Main Cast: Jean Marais, Marie Déa, François Perier, Maria Casarés, Juliette Greco
Release Year: 1950
Country: FR
Run Time: 95 minutes
Plot
Cinematic poet Jean Cocteau explored the myth of Orpheus on no fewer than three occasions: Le Sang d'Un Poete (Blood of a Poet, 1930), Orphee (Orpheus, 1949) and Le Testament d'Orphee (1960). This second of his "Orpheus" trilogy stars Jean Marais in the title role. Updated to contemporary Paris (albeit a Paris never seen before or since), the story concerns a sensitive young poet named Orpheus, who is married to the lovely Eurydice (Marie Dea). Orpheus' friend Cegeste (Edouard Dermit) is killed in a traffic accident. In the hospital morgue, Cegeste's patroness, The Princess of Death (Maria Casares), revives the young man; then, both Cegeste and Princess pass into the Underworld. Back on earth, Orpheus receives cryptic messages from Cegeste's spirit, as well as nocturnal visitations from the Princess. Meanwhile, Orpheus' wife enters into an affair with Heurtebise (Francois Perier). After seeking advice on her mixed-up love life, Eurydice is herself struck down and killed by the same cyclist who snuffed out Cegeste's life. It appears to Heurtebise that the ghostly Princess has claimed Eurydice so that she, the Princess, can be free to love Orpheus. Heurtebise persuades Orpheus to accompany him into the Underworld in hopes of returning Eurydice to life. By now, however, Orpheus cares little for his wife; he is completely under the Princess' spell. Offered her own liberation from the Underworld by the powers-that-be, the Princess dolefullly agrees to restore Eurydice to life, and to never have anything to do with Orpheus again. Orpheus has weathered much controversy to take its place among the director's most acclaimed works. Originally released at 112 minutes, the film was whittled down to 95 minutes for its American release. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
The second of filmmaker Jean Cocteau's films about the myth of Orpheus is the most accessible and well-crafted. The Criterion DVD is the best way to experience the film, especially for cinematographer Nicolas Hayer's noir-ish black-and-white imagery. Jean Marais, usually more a screen icon than persuasive actor, is a bit overwrought as Orpheus, but everyone in the supporting cast is solid, especially Maria Casares as the alluring Princess of Death and Francois Perier as Heurtibise, her lovestruck chauffeur. Cocteau expands on some of the themes he suggested in Blood of a Poet concerning the struggle of the artist to understand his role in the physical world and what death may entail, and he continues to explore his fascination with mirrors as portals between this life and the afterlife. Setting the film in the present allows Cocteau to employ one witty touch: Orpheus sitting in the Princess' Rolls Royce, listening to the car radio, which broadcasts messages from the afterlife. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide
Roger Blin - The Writer; Edouard Dermit - Cegeste; Pierre Bertin - The Inspector; Renée Cosima - Bacchante; Henri Cremieux - The Man; Jacques Varennes - The First Judge; Jean Cocteau - Narrator; Jean-Pierre Melville - Hotel Manager; Claude Mauriac
Set in contemporary Paris, the movie is a variation of the classic Greek myth of Orpheus. At the Café des Poètes a brawl is staged by acolytes of the Princess (Casares) and the young poet Cègeste (Edouard Dermithe), the rival of Orpheus the poet, is killed. Cègeste is taken to the car of the princess by her associates, and Orpheus is asked to accompany them as a witness. They drive to a chateau (the landscape through the car windows are presented in negative) acompanied by abstract poetry on the radio. This takes the form of seemingly meaningless messages which are like those broadcast to the French Resistance from London during the Occupation.
Orpheus (Marais) becomes obsessed with Death, the Princess (Casares), while one of Death's associates, Heurtebise (Périer), the Princess' chauffeur, entertains analogous unrequited love for Eurydice (Marie Déa). They fall in love. Orpheus's wife, Eurydice, is killed by the Princess' henchmen and Orpheus goes after her into the Underworld. Although they have become dangerously entangled, the Princess sends Orpheus back out of the Underworld, to carry on his life with Eurydice, but he cannot look at her or she will die. (This diverges from the common classical account found in the Roman versions of the myth by Ovid and Virgil, where Eurydice is lost forever.) They believe it to have been a dream, Eurydice is revealed to be alive, and expecting a child.
Throughout Orpheus , Cocteau uses very simple special effects and trick shots to show his characters passing into the world of death and back to life: They do so by stepping through mirrors, or else the film is reversed.
Cocteau adds many elements from the culture of his time. For example, the messengers of the Princess of Death are grim, leather-clad motorcyclists. The underworld is represented by buildings in France which remained in ruins after World War II, and Orpheus's trial in the underworld is presented in the manner of an inquest held by officials of the German occupation attempting to discover members of the French resistance. At the very end of the film, the Princess and Heurtebise are prisoners, brought forward to face the tribunal, ominously elevated on a pedestal above them.
Most notably, the element of the myth in which Orpheus looks back at Eurydice as she is being led out of the underworld, exactly what he was told not to do and which causes him to lose her, is represented by Orpheus happening to glance at Eurydice in the rear-view mirror of a car.
