User Reviews

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.

Rarely have we encountered movies like this one: a timeless mythical story from Greece brought to screen in Brazilian context, the couple come from the very heart of Brazilian society, from Rio. Yet, what links them is the same sweet feeling that have linked the people for thousands of years no matter what nationality, beliefs or family background. Yes, that is what BLACK ORFEUS offers undeniably. The great romance that bursts out in the magnificence and lavishness of Rio's carnival when, truly, body in dance combines with heart in love. Yet, is that the only reason for calling this movie classic? As a matter of fact, there have been lots of love stories on screen that were quickly forgotten. What is, in fact, the very uniqueness of BLACK ORFEUS that differs it from other movies and that makes it an interesting cinema production after all these years?

We could say, though ridiculous this may seem, that it is everything about this movie that makes it a timeless work on screen. Yet, such a generalized view may, of course, result in simplification and confusion. There are specifically two factors that make BLACK ORFEUS significant or still worth attention: the first one aforementioned timeless love story uniquely and accurately put in the context of Brazil, which, in itself, must have been a challenge due to its innovative nature but the task was beautifully crafted by the director; the second being the cinematography of the movie which still, after almost 50 years, appears to be astounding. Those two aspects, for many viewers, constitute this "everything." This enthusiasm may be compared to a beautiful painting you admire thanks to its exquisiteness. In the same way, any film which has an interesting story and is visually stunning occurs to be an unforgettable work of art. And indeed, BLACK ORFEUS is a lovely visual work, the colors are stunning and the imagery is brilliant. The gorgeous views of Rio, the beautiful moments of sunrise and the charming views of little houses overwhelm even the most cynical viewers. But what about the rest?

Such aspects like performances or action cannot be analyzed in terms of modern cinema, according to what we find in the majority of Hollywood productions. Acting is superb yet their evaluation is exposed to certain opinions that not necessarily occur consistent. These are all Brazilian actors, many of whom are unexperienced when concerning "grand cinema" but this very fact appears to be beneficial for the film since their performances result in authenticity and freshness. You really have a feeling that you watch real people in the very circumstances of the carnival in Rio and their love is genuine. There is a perfect chemistry between Breno Mello as Orfeus and Marpessa Dawn as Eurydice. They beautifully fit to their roles and even their life stories proved that mysterious link. Consider that they both died the same year... Lourdes Oliveira gives rather a funny performance as Mira but is also memorable.

IL ORFEU NEGRO is a very valuable film, a sweet and authentic love story that will for long maintain in your memory as body in dance during the carnival and heart in love during romance. I highly recommend it hoping that like the song of Orfeus was capable of bringing sunrise to the world, this movie will bring in many people the rise of quest for beauty and a profound admiration of tenderness. Only then we can find simple things unusual just like the little boy who perceived his kite as the beautiful sun.

Do they clean the streets in Rio De Janeiro? Well, of course they do. When this carnival is over.

And if you watch this movie you will see that they do it very near the end of the last reel, as in the morning when the truck comes round spraying water, just one of a thousand little details that director Marcel Camus got right, and one of the most insignificant. But it is from a multiplicity of detail that an edifice of cinematic genius is constructed.

The true brilliance of Black Orpheus lies in the people who live on the side of the cliffs overlooking the harbor at Rio. It is their energy that prevails. Then there is the color, the costumes, the pounding rhythms, the spectacular vitality of life that is depicted as a carnival of dance and song in which we are driven along as on a wave. And yet there is the constant reality of death. And it strikes in way we cannot comprehend, fatalistically, and we are helpless to do anything about it. And then Orpheus sings, a new Orpheus perhaps, and the sun rises again, and a little girl in white, looking like Eurydice in miniature, begins to dance as the little boy Orpheus plays his guitar, telling us that time has come round again.

Well, that's the plot as adapted by screen writer Jacques Voit from the play by Vinicius d Moraes as divined from the Greek mythology. Supporting this arresting conception is the music by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Luis Bonfa. I recall the former as the composer of bossanova who gave us "The Girl from Ipanema" and made the samba international. Starring in the title role as the streetcar conductor who is loved by all is Beno Melo, who might be seen as the natural man and native of paradise. The very pretty Marpessa Dawn plays Eurydice, an innocent from the country who falls in love with Orpheus and his song. Lourdes de Oliveira plays his intended, Mira who is hot blooded, vital and beautifully ordinary. But the actress I recall most vividly from the time I first saw this in the sixties was Léa Garcia who played Serafina. Her exuberance and comedic flair struck me as something completely different from anybody I had ever seen before. And then there are the boys who follow Orpheus around and emulate his every move. With their torn shirts and unflagging optimism, they represent the new day that will dawn.

