Poet, playwright, artist and filmmaker, Jean Cocteau was one of the most significant artists of the 20th century, and Orphee is one of his finest films. This magical retelling of the Orpheus myth turns the singer of Greek legend, into a famous left-bank poet in post-war Paris. With famous mirror dissolving and flying tricks, this is hauntingly beautiful.

THE PLOT

Orphee is a famous poet who attracts a lot of jealousy from other artists in Paris. One day he witnesses a man being hit by a car in the street, and is then invited by a mysterious princess to accompany her in her car with the wounded man. After going to her house and seeing strange happenings, he goes back to his wife's, where he is obsessed with listening to a strange radio station that reads abstract poetry...

REVIEWS

“A hauntingly beautiful piece of cinema” – THE TIMES

“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.” - BBC

“Cocteau’s reflection on death, German occupation and the Orpheus myth still looks sumptuously gorgeous after all these years.” – Sight and Sound Collaborator, Maria Delgado

ABOUT

- the film is really an adaptation of the myth by Jean Cocteau, and he adds many elements to it, including difficult men/women relationships, which can be seen as reflecting the times, with the changes in women's status in society

- the story is very much set in the time that it was made: post-war France. The underworld is filmed in buildings that were bombed during the war, and Orpheus's trial in the underworld is presented in the manner of an inquest held by officials of the German occupation attempting to discover members of the French resistance

- the film is famous for its clever visual tricks (that were not achieved with computers!): characters going through mirrors, or floating like pushed by the wind; it also features famous "reverse" shots

- the look of the film owes very much to the photography from Nicolas Hayer, which is marked by the use of strong blacks and contrasts

- a still from the film was used for the cover of 1983 Smiths single "This Charming Man"

DIRECTOR: JEAN COCTEAU (1889 - 1963)

Jean Cocteau was one of the most scintillating and versatile figure in the 20th century French culture. Here are a few facts:

- Jean Cocteau was a very versatile artist: poet, playwright, novelist, painter, sculptor, scenarist, filr director, set designer, actor, critic, and sometime boxing manager

- In 1937 he met the actor Jean Marais, 24 years younger than him, and fell very much in love with him

- Jean Cocteau wrote many roles specifically for Jean Marais, in theatre plays and in films, among which The Beauty and The Beast (1946) and Orphee (1949).

WHAT HE SAID ABOUT CINEMA

"I firmly believe that a film worth making should be scripted, directed and edited, and possibly even produced by the same person, the createur complet as I like to call him."

"When I am making a film, I like to do everything myself: I often design the costumes and supervise their execution, I watch closely the execution of the decors, I even fiddle with the lights."

WHAT HE SAID ABOUT ORPHEE

"The film offers, of course, innumerable surfaces for interpretation. People often look at me with incredulity when I truthfully tell them that I could not possibly confirm or reject any of their interpretation, because they are entirely a matter of individual comprehension, exactly as may be the case with most of Aesop's fables."

THE GREEK MYTH OF ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE

The most well-known version of the myth is the one from Virgil.

In that version of the myth, Eurydice and Orpheus are husband and wife. At her wedding, Eurydice walks in tall grass and gets bitten by a snake, which kills her. Distraught, Orpheus plays gorgeous and sad songs, which soften the gods’ hearts. They agree for Orpheus to go to the underworld to get his wife back. The condition, however, is that she walks behind him and that he doesn’t look at her until both of them have reached the upper world.

They walk without looking at each other, but as soon as Orpheus has reached the upper world, anxious, he turns round to look at his wife, forgetting that she was still in the underworld. She then disappears, for ever.