I had to do a quick Wikipedia check on Orpheus as my Greek mythology is a bit rusty. To sum it up in one sentence, Orpheus is a legendary musician who goes into the depths of Hades to bring back his wife Eurydice from the dead. Jean Cocteau's 1950 film is a retelling of the classic Greek myth set in 1940's Paris.
Orpheus is an older famous poet who is hated on by the young hipster crowd. As Jay-Z raps, "Is this what success is all about? A bunch of niggas acting like bitches with big mouths?" A fight breaks out at the local cafe aptly named "Cafe des Poetes" where a young up and comer Cogeste gets run over by a couple of motorcycles. Just as quickly, The Princess rolls up in her Rolls Royce and takes away the body, asking Orpheus to come along as a witness. He hops in but much to his surprise, they don't stop at the hospital but go to a creepy chateau instead. By this point it is clear that Cogeste is dead, but The Princess is unperturbed and tells Orpheus to stop asking stupid questions. Much to his shock, he witnesses her raising the young man back to life and he can only watch as they disappear through a solid mirror.
The Princess is of course Death and the incident with Cogeste is her just doing her job. I don't think I'm giving anything away when I say that eventually Orpheus's wife Eurydice dies, but the manner in how she does is much different from the Greek myth. Cocteau adds in a complicated love triangle where The Princess is in love with Orpheus, Orpheus in turn is obsessed with her and The Princess's chauffeur Heurtebise is in love with Eurydice, so everybody has their own motives throughout the film.
Orpheus is yet another of those heralded classics that is wasted on my inferior tastes as I didn't fall head over heels for it, though in the end I liked it, or at least I think I did. This film probably is deserving of all its praise, and I can certainly see the appeal, but I'm not quite "there" yet to fully articulate why it is considered a masterpiece. I do think that it says a lot about a film though that I can sit through it and be impressed without being able to fully explain why. When I first saw 2001: A Space Odyssey I knew I was watching something great even though I still can't really tell you what the ending is about.
One of the great elements of Orpheus is the style. The film has this strange dream-like feel to it which is accentuated by the special effects. Characters are shown passing through both worlds through mirrors. A close up shows the actors' hands passing through creating a ripple effect, similar to something out of The Matrix. I didn't realize it at first, but that is actually water (which is a natural mirror too). I assume that the other side of the mirror in some scenes is just an identical set on the other side. The other effect which is used a lot is simply playing film in reverse. A shattered mirror fixes itself back into place, dead bodies stiffly rise back to a standing position, gloves jump on and off hands. It is such an absurdly simple trick yet so effective. In Carrie, Brian DePalma filmed a scene backwards, then run in reverse to give the scene a more surreal effect. There is something about playing around with time that gives these film the dream-like feel.
The film does have its problems though. When watching foreign films I'm usually too busy reading the subtitles to notice the acting, but I thought it was mediocre at best. Nobody really stood out to me. I also had problems with plot elements and the characters themselves. So, Orpheus is not allowed to ever look at Eurydice again, yet Eurydice seems to have no qualms at all about it and wants to live like normal. This would create an obvious strain on them and to be safe, they shouldn't even be near each other, yet she doesn't seem to take the threats seriously as she just walks in and out of his line of sight. If I knew looking at someone would mean instant death for them, pretty much the only solution would be to split apart. That may be the point of caveat though, a sort of gift and a curse to be with the one you love, except that by this point Orpheus doesn't seem to really love Eurydice.
Okay, somebody who has seen this movie please tell me what the ending is all about? So Orpheus and The Princess want to be together forever and they seem to have achieved that but then why does she renege on it to return him back to the living with Eurydice? I don't get the sense it was some sort of self sacrifice because it doesn't seem to serve an actual purpose. She never really has any compunction about Eurydice's death or give any indication that they actually should be together so why return him to her? Some parts of the film don't make much logical sense even if it is a fantasy based movie.
Overall, this film had enough to hold my attention and for me to enjoy it for the most part. I didn't care for some parts and I twiddled my thumbs through others, but I cannot deny that it interested me throughout even if it did leave me scratching my head. Like I said though, it may very well be a great movie, I just lack the insight to realize it. It may take a couple more viewings for its greatness to sink in or just some more movie watching and thinking under my belt. Already, I can tell that I have undervalued some of the films I have watched, as I still occasionally think about them, wondering about this or that, replaying a certain scene in my head. That is usually a very good sign for them as movies and maybe I'll think about Orpheus like that too.
Grade: B
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