Orpheus (1950)

Probable Score

Not Enough Info

Your Score

(0 - 100)

Orphée is a poet who becomes obsessed with Death (the Princess). They fall in love. Orphée's wife, Eurydice, is killed by the Princess' henchmen and Orphee goes after her into the Underworld. Although they have become dangerously entangled, the Princess sends Orphée back out of the Underworld, to carry on his life with Eurydice. (imdb)

More Information and Actions

Cast and Information

Directed By: Jean Cocteau

Written By: Jean Cocteau

Starring: Jean Marais, François Périer, Henri Crémieux, Pierre Bertin, María Casares, Marie Déa, Juliette Gréco, Jacques Varennes, Roger Blin, Edouard Dermithe, René Worms, Raymond Faure

Genres: Romance, Drama, Fantasy

Franchise: Orpheus (by Jean Cocteau)

AKA: Orphée

Country: France

Where to Stream

Invalid Trailer

Ratings

Collections

Stats

Loading...
loading

Orpheus belongs to 60 collections

1. 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die (collaborative: moderated by kozan26 - 234 stars)

2. Criterion Collection (collaborative: moderated by caffe - 167 stars)

3. Roger Ebert: Great Movies (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 80 stars)

4. Surreal (collaborative - 47 stars)

5. Certified weird (collaborative: moderated by Dreamer - 47 stars)

6. Psychotronic Film and Video Guides (collaborative: moderated by Gregzilla - 40 stars)

7. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2008 revision) (collaborative: moderated by Scottathon - 39 stars)

8. Jonathan Rosenbaum's Top 1000 Movies (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 38 stars)

9. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2010 revision) (collaborative: moderated by MMAlpha - 32 stars)

10. The Guardian's 1000 films to see before you die (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 30 stars)

11. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2014 revision) (collaborative: moderated by Jehan - 27 stars)

12. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2012 revision) (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 25 stars)

13. AAA: Empire's five star movies (collaborative: moderated by KasperL - 24 stars)

14. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2017 revision) (collaborative: moderated by iconogassed - 22 stars)

15. Criterion Collection (Blu-ray) (collaborative: moderated by epiphany - 20 stars)

16. They Shoot Pictures' Recommended Viewing (collaborative: moderated by Cinephile - 19 stars)

17. Best of criticker: Drama (collaborative: moderated by avgcrtckr - 18 stars)

18. List: Empire's 100 Best Films of World Cinema (collaborative: moderated by KasperL - 17 stars)

19. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2013 revision) (collaborative: moderated by rant1229 - 16 stars)

20. FIPRESCI Prize (collaborative: moderated by paulofilmo - 14 stars)

21. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2011 revision) (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 14 stars)

22. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2020 revision) (public: djross - 14 stars)

23. Films available in HD (collaborative: moderated by kubricksucks - 13 stars)

24. films101.com's 5 star films (collaborative: moderated by ppinocchio - 11 stars)

25. International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 11 stars)

26. Sight and Sound 2002 (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 9 stars)

27. Fantastic and surreal (public: juandr - 9 stars)

28. David Thomson's 1000 Films (collaborative: moderated by MMAlpha - 7 stars)

29. List: Taschen (collaborative: moderated by KasperL - 6 stars)

30. Poetry (collaborative: moderated by Moribunny - 6 stars)

31. Best of criticker: Fantasy (collaborative: moderated by avgcrtckr - 6 stars)

32. Best of criticker: Romance (collaborative: moderated by avgcrtckr - 6 stars)

33. Films referenced in Histoire(s) du cinéma (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 5 stars)

34. Ancient Greece (collaborative: moderated by djross - 4 stars)

35. Cinemag's Best 200 films Ever Created! (collaborative: moderated by hristos - 4 stars)

36. They Shoot Pictures 1,000 Greatest Films (2007 revision) (collaborative: moderated by Scottathon - 4 stars)

37. Remade (collaborative: moderated by Ag0stoMesmer - 4 stars)

38. Average Percentile >70 (collaborative: moderated by peyrin - 4 stars)

39. edkrak films to see (public: edkrak - 4 stars)

40. Canon Fodder by Paul Schrader ~d~ (public: 5Z5qjRCfM2 - 4 stars)

41. Edward Copeland's Ray Memorial 100 (collaborative: moderated by theficionado - 3 stars)

42. Criterion Collection (Blu-ray and 4K) (public: PepeCamello - 3 stars)

43. Djross film as art (public: djross - 3 stars)

44. Akira Kurosawa's Top 100 Films (collaborative: moderated by CCLZA - 2 stars)

45. High contrast black and white cinematography (collaborative: moderated by juandr - 2 stars)

46. En Sevdiğim 50 Fransız Filmi (collaborative: moderated by mentosibo - 2 stars)

47. Dreamlike (public: juandr - 2 stars)

48. weird (public: ptkw - 2 stars)

49. A Year of Essential Cinema (collaborative: moderated by Ibetolis1 - 1 star)

50. French director (collaborative: moderated by iconogassed - 1 star)

51. Magic & Surrealism (the escapist's collection) (collaborative: moderated by marigolem - 1 star)

52. Moribunny finds this highly overrated (public: Moribunny - 1 star)

53. Cinetheque (public: allegreller - 1 star)

54. Poetic Realism (collaborative)

55. Djross 1950 top five (public: djross)

56. Filmspotting Ratings Project: Week 19 (public: PeaceAnarchy)

57. D:Movies (public: ptkw)

58. Forrest Watch List (public: ForrestQ)

59. Djross French feature films I've seen (public: djross)

60. Filmin (public: Hadleyreis)

Browse the full list of collections

Show:

All Ratings | With Reviews

Order by:

TCI | Percentile | Date Rated | # Stars (Reviews)

Stars	User	Rating
3	PeaceAnarchy	82 _67th
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.
2	Stain	60 _47th
Strange little fantasy. Death comes in riding motorcycles to take you to Hades. Oooooooooooooooookay...
2	KasperL	55 _39th
Some neat visuals, a surreal mood. The story: nonsense.
2	lumpnboy	45 _45th
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.
2	Syntheseizur	82 _70th
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.
2	HiResDes	84 _90th
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.
2	anilscn	55 _53rd
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.
1	MartinTeller	63 _22nd
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.
1	Moribunny	40 _27th
Pompous, pretentious and rather silly.
1	Nathan S	4 _74th
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.
1	ImThatDingo	63 _60th
Not that bad. Some serious weird shit went down but then again, what else would you expect from the French?
1	???	31 _20th
Happy 666th-film Criticker-birthday to me! Too bad Orpheus was my guest. Not very satanist.
1	P u l p	88 _97th
Way ahead of its time!
1	lisa-	4 _52nd
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.
1	Yiannos	60 _47th
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.

Average Percentile 71.46% from 682 Ratings