Orfeu Negro

There are so many reasons Black Orpheus is important to cinema. First, how many people know that prior to Marcel Camus making this film the late Orson Welles attempted to capture Rio Carnival but with no story, plot, or script? In 1942, Welles discovered voodoo was at the root of the carnival samba, and started filming in the favelas, the slum shanty towns on the hills of Rio...it was considered by Hollywood to be anti-establishment and dangerous by Brazilian authorities. Thus, Welles was not able to complete his film.

Samba is a Portuguese form of music, the word was derived from the West African bantu word "semba", meaning "invoke the spirit of the ancestors". Long outlawed as a dangerous expression of black slave culture, samba music eventually gained legitimacy and became a big part of carnival.

Nearly 20 years later Black Orpheus achieves what Welles was trying for and goes beyond it. To start Marcel Camus had a script to work from whereas Welles was trying to wing it on the spot. Camus successfully recreated the Orpheus-Eurydice myth using the Rio Carnival as the back drop. The main characters retain the mythological names, including the symbolic Death. This works because it is Afro-Latin culture where pagan-Christian names were more evident and because the Carnival itself was such an important part of the story. History manifests as a deja vu, a cyclical progression of event and re-incarnation, understood only by the occultic transformation of samba, trance and possession, for which the Carnival is the engine.

To those who misunderstand or are ignorant of samba, voodoo, or the Rio Carnival Black Orpheus may seem overwhelming, especially because of all the singing and dancing but samba (and Carnival) is ritual, in its most elementary form it is a raw cacophony of primitive drumming, clapping, chanting... and the droning cries of the dancers who stagger on the edge of the "stage", seeking possession and reincarnation.

Black Orpheus won the Palm d'Or in 1959 at Cannes. It was seen as progressive because it featured black actors and the pluralist culture of modern Brazil. It also gives outsiders a view inside of a ritualistic, non-Western culture and that is why it was and is so important to cinema.

Black Orpheus

I saw this film for the first time in the '60s and found it a beautiful

and poignant retelling of the legend. I thought about it off and on

over the years, however, since it was never shown on TV, it faded

from memory. Then in the 1980s, there it was in video format in a

store. It was very expensive (the most I've paid for one), but I was

so delighted to find it, I could hardly wait to get it home.

It was more beautiful and haunting than I remembered. There's a

special uniqueness in the way the inexorable tragedy plays out in

such an unorthodox setting. You know how it has to end, but you're

still drawn into the lives of the characters. How the director ever

conceived of something so original amazes me.

This film is a wonderful experience.

If it does nothing else, seeing "Black Orpheus" will make you want to pack up immediately and go to Rio de Janeiro. The movie convinces you that the city's sparkling harbor and dramatic green hills must be one of the most beautiful landscapes on earth, especially when accompanied by a soundtrack of energetic samba and smooth bossa nova music. The cliffside shantytowns teem with vitality, and are never too poor to rig up an elaborately costumed samba show for Carnival. Even the fact that the movie retells a tragic Greek myth barely detracts from the overall effect. It makes Rio seem even more magical, a place where archetypal stories of love and death still hold their power.

In this version, Orfeu (Breno Mello) is a streetcar conductor who moonlights as a musician, and Eurydice (Marpessa Dawn) is an innocent country girl. The movie starts as a simple love triangle (Orfeu has an inconvenient fiancée) but becomes increasingly surreal as it progresses. Death, represented by a man in a skeleton suit, literally pursues Eurydice while going unnoticed by everyone else, who may assume he is just dressed up for Carnival. (His motivations are never explained, but perhaps he is jealous of Eurydice's youth and beauty.) The movie finds clever ways to depict the events of the original legend, and adds a wonderful sense of atmosphere, as Orfeu goes through the "underworld" in the middle of the night.

Lourdes de Oliveira and Léa Garcia give vivid supporting performances, as, respectively, Orfeu's jealous fiancée and Eurydice's exuberant cousin. I also liked the two scrappy, unsentimental street kids who idolize Orfeu.

Overall, "Black Orpheus" is a successful attempt to place a Greek myth in a modern context, retaining the story's original tragedy while adding new, contrasting flavors and rhythms. I would especially recommend it to fans of Baz Luhrmann's "Moulin Rouge," another color- and-music-saturated film with a love story inspired by the Orpheus legend.

There is no hesitation in admitting that this is a new version of the classic myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. But throw in the music as a magical component. The Antonio Carlos Jobim track is all over the place. It's at time almost operatic in its storytelling. We have all the components: the title character and his unfortunate love, the evil woman who directs fate, the Hades figure, and the theme of rebirth. It seems at times a bit dated and the fact that because it's Carnival people seem to dance and sing twenty-four hours a day (possibly in their sleep) takes us away from a sense of reality. But then, it's still a mythological story. A very important film which has withstood the test of time.

"Orfeu Negro" places the Orpheus legend in Rio de Janeiro at the time of its Carnival. Marcel Camus' film is fast paced, shot it beautiful color, has lovely and vibrant music (by Luis Bonfa and Antonio Carlos Jobim) and a most attractive cast, particularly the two leads. There is a vital, throbbing tempo established which seems to propel the story forward in an almost choreographic manner. The film remains a quite unique piece of work, with many haunting images.