I knew little of Jean Cocteau (what a cultural barbarian I am!), mainly that he was a poet and an artist, and I’d always heard about his version of Beauty And The Beast with Jean Marais. When Mubi had Cocteau’s Orpheus (1950; aka Orphee) in their library as part of their French Cinema spotlight, also starring Marais, I took a gamble as I was in the mood for something old and artful and black-and-white. The Greek myth of Orpheus is narrated in total in the first five minutes over Cocteau’s illustrations, and then the film proceeds to tell its own version with Orpheus (Marais) as a hunky poet who is a known celebrity but is dismissed because of his popularity by the artists at Café des Poètes. When a younger, more critically acclaimed poet, Cegeste (Edouard Dermit) gets involved in a brawl at the cafe and is then hit in a traffic accident by two mysterious black clad motorcyclists, Orpheus winds up as a witness, accompanying the body as it is taken into a fancy car driven by the chauffeur Heurtebise (François Périer) due to the say so of The Princess (María Casares). Orpheus finds himself privy to a strange underworld, an afterlife travelled through mirrors and overseen by representatives of Death. The morning after, waking up like it was a dream, Orpheus is obsessed with finding out more, ignoring his concerned wife, Eurydice (Marie Déa) who only receives comfort from Heurtebise who has accompanied Orpheus on his return. What I loved about the movie was its old school special effects and its fantasy conception of “Hades”. Very influential in its in-camera tricks and its dreamy netherworld – you can see a straight line from this to David Lynch to Michel Gondry etc. Orpheus the film is also a dark romance that shifts the Myth to find the most longing held by those who are supposedly without feeling – the Dead. Marais has such an iconic look with his matinee hairstyle, no doubt an image that helped conceive the New Wave movement, though his character is a self-involved fool. Perier and Casares have the biggest impact in their look and style as well as the yearning both of their characters keep at bay. A playful piece of art. Available on Mubi. Recommended.
VHS Tracking 