Orpheus

I liked it, even though I'm not too sure why. There's a dreamlike quality to much of the movie that sucks you in.

En azından 70 vermek için çok çabaladım. Bu güzel metaforlar ve orjinallik için. Ama motorsikletli azrail, birbirine bakmama cezası, tampon bölge, bir türlü evi terk etmeyen şoför, dakika başı aşkını değiştiren başrol ve berbat oyunculuklar aklıma geldikçe acaba çok mu verdim diyorum.

Jean Cocteau cleverly subverts the traditional tale by ingraining within it aspects of the modern french zeitgeist, creating his own sort of french mythos. Cocteau's craftsmanship of the frame, and keen sense of how to create interesting images results in a piece that is more than the sum of its parts. He uses very simple film techniques to display otherworldly dimensions, yet they are convincing. Cocteau the poet recognizes that the real magic of words lay in the performance and not on paper.

Strange little fantasy. Death comes in riding motorcycles to take you to Hades. Oooooooooooooooookay...

Though impressed when a teenager by his seemingly inventive imagery, I've since decided that distinguishing Cocteau's version of symbolist romanticism from either the Bretonian or Bataillian strands of surrealism, despite some surface or formal similarities, is not merely an academic or pedantic effort, but helps to explain why his work seems ultimately more conservative and less interesting than it first appeared. Put another way: He was the more pretentious Tim Burton of his day.

Some neat visuals, a surreal mood. The story: nonsense.

Orpheus helped push the medium toward the next evolutionary point; it's all about creative obsession, the search for meaning, the ignorance of the living, humanity and all its peculiar blemishes--all things the next generation of auteurs would explore to exciting new levels. Life falls in love with death, death falls in love with life, the dream grapples with reality; Orpheus endures as a medium-defining fantasy because it opens us up to those worlds and lets us investigate them.

I'm in two minds about Cocteau. I admire his creativity, sense of invention and respect the influence he has had on other film makers. No doubt his films would have been impressive in their time, but they never truly grab me even if they are entertaining. Transplanting Orpheus to a contemporary Parisian setting was daring, although not entirely successful, and Cocteau's visual style is pleasant. The underworld sequences were done well and Casares was an inspired casting choice.

All of the clichés of the mid-century European arthouse are fulfilled herein. Mythological allegory, an ethereal procession of angsty romance, bizarre imagery, and cryptic dialogue... and I kind of love it. This is one of the essential works of surrealist cinema.

Bogged down by unnecessary seriousness. The actors don't help anything, with most of them hamming it up like crazy, especially Jean Marais. Some good ideas here, but they're trapped in a stupid movie. Also, Cocteau kind of seems like a major egomaniac.

contains many sequences of cool surrealism, is visually interesting and even at times amusing. nevertheless, there's no escaping that this is ridiculous and stupid. lavish mythological romances aren't exactly my thing, even when anachronised, and they seem to be cocteau's specialty, though this is miles better than his grotesque adaption of beauty and the beast. the text is very convoluted, and while meaning is easily constructed, i think that'd be a case of seeing profundity that isn't there.

Not that bad. Some serious weird shit went down but then again, what else would you expect from the French?

Pompous, pretentious and rather silly.

Way ahead of its time!

Happy 666th-film Criticker-birthday to me! Too bad Orpheus was my guest. Not very satanist.

Such a strange film. Beautifully shot. I can see that Cocteau's was an influential style.

Allow me to quote Richard Nixon: "What?"

Haunting, understated re-telling of the Orpheus myth in 'modern day' Paris is chillingly atmospheric, thanks to some primitive but very effective special effects during the underworld sequences, and a welcome lack of religious-specific imagery. Casares' performance as the icy Princess of Death is another creepy highlight.

Full of haunting, dreamlike imagery, Orphée is, all at once, disturbing, poetic, insightful, eccentric and beautiful. Any student of film must watch this for an example of the art of filmmaking.

# 200

It can be a tough, even unfathomable watch, it might not even be perfect, but, still, it's probably the most filmic, inspiring fantasy movie you'll ever seen.

One of my biggest pet-peeves is when artists make art about being an artist, as if that's something anyone outside their little bubble could relate to. Sure, the special fx are cool, and the film definitely succeeds in creating a surreal, dreamlike atmosphere, but strip that all away and we're left with Cocteau's fervent self-aggrandizing; comparing himself not just to mythical Orpheus, but equating his commitment to art to the self-sacrifice of Jesus Christ himself. Yeesh, talk about an ego!

A subversive Orpheus retelling that has a lot to say about the traditional archetype of the morose poet.

My love to the French language was almost converted to hatred.

208

Score based on distant memory.

Star Rating: ★★★★★

88.00

Absolutely stunning! The camera trickery is close to perfection. Orphee, a story that thrusts you into the bizarre unknown, but guides you back safely. It truly felt like every frame was a painting.

I'm glad I stuck with the trilogy after really disliking Blood of a Poet. This installment has a more complete story -- though a little bumpy in trying to keep the original myth and this modern interpretation in parallel -- with some of the wild effects used in Cocteau's first film.

watched: 2013, 2015, 2024

Seria lindo se o Monty Python tivesse feito uma versão desse filme. Rá!

Cocteau revives and rearranges an ancient myth in a setting of modern-day France, and maintains throughout a serious, reverential, poetic feeling for fantasy (Death rides in a Rolls Royce under the escort of two black-leather motorcyclists, mirrors are gateways to the Underworld), even if, at times, his style indulges in ostentatious and transparent trickery.

02.18 Kurtköy

Stark and gorgeous shadowing, solid effort on all ends

The special effects had a special effect on me

I love that his film has poetry groupies who swarm poets for autographs. The suggestion that Orpheus may have plagiarized Cégeste's work causes poets to storm his house. What a world!

didn't find Orpheus to be as primal and universal as Blood of a Poet. I believe anyone who has ever tried to put to use even an ounce of creativity can relate in some way to BoaP. Orpheus becomes more specific, and therfore more inaccessible. I don't relate to Orpheus's obsession, nor his tangle with Death. But Cocteau does once again pull some unbelievable camera tricks. Perhaps not as mind-bending as BoaP, nor as ethereal as Beauty and the Beast, but it's still visually a work of art

240

The dreaminess of the underworld scenes are the best feature; somehow the transparently rudimentary special effects feel completely authentic in this context.

Modern retelling of the Orpheus tale. Fun visual tricks. Unique fantasy about obsession with great cinematography and a dreamlike underworld. This is the second of the very loosely connected Orphic trilogy and while it has some surrealist elements, it's FAR more accessible than 1932's Blood of a Poet, so if you were turned off by that one, still give this a chance. Not as memorable or beautiful as Cocteau's take on Beauty and the Beast, but an excellent film.

The dream logic stuff is pretty great, and I'm always up for a re-interpretation of a classic myth. However, the abrupt turn this makes at the end undermines Orpheus' obsession with death, as well as death's very clear obsession with Orpheus.

Took a little while before I wrapped my head around what the hell was going on, but once I caught-up I was loving this surreal love affair with death! While I never got The Blood of a Poet, Orphée was a lot more accessible without losing any of it's artistic appeal. One of those bizarre experiences that delivers that smirky smile.

Cocteau creates his own mythology for his own purposes. Defies comparison with anything else in cinema.

#235