Orpheus (film)

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Movie
German title Orpheus
Original title Orphée
Country of production France
original language French
Publishing year 1950
length 95 minutes
Age rating JMK from 16
Rod
Director Jean Cocteau
script Jean Cocteau
production André Paulvé
music Georges Auric
camera Nicolas Hayer
cut Jacqueline Sadoul
occupation

and as guests:

chronology

←  Predecessor
The blood of a poet

Successor  →
The Testament of Orpheus

Orpheus is a 1949 French film directed by Jean Cocteau and based on the ancient saga of Orpheus and Eurydice .

action

The plot has been moved to the present. The young poet Orpheus is sitting in a Parisian poet's café when his drunken colleague Cégeste is drawn into a tangible argument that is provoked by a dark, mysterious woman called the Princess. The dispute quickly turns into a solid brawl, in which Cégeste is seriously injured by two black-clad motorcyclists, the princess's escort. The princess has the no longer approachable poet brought into her carriage and asks Orpheus to follow her. All three continue. Arriving in front of a castle, Cégeste is already dead. Orpheus realizes that the princess is none other than a messenger of death who is obviously waiting for him too. The princess begins to fall in love with Orpheus.

An obsession develops more and more between Orpheus and this angel of death, who seems to walk in different dimensions and times. Night after night the princess steps out of a mirror and watches Orpheus. One day he wakes up in a landscape. Heurtebise, the princess's chauffeur, drives Orpheus to his house, where his wife Eurydice awaits him longingly. The love between her and her husband seemed so far without a doubt, but now everything threatens to change. The influence of the princess on Orpheus is subconsciously increasing. Orpheus now also spends a lot of time with Heurtebise, sitting in his car and listening to poetic verses on the radio, which seem to be nothing more than messages from the dead Cégeste. Heurtebise begins to fall in love with Eurydice, who is pregnant by her husband. In order to finally win Orpheus over, the jealous princess has Eurydice murdered by her two henchmen.

Heurtebise now changes sides and helps Orpheus. He shows him a way into the realm of the dead to see Eurydice again and to bring him back. It is about the underworld, where the arbitrary actions of the princess are tried. Since Eurydice's death was not yet foreseen under normal circumstances, Orpheus is allowed to return with her to reality, both lives. But there is one condition: Both lovers must never look at each other again, otherwise Eurydice will disappear forever. For Orpheus it is now hell never to look his wife in the eyes again. Eurydice, in turn, senses that she is in danger of losing Orpheus more and more to the messenger of death, the princess. One day it happens, rather by accident. When Orpheus looks in the rear-view mirror of Heurtebise's car, he sees Eurydice. She disappears.

Orpheus himself is haunted by angry friends of the dead Cégeste who want to know from him what has happened to him since he left the poets' café with Orpheus and the princess. The situation escalates, a stray bullet hits Orpheus and kills him. And again Orpheus enters the underworld and meets the princess. He promises her everlasting love. In order to save Orpheus and the poetry, the princess now sacrifices herself. Her chauffeur turns the time and thus changes the course of things. The couple finds themselves in their room and both love each other like on the first day. “Orpheus and Eurydice are saved; death dies - the symbol of immortality for the poet. "

Production notes

Orpheus was filmed from September 12th to November 16th, 1949. It premiered on March 1, 1950 at the Cannes Film Festival . The film ran nationwide on September 29, 1950. The film premiered in Germany on October 11, 1950, and in Austria on January 12, 1951.

Orpheus is a revision of the one-act play of the same name written by Cocteau in 1925. It is considered the middle part of a Cocteau trilogy. The other two films are The Poet's Blood (Le sang d'un poète) from 1930 and the Orpheus continuation "The Testament of Orpheus" (Le Testament d'Orphée), which was received far less euphorically by critics . This production, created in 1959, was also to be Cocteau's last movie.

The young chansonette Juliette Gréco can be seen here in her first important film role. She plays the leader, based on the mythological figure of Aglaonike , of a troupe of Bacchantes designed by Cocteau to be emphatically feminist .

The films are made by Jean d'Eaubonne , the costumes by Marcel Escoffier .

Orpheus was awarded the Grand Prize at the Venice Film Festival .

criticism

The lexicon of the international film writes: “Cocteau ties in with the content and form of the motifs of his first film (“ Das Blut des Dichters ”, 1931) and draws the viewer into an artfully nested labyrinth of poetic signs, mythological allusions and ironic swipes at the Situation of the modern artist. The amazing cinematographic tricks, some of which resulted from the playful use of technology and chance, have retained their charm over the decades. "

The film's large lexicon of people stated: “Again Cocteau played with enigmatic images of love and death, stylistically immersed in a world of shadows and trickery gimmicks, full of allusions and self-quotations that reveal a connection with“ The Poet's Blood ””.

Reclam's film guide says: “Cocteau plays here in a fascinating way with myths and images. He creates a world of penumbra, of puzzles, in which mirrors to the door to the afterlife, black uniformed motorcyclists become messengers of death. The emphatically everyday, realistic images become a vehicle for mysterious allusions: death bears the same face as love, the poet is death's darling. The unreal invades reality - death wanders the streets of Paris; and the hereafter, with its ritual of interrogations and negotiations, is emphasized on this side. Cocteau achieved this limbo of reality with cinematic means. "

Bucher's encyclopedia of the film reads: “Cocteau went to great lengths to achieve the necessary tricks; he used negative images, reverse slow motion and even went so far as to fill a tank with mercury to show Orpheus' hand disappearing in the mirror. Orphée , a gorgeous film, was immediately hailed as a masterpiece. "

Heinrich Fraenkel 's 'Immortal Film' summed up: “The mystery of love can only be grasped with the feeling and never with the mind, writes Jean Cocteau in the comments on his Orphée. The fact that this poet and philosopher found the cinematic form to be the only appropriate one for the creation of a modernist Orpheus legend was justified by the extraordinary urgency with which the bond between his lovers, which cannot be separated by death, was illustrated. "

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ cit. n. Reclams film guide, p. 451
  2. ↑ Klaus Brüne (Red.): Das Lexikon des Internationale Films, Volume 6, P. 2855, Reinbek bei Hamburg 1987
  3. ↑ Kay Less : The film's great personal dictionary . The actors, directors, cameramen, producers, composers, screenwriters, film architects, outfitters, costume designers, editors, sound engineers, make-up artists and special effects designers of the 20th century. Volume 2: C - F. John Paddy Carstairs - Peter Fritz. Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-89602-340-3 , p. 112.
  4. ↑ Reclams Filmführer, by Dieter Krusche, collaboration: Jürgen Labenski. P. 451. Stuttgart 1973.
  5. ↑ Bucher's Encyclopedia of Films, Verlag CJ Bucher, Lucerne and Frankfurt / M. 1977, p. 572.
  6. ↑ Fraenkel: Immortal Film. The big chronicle from the first note to the colored wide screen. Munich 1957. p. 262

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