If you haven't seen this classic of world cinema, you are in for a singular experience. There is nothing else like it that I know of. And it is as fresh today as when it was made almost half a century ago.

(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon!)

There are so many reasons Black Orpheus is important to cinema. First, how many people know that prior to Marcel Camus making this film the late Orson Welles attempted to capture Rio Carnival but with no story, plot, or script? In 1942, Welles discovered voodoo was at the root of the carnival samba, and started filming in the favelas, the slum shanty towns on the hills of Rio...it was considered by Hollywood to be anti-establishment and dangerous by Brazilian authorities. Thus, Welles was not able to complete his film.

Samba is a Portuguese form of music, the word was derived from the West African bantu word "semba", meaning "invoke the spirit of the ancestors". Long outlawed as a dangerous expression of black slave culture, samba music eventually gained legitimacy and became a big part of carnival.

Nearly 20 years later Black Orpheus achieves what Welles was trying for and goes beyond it. To start Marcel Camus had a script to work from whereas Welles was trying to wing it on the spot. Camus successfully recreated the Orpheus-Eurydice myth using the Rio Carnival as the back drop. The main characters retain the mythological names, including the symbolic Death. This works because it is Afro-Latin culture where pagan-Christian names were more evident and because the Carnival itself was such an important part of the story. History manifests as a deja vu, a cyclical progression of event and re-incarnation, understood only by the occultic transformation of samba, trance and possession, for which the Carnival is the engine.

To those who misunderstand or are ignorant of samba, voodoo, or the Rio Carnival Black Orpheus may seem overwhelming, especially because of all the singing and dancing but samba (and Carnival) is ritual, in its most elementary form it is a raw cacophony of primitive drumming, clapping, chanting... and the droning cries of the dancers who stagger on the edge of the "stage", seeking possession and reincarnation.

Black Orpheus won the Palm d'Or in 1959 at Cannes. It was seen as progressive because it featured black actors and the pluralist culture of modern Brazil. It also gives outsiders a view inside of a ritualistic, non-Western culture and that is why it was and is so important to cinema.

I had first watched this subtitled in French following my second viewing of Jean Cocteau's seminal masterwork ORPHEUS (1950); both these factors contributed to my being let down by the film, so I was anxious to give it a second - and proper - viewing.

Still, I might go so far as to say that I liked it even less this time around: while the Rio Carnival certainly offers the tragic love story of Orpheus and Eurydice a vivid and uniquely offbeat - if relentlessly noisy - backdrop, there's simply too much local color here (the non-stop dancing is particularly grating) proceeding to rather overwhelm the plot itself...which is what drew me to it in the first place! In fact, the figure of Death which pursues Eurydice doesn't turn up until 40 minutes into the film; its intermittent appearances create some genuine tension here, particularly the superbly-lit scene by the trains where Death finally catches up with its prey - through the unwitting aid of Orpheus himself!

The latter stages see Orpehus searching for his beloved in the 'netherworld' - stumbling, at long last, on a (rather embarrassing) séance where she speaks to him through an old woman in a trance but, as legend has it, he's not content with just hearing her voice and so ends up losing her forever. The final scene, too, is great: Orpheus has reclaimed Eurydice's body, but his going back to 'reality' and the general hubbub of the Carnival (which, given the debris, the flames and the highstrung appearance of Orpheus's former girl, seems to have turned violent in the couple's absence) results in his own unfortunate death; all is not lost, however, as the kids who hang around him throughout the film seem to have finally acquired his unique 'gift' of making the sun rise with the power of guitar playing!

While undeniably interesting in itself and occasionally powerful, BLACK ORPHEUS is no match for the intellectual but totally fascinating poetic touch rendered the tale in Cocteau's definitive version (with which I hope to re-acquaint myself in the near future via the British Film Institute's R2 SE DVD that I purchased recently).

P.S. It seems incredible to me that BLACK ORPHEUS not only won the Best Foreign-Language Film Oscar but the Palme D'Or award at the Cannes Film Festival - where it was competing against such superior films as Luis Bunuel's NAZARIN, Alain Resnais' Hiroshima MON AMOUR and Francois Truffaut's THE 400 BLOWS! For the record, the jury members for that particular year included directors Michael Cacoyannis and Julien Duvivier, producer Carlo Ponti and Hollywood star Gene Kelly!!

Truly a magical film! Black Orpheus (Orfeu Negro) transports you and makes you long for the Rio of the late 50s (slums and all). Marcel Camus has taken a classic tale of eternal love and transplanted it into "modern times" flawlessly. It has it all -- love, suspense, myth, music, dancing, tragedy -- set amidst the frenetic backdrop of the carnival. I'll always thank the friend who introduced me to this film.

