ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½

Explore the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½
This page has been archived and is no longer updated. Find out more about page archiving.

28 October 2014
GloucestershireGloucestershire

ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½page
»









Sites near Gloucestershire







Related ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Sites


Ìý

Contact Us

Orphée
15Orphée (1950)

updated 01 March 2004
reviewer's rating
5 out of 5
Reviewed by Jamie Russell


Director
Jean Cocteau
Writer
Jean Cocteau
Stars
Jean Marais
François Périer
María Casares
Marie Déa
Henri Crémieux
Length
95 minutes
Distributor
BFI
Original
1950
Cinema
05 March 2004
Country
France
Genre
Fantasy
World Cinema
Web Links




Full of haunting imagery plucked from the realm of fairy tales, Orphée is one of the great cinematic fantasies of the 20th century, a bold attempt to merge film and poetry. Updating the Greek myth of Orpheus' journey into the underworld to 1940s France, surrealist filmmaker Jean Cocteau spins a captivating daydream around the adventures of a poet (Jean Marais) who is taken through a mirror into the next world by a mysterious princess (María Casares), who might be Death herself.

Bored by his life of fame and notoriety as a leading Left Bank poet, Orphée is ready for new experiences. After meeting ghostly chauffeur Heurtebise (François Périer), he begins to neglect his doting wife Eurydice (Marie Déa) and spends his time hunched over a car radio that whispers cryptic codes from the afterlife ("One glass of water illuminates the world... twice") in search of artistic inspiration. But there's a price to be paid: two of Death's motorcycle-riding henchmen kill Eurydice, leaving Orphée to travel to the afterlife to save her.

"BRINGS FANTASY TO LIFE"

Like Cocteau's earlier Beauty And The Beast, Orphée updates a classic myth for modern audiences, referencing everything from French Resistance shortwave radios to Nazi bully boys and rock'n'roll teenyboppers. Its real achievement, though, is in realising the power of cinema to bring fantasy to life. Using all kinds of inventive trick photography, Cocteau creates a dream-like universe in which the laws of physics no longer apply as people wander through mirrors and appear and disappear at will.

Dominated by fetishistic imagery - Death is corseted into an hourglass black dress with elbow high rubber gloves; her motorcycle men stalk around in black leathers like rejects from the Village People - it's a breathlessly sexy film, charged with the lyrical eroticism of the fairy tale and fascinated by its own enchanting power. Once seen, it's never forgotten.

In French with English subtitles.

Find out more about "Orphée" at



The ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ is not responsible for the content of external websites

Ìý

bullet
bullet
bullet
bullet
bullet
bullet
bullet
bullet
bullet
bullet
Get YOUR event listed
bullet
bullet
bullet
bullet
bullet
bullet
bullet
bullet
The Review Archive
bullet
bullet
bullet
bullet
bullet
bullet
bullet
bullet
bullet
bullet
bullet
CONTACT US

ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Gloucestershire
London Road
Gloucester
GL1 1SW

Telephone (website only):
+44 (0)1452 308585

e-mail:
gloucestershire@bbc.co.uk





About the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ | Help | Terms of Use | Privacy & Cookies Policy
Ìý