With readers turning to their home viewing options more than ever, this daily feature provides one new movie each day worth checking out on a major streaming platform.
To fill the void left by the absence of this year’s Cannes Film Festival, for the next two weeks, this column will be dedicated to films that premiered at the festival over the course of seven decades.
Frenchman Marcel Camus’ 1959 work of audiovisual splendor, “Black Orpheus,” sets the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice in the slums of Rio de Janeiro during Carnaval. Based on the play, “Orfeu da Conceição,” by the Brazilian writer Vinicius de Moraes, the film, now streaming on the Criterion Channel and Kanopy, was quite literally a coming-out party for Brazil, albeit as a European-American curiosity. It was the first internationally acclaimed film to take place entirely in a favela, with an all-black Brazilian cast, and is...
To fill the void left by the absence of this year’s Cannes Film Festival, for the next two weeks, this column will be dedicated to films that premiered at the festival over the course of seven decades.
Frenchman Marcel Camus’ 1959 work of audiovisual splendor, “Black Orpheus,” sets the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice in the slums of Rio de Janeiro during Carnaval. Based on the play, “Orfeu da Conceição,” by the Brazilian writer Vinicius de Moraes, the film, now streaming on the Criterion Channel and Kanopy, was quite literally a coming-out party for Brazil, albeit as a European-American curiosity. It was the first internationally acclaimed film to take place entirely in a favela, with an all-black Brazilian cast, and is...
- 5/14/2020
- by Tambay Obenson
- Indiewire
Stars: Breno Mello, Marpessa Dawn, Lourdes de Oliveira, Lea Garcia | Written by Marcel Camus, Vinicius de Moraes, Jacques Viot | Directed by Marcel Camus
Made in 1959 by the French filmmaker Marcel Camus, Black Orpheus is a Portuguese-language adaptation of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Here it is relocated to Rio de Janeiro, during Carnaval, which gives the impression that the city is in perennial party mode.
Orfeu (Breno Mello) is an eager young musician who happens to greet Eurydice (Marpessa Dawn) as she arrives in Rio for the first time. Both are in an awkward position. Orfeu is facing a marriage to Mira (Lourdes de Oliveira), whom he doesn’t love. (He’d rather spend his money on a guitar than a wedding ring.) Eurydice is on the run from a stalker: a man dressed as Death.
It turns out Death has followed her to Rio. Orfeu chases him off,...
Made in 1959 by the French filmmaker Marcel Camus, Black Orpheus is a Portuguese-language adaptation of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Here it is relocated to Rio de Janeiro, during Carnaval, which gives the impression that the city is in perennial party mode.
Orfeu (Breno Mello) is an eager young musician who happens to greet Eurydice (Marpessa Dawn) as she arrives in Rio for the first time. Both are in an awkward position. Orfeu is facing a marriage to Mira (Lourdes de Oliveira), whom he doesn’t love. (He’d rather spend his money on a guitar than a wedding ring.) Eurydice is on the run from a stalker: a man dressed as Death.
It turns out Death has followed her to Rio. Orfeu chases him off,...
- 1/16/2017
- by Rupert Harvey
- Nerdly
Marc Allégret: From André Gide lover to Simone Simon mentor (photo: Marc Allégret) (See previous post: "Simone Simon Remembered: Sex Kitten and Femme Fatale.") Simone Simon became a film star following the international critical and financial success of the 1934 romantic drama Lac aux Dames, directed by her self-appointed mentor – and alleged lover – Marc Allégret.[1] The son of an evangelical missionary, Marc Allégret (born on December 22, 1900, in Basel, Switzerland) was to have become a lawyer. At age 16, his life took a different path as a result of his romantic involvement – and elopement to London – with his mentor and later "adoptive uncle" André Gide (1947 Nobel Prize winner in Literature), more than 30 years his senior and married to Madeleine Rondeaux for more than two decades. In various forms – including a threesome with painter Théo Van Rysselberghe's daughter Elisabeth – the Allégret-Gide relationship remained steady until the late '20s and their trip to...
- 2/28/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Well we all knew this would happen. Back in February, when Criterion announced their epic digital streaming partnership with Hulu, they also quietly revealed that their streaming options on Netflix would be coming to an end over the course of the next year. While I haven’t been paying close attention to the Criterion Collection films that have been expiring since that announcement was made, I thought it would be helpful to all of you loyal Netflix subscribers to know that in about twelve days, 26 titles will be expiring on the 26th of May, 2011.
I’ve gone and linked to all of the titles below, so you can click on the cover art or the text, and be taken to their corresponding Netflix pages. While this isn’t everything that Criterion has to offer on Netflix, it is a nice chunk of really important films. If you don’t currently have a Netflix subscription,...
I’ve gone and linked to all of the titles below, so you can click on the cover art or the text, and be taken to their corresponding Netflix pages. While this isn’t everything that Criterion has to offer on Netflix, it is a nice chunk of really important films. If you don’t currently have a Netflix subscription,...
- 5/15/2011
- by Ryan Gallagher
- CriterionCast
Every Sunday, Film School Rejects presents a movie that was made before you were born and tells you why you should like it. This week, Old Ass Movies presents the story of two star cross’d lovers who find themselves miles and years away from their origin. A retelling of the tragic Orpheus and Eurydice tale, Black Orpheus ditches the classical Greek setting and opts instead for the rich sights and sounds of Brazil during Carnaval. It’s a beautiful story set to unending drum-beats and a madness to which everyone succumbs. Black Orpheus (1959) Directed by: Marcel Camus Starring: Breno Mello, Marpessa Dawn, Lourdes de Oliveira, Lea Garcia, and Adhemar da Silva Even though Orpheus (Breno Mello), a trolley driver, is engaged to be married to the beautiful and showy Mira (Lourdes de Oliveira), he’s not exactly enthusiastic about it. Sure, she can shake her God-given talents like no other woman in the whole city of...
- 1/30/2011
- by Cole Abaius
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
DVD Playhouse—August 2010
By
Allen Gardner
Black Orpheus (Criterion) Winner of the 1959 Best Foreign Film Oscar and that same year’s Palme d’Or at Cannes, Black Orpheus is a modern-day update of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice reset in 20th century Brazil during Carnival in Rio. Director Marcel Camus offers up a visual feast with some of the decade’s most ravishing color cinematography. A classic. Also available on Blu-ray disc