Modern updating of the Greek legend "Orpheus and Eurydice" set in Rio during Carnival. Local man meets a naive young woman from the country and they fall in love, but theirs is a doomed affair: he's set to marry a man-hungry spitfire and she's being stalked by a mysterious admirer in costume. French-Brazilian co-production was an international hit and won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film, so it's rather a pity it isn't better. There's wonderful music by Luiz Bonfá and Antonio Carlos Jobim, local ambiance and romance, but the story is awfully creaky by now, and the direction is flat and inexpressive. The color cinematography gives the film a tasty allure, but this verbose plot is ready-built for tragedy, and ultimately all we are left with is the locale and the pretty samba music. *1/2 from ****

"Orfeu Negro" places the Orpheus legend in Rio de Janeiro at the time of its Carnival. Marcel Camus' film is fast paced, shot it beautiful color, has lovely and vibrant music (by Luis Bonfa and Antonio Carlos Jobim) and a most attractive cast, particularly the two leads. There is a vital, throbbing tempo established which seems to propel the story forward in an almost choreographic manner. The film remains a quite unique piece of work, with many haunting images.

I'll admit I put on my Criterion BluRay of BLACK ORPHEUS with scant enthusiasm. I honestly knew nothing about the film and the brief description on the box didn't really sell the film to me. But I am working my way through the films of Criterion and have an agreement with myself not to skip any just because they don't sound great. I've exposed myself to some great films with that approach; movies like THE ASCENT, which I never would have watched otherwise and which now are among my favorites.

BLACK ORPHEUS proved to be entertaining and fairly enjoyable, without really grabbing me. The Criterion bonus features were essential viewing for an uninformed viewer such as myself, so that I could understand the context of this film a little better. That it is widely considered responsible for bringing the excitement of Carnaval in Rio to the world in general is well worth knowing. That it is credited for popularizing the bossa nova is great to know. But does this background make it a great movie to view today?

Yes and no. Black Orpheus is a retelling of the tragic Greek myth of the love between Orpheus and Eurydice (although it's actually based on a play that is this retelling), set against the background of Carnaval. The characters are now citizens of the poorer outskirts of Rio, preparing to celebrate in the big city. Orfeu, his town's lead dancer in the samba school which is going to be parading during Carnaval, is unenthusiastically engaged to Mira. When the enchanting Eurydice comes to town to stay with Serafina (another dancer), Orfeu is immediately drawn to this naïve but lovely young lady. They embark on an affair, stirring up all sorts of domestic turmoil. But in addition, Eurydice is apparently being chased by a strange man she believes wants to kill her (a man dressed in a Death costume, of call things).

The plot of the movie, though neatly related to the Greek story, is really not that terribly interesting, truth be told. The character actions and motivations are often sketchy, and the "death" character is not even remotely adequately explained.

What gives this movie life is the almost constant music and the nearly as constant background of dancing. The drumbeats of the bossa nova are almost always at least in the background if not in the foreground. The villagers wear wild costumes for the festive occasion. The locale is humid and everyone sweats all the time. The atmosphere created by the film is one of frenetic forward movement. One can certainly see why the film popularized the music. It's in the blood, the DNA of the film. What would be a silly drama becomes something actually akin to myth with the addition of all this music. It heightens passions. It creates forward momentum even during introspective moments. And the dance sequences, though filmed in a stagey manner by today's standards, are prolonged and come close to drawing the viewer in to their ecstatic nature. The people in this film can't help but dance; it's palpable.

Without spoiling anything, the latter sections of the film require Orpheus to travel through the underworld of Rio, to some strange locales. These sequences are almost from another film, which is actually totally appropriate. He's gone from the happy, sensuous world of his village and the celebrations on the street to the mysterious and foreboding dark alleys of a sometimes unfriendly city.

In the end, I was very content to have seen the film. The music is sensational. There are ample moments of light and fun. But while it captured my tapping feet and my musical brain, it didn't grab my heart, at least not enough to overlook the sometimes half-baked melodrama. It's tough to recommend the film on its own merits.

Criterion has done a great job, as usual, and their version is the one to see. Allow yourself another 45 minutes or so to enjoy some of the terrific little documentaries that accompany the film.

This movie dazzles me so much that whenever I'm truly depressed, I can watch it and my mood elevates. It's hard to say what aspect is best: the cinematography is superb (makes you want to take the first plane to Rio), the cast is wonderful, the music is haunting and beautiful, and the Orpheus/Eurydice myth is well suited to the setting in a Rio favela. I've only seen it on video, but I keep hoping it will be revived somewhere so I can catch it on the big screen!

