Orfeu Negro (1959)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

Director:

Marcel Camus

Writers:

Marcel Camus (writer)
Jacques Viot (writer)
(more)

Release Date:

21 December 1959 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Comedy | Romance

Plot:

A retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth, set during the time of the Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro.

Plot Keywords:

Carnival | Trolley | Samba | Dance | South America

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 3 wins & 1 nomination

US Showtimes:

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Cast

Breno Mello	...	Orfeo
Marpessa Dawn	...	Eurydice
Marcel Camus	...	Ernesto
Fausto Guerzoni	...	Fausto
Lourdes de Oliveira	...	Mira
Léa Garcia	...	Serafina
Ademar Da Silva	...	Death
Alexandro Constantino	...	Hermes
Waldemar De Souza	...	Chico
Jorge Dos Santos	...	Benedito
Aurino Cassiano	...	Zeca
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Maria Alice
Ana Amélia
Elizeth Cardoso
Arlete Costa
Maria de Lourdes
Modesto De Souza
Agostinho dos Santos
Afonso Marinho
Esther Mellinger
Eunice Mendes
Dinorah Miranda
Zeni Pereira
Teresa Santos

Directed by
Marcel Camus

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Marcel Camus		writer
Vinicius de Moraes		play "Orfeu do Carnaval"
Jacques Viot		writer

Produced by
Sacha Gordine	....	producer

Original Music by
Luiz Bonfá
Antonio Carlos Jobim

Cinematography by
Jean Bourgoin

Film Editing by
Andrée Feix

Production Design by
Pierre Guffroy

Production Management
Roberto Bakker	....	assistant production manager
Jacques Gibault	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Bartolomeu Andrade	....	assistant director
Robert Mazoyer	....	assistant director

Sound Department
Amaury Leenhardt	....	sound
Raymond Pierre Lemoigne	....	supervising sound editor

Editorial Department
Geneviève Winding	....	assistant editor

Other crew
Silvio Autuori	....	production assistant
Roger Blanché	....	production assistant
Francisco A. Vilela	....	production assistant

Production Companies

• Dispat Films
• Gemma
• Tupan Filmes

Distributors

• Lopert Pictures Corporation (1959) (USA) (theatrical) (subtitled)
• Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) (1978) (USA) (TV) (network premiere)
• Criterion Collection, The (1999) (USA) (DVD)
• Versátil Home Vídeo (2003) (Brazil) (DVD)
• Umbrella Entertainment (2004) (Australia) (DVD)
• UFA Film Hansa (1959) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• CBS Video (1981) (USA) (VHS)
• Criterion Collection, The (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• GAGA Communications
• Globo Vídeo (????) (Brazil) (VHS)
• Janus Films (????) (worldwide) (VHS)
• MGM/CBS Home Video (1981) (USA) (VHS)
• atlas Film (????) (Germany) (VHS)

Also Known As:

Black Orpheus (USA)
Orfeo negro (Italy)
Orfeu do Carnaval
Orphée noir (France)

Runtime:

100 min | 107 min

Country:

Brazil | France | Italy

Language:

Portuguese

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (70 mm prints) | Mono (35 mm prints)

Certification:

UK:A (original rating) | UK:PG (video rating) (1994) | West Germany:16 (f) | Australia:PG | Finland:K-16 | France:U | Sweden:15 | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Company:

Dispat Films

Movie Connections:

Featured in À la recherche d'Orfeu Negro (2004) (TV)

Rio de Janeiro, where myths become real

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.