24, 11/25, 12/26, 1/2 for the holidays. The shipping cut off is 12/10 to try and have the products delivered by Christmas.
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