This film has a wonderful reputation and is regarded as a classic, so when I got a copy of the film I was expecting something amazing. And, by the time it was complete, I felt like I just didn't get it--why was this film so highly regarded? Perhaps most of the reason this film left me so cold was that Jean Cocteau's version of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice was so much better--with amazing camera work and acting. On the other hand, "Orfeu Negro" just seemed to have one thing going for it--its intense Samba score. The problem is that after a short time I wanted the music to stop!! The viewing experience was like having ADHD and taking crack--it was just so hyper-kinetic it made me want to scream. As for the story, it sure seemed a lot more superficial--they dance and dance and Orfeu falls for Eurydice so easily--with no real character development or even build up. The citizens of Rio all seem like mindless children--dancing their lives away--a rather patronizing view of the nation! And, because of this, I can see why the Brazilians disliked this one-dimensional view the film gave of them.

As I said, I just don't get this film--it didn't do much to satisfy me and I will strongly suggest to my friends they see Cocteau's version instead--it seems much closer to the original source material and is just so much more interesting.

A lot of users will not believe it,but in his native France ,Marcel Camus's name is slowly fading.Worse,"Orfeo negro" is demeaned :it is given only one star in the French dictionary of films.Part of the reason can be found,I think ,in the rest of Camus's career which is mediocre and tarnished his magnum opus by association.But it's unfair.It's a shame a lot of young FRench young people do not even know the existence of this jewel.

"Orfeo negro" is perfection itself: -Its score is one of the most marvelous I can think of ,now stirring,now wistful as this unforgettable song to make the sun rise.

-The Greek myth is superbly recreated ,and the exotic landscapes add magic to the script.

-The actors are dynamic ;the three leads ,Breno Mello,Lourdes de OLiveira and the wunderkind Marpessa Dawn are excellent-why didn't she make the career she deserved?- -The original version is in Portuguese ,which shows Camus's respect for his audience.

-Best scenes:perhaps the scenes in the house of death,with the walk in the papers;also the final scene where children are still there ,to help the sun rise again and again.The meeting with Death in a power station.

An hymn to the sun and to immortality,"Orfeo Negro" is all this and more.

This is one of the only movies that has ever made me weep. It seems a little contrived in the beginning when all the characters just happen to be named after mythological characters, but by the end of the movie, one forgets all about how the movie could have been corny. It's definitely the best subtitled film I've seen, and I hope more people vote on it so that it can get on the top 250.

"Black Orpheus" was, by all accounts, a huge success when it first appeared, winning both the Palme d'Or and the Oscar for Best Foreign Language film but it has become somewhat neglected in recent years. It's not strictly a musical although it boasts a very good score by Luiz Bonfa and Antonio Carlos Jobim as it transposes the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice to Rio during carnival and it was for its score and for director Marcel Camus' superb use of colour, (DoP is Jean Bourgoin) that it became famous. However, the acting and the script leave a lot to be desired and you get the feeling a lot more could have been made of the setting. You may also wonder what all the fuss was about as it is certainly not the masterpiece some people said it was at the time.

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

Barack Obama notes in his memoir "Dreams from My Father" (1995) that it was his mother's favorite film. Obama, however, didn't share his mother's preferences upon first watching the film during his first years at Columbia University: "I suddenly realized that the depiction of the childlike blacks I was now seeing on the screen, the reverse image of Conrad's dark savages, was what my mother had carried with her to Hawaii all those years before, a reflection of the simple fantasies that had been forbidden to a white, middle-class girl from Kansas, the promise of another life: warm, sensual, exotic, different."

An interesting interpretation. Indeed, what I find interesting is how what it means to be black varies so much from one country to the next. What we see here could never have been an American film in 1959. It is just so far outside of what was possible. And yet, it seems perfectly natural for Brazil.

The Greek mythology parallel is nice, but it is most interesting to see what passed for Brazilian culture in the 1950s. What an entirely different world from what we knew in the United States.

I love this movie for its incredibly gorgeous music, actors and landscapes. The children are delightful and natural. There are scenes that will make you cry. To see the movie on the big screen in the original Portuguese is heavenly.

There is no hesitation in admitting that this is a new version of the classic myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. But throw in the music as a magical component. The Antonio Carlos Jobim track is all over the place. It's at time almost operatic in its storytelling. We have all the components: the title character and his unfortunate love, the evil woman who directs fate, the Hades figure, and the theme of rebirth. It seems at times a bit dated and the fact that because it's Carnival people seem to dance and sing twenty-four hours a day (possibly in their sleep) takes us away from a sense of reality. But then, it's still a mythological story. A very important film which has withstood the test of time.