Customer Reviews

Orpheus [VHS]

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4 star:		(1)
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Whether you think it is deep or merely whimsical, it is awfully difficult to dislike a film which starts with Death's chauffeur calling the cops because the poets are brawling at the local cafe. Jean Cocteau's Orphee (Orpheus) is possibly the most uncharacterizable film ever: neither high art nor low, and neither a recasting of the classical Orphic myth nor a refutation of the original. If anything, Orphee is in fact all of these things simultaneously, and therein lies its art.
In the original Greek myth, Orphee loses his wife and is told that he may go to the underworld and retrieve her if he takes her by the hand and never looks back. He fails at this and she is gone to him and he returns to the world of the living without her. In an affiliated legend, Orphee dies a bloody death years later but is consequently reunited with his wife Eurydice who has been waiting for him.
The original myth suggests a belief in a romantic love that endures past death, but one that specifically rewards monogamous faithfullness. But with stipulations:the reward is in the next world, with no promises regarding thisworldly happiness. Moreover, the Greeks didn't allow for what happens to the bonds formed with subsequent spouses of widowed people.
This clearly troubled Cocteau, as does his Catholic "till death do us part", wherein people are expected to never divorce or seek new lovers, and to not have mates in the afterlife. Cocteau's version is similarly unpromising with respect to thiswordly happiness, but since Heurtibise(Death's chauffeur) and Euridice secretly wish to be together, as do the "Princess"(i.e., Death) and Orphee, maybe in their failure they get what they want.
So Cocteau holds out hope in his retelling, adapting the myth to suit his purposes while he simultaneously mocks the importance of myth-making. (At one point Orphee is asked by one of the underworld judges if he is a writer. He replies that he is a poet, adding that "a poet is a writer who writes but isn't a writer.)

With Heurtebise's help(and trick photography), Orphee goes back to the underworld to retrieve his wife. When he arrives he is made to testify in some sort of trial. He thinks he is on trial at first, but it is the princess, Death who is on trial, and it is through the process of the trial that he realizes that she loves him too. Later, he says to Death-

Orphee:"Who gives the orders?"
Death:"They come to us, as if in a dream...or like the beating of jungle drums."
Orphee:"I will go to him who gives the orders."
Death:"Some think he imagines us. Others that he sleeps, and we are his dreams..."

This exchange is the closest that Cocteau comes to offering a set of religious beliefs anywhere in Orphee. (Perhaps notably, one of the nonsense verses that come across the car radio earlier tells Orphee that the dreamer must listen to his dreams.)

Cocteau is more concerned with mood than with plot per se, and I suppose this may trouble some viewers. But for me, the dream-like, atmospheric quality of this film is more than suitable compensation. The car radio is right...

I have seen the 'cheap' version of this movie on VHS and it is terrible. A beautiful, mesmerizing film butchered by terrible sound, a faded print, and subtitles that go off the screen. The people responsible for this should be ashamed. This edition is truly a waste of money.

No one in film moved toward a transformation of the mythic impulse for modernity more profoundly than Jean Cocteau, and this is a perfect example of that art in practice. The film's influence, along with the rest of Cocteau's work ranges far and wide. One can see it in the work of David Lynch, in last year's Sixth Sense, etc. This is a film about a poet, but it's much more, it's poetry itself.

Jean Cocteau described himself solely as a poet, and all of his work, as he said, was poetry. Orpheus is exactly like a poem--once you are affected by it, it never leaves. Cocteau masterfully combines surrealism with an engrossing retake on an ancient myth. The viewer is immediately drawn into this complex and fascinating, irrational, subconscious world. I highly recommend this film for all those interested in real movies.

The Princess of Death loved one man - which is not allowed. Beautiful sounds enhance the beautiful scenes and lead you into the world consists of love, death, and life. The Princess of Death sacrificed herself for Orphee in the end. I cannot forget the final scene that she leaves.

Jean Cocteau's amazing and magical version of the Orpheus myth. It's a brilliant combination of the ancient story brought about in a modern context: there are Death and Orpheus and Eurydice, of course, but there are also motorcycles used as instruments of death, Rolls Royces and their radios that send secret messages, and magic mirrors. There are also alterations to the original made by Cocteau: Orpheus falls in love with Death (who is female) and she with him; Death makes the great sacrifice by giving Orpheus back to his "earthly" love Eurydice.

It's a brilliant, beautiful film. Jean Marais is excellent as the great poet Orpheus, who has turned lazy and slothful, but is later redeemed. The film deserves many viewings to get the most from it.

you will be taken on a trip to a place you have never been before. beyond all understanding.

A must for fans of off beat classics. Great surreal passages like some of Welles, Hitchcock, Bunuel etc.. Let me know what you think, or suggest one, thanks.