RomanceFantasyDrama

Orpheus

A poet in love with Death follows his unhappy wife into the underworld.

Release Date : 1950-09-29

Language :French

Adult : false

Status : Released

Production Company : Films du Palais RoyalAndre Paulve Film

Production Country : France

Alternative Titles :

Cast

Character Name : Orphée

Original Name : Jean Marais

Gender : Male

Character Name : Heurtebise

Original Name : François Périer

Gender : Male

Character Name : Death

Original Name : María Casares

Gender : Female

Character Name : Eurydice

Original Name : Marie Déa

Gender : Female

Character Name : Editor

Original Name : Henri Crémieux

Gender : Male

Character Name : Aglaonice

Original Name : Juliette Gréco

Gender : Female

Character Name : The Poet

Original Name : Roger Blin

Gender : Male

Character Name : Jacques Cégeste

Original Name : Edouard Dermithe

Gender : Male

Character Name : Judge

Original Name : André Carnège

Gender : Male

Character Name : Judge

Original Name : René Worms

Gender : Male

Character Name : Journalist

Original Name : Raymond Faure

Gender : Male

Character Name : Commissioner

Original Name : Pierre Bertin

Gender : Male

Character Name : Judge

Original Name : Jacques Varennes

Gender : Male

Character Name : Judge (uncredited)

Original Name : Paul Amiot

Gender : Male

Character Name : Young Man at Café des Poètes (uncredited)

Original Name : Philippe Bordier

Gender : Male

Character Name : Une bacchante (uncredited)

Original Name : Claude Borelli

Gender : Female

Character Name : Young Man on the Terrace of the Flora (uncredited)

Original Name : Jean-Louis Brau

Gender : Male

Character Name : Narrator (voice) (uncredited)

Original Name : Jean Cocteau

Gender : Male

Character Name : Une bacchante (uncredited)

Original Name : Renée Cosima

Gender : Female

Character Name : Young Man at Café des Poètes (uncredited)

Original Name : Jacques Doniol-Valcroze

Gender : Male

Character Name : Postman (uncredited)

Original Name : René Lacourt

Gender : Male

Character Name : Police Officer (uncredited)

Original Name : Julien Maffre

Gender : Male

Character Name : (uncredited)

Original Name : Claude Mauriac

Gender : Male

Character Name : Hotel Manager (uncredited)

Original Name : Jean-Pierre Melville

Gender : Male

Character Name : Band Leader (uncredited)

Original Name : Jean-Pierre Mocky

Gender : Male

Character Name : Young Man at Café des Poètes (uncredited)

Original Name : Henri San Juan

Gender : Male

Character Name : Young Man at Café des Poètes (uncredited)

Original Name : Victor Tabournot

Gender : Male

Reviews

CinemaSerf

@Geronimo1967

2024-02-05

Accomplished poet "Orphée" (Jean Marais) is sitting in a café with a friend one afternoon when a fracas breaks out with some local students that necessitates the intervention of the police and causes a tragedy to occur. A woman in a Rolls Royce turns up and asks her aides to put an injured man into her car. Shen then rather bossily requires the writer to accompany her as a witness. He assumes they are going to hospital, but it turns out the man - "Cegeste" (Edouard Dermithe) is already dead and that she (María Casares), well she is certainly not the "princess" she purports to be. If you're at all familiar with the "Orpheus" episode from Greek legend then you will be able to guess much of the rest of this as he finds himself embroiled in the plottings of Death. The complication here is that she takes a bit of a shine to him, and her chauffeur "Heurtebise" (Francois Périer) falls in love with his wife "Eurydice" (Marie Déa). My what a web we do weave. Now all in the underworld, a tribunal of death rules that things have not gone to plan and that the husband and wife are to be returned to their world - but only for so long as he doesn't look at her - else back she goes. A little unfair I thought given they'd done nothing wrong and weren't on the hit list in the first place - but that was the deal. Can they make it work? Now, do they even want to? I found Marais could be quite wooden at times, indeed he might have made for a decent "Tarzan" - but here he gels well with both Déa and with a strikingly effective Casares. Cocteau manages to integrate the ancient mythology within a modern day setting in a fashion that cleverly uses simple visual effects - and mirrors - to achieve the concept of a parallel world of "Hades" without making it all look ridiculously fake. He also manages to remove just about all the gooey sentiment from this romance, too. Next time you look at a pair of rubber gloves, though - best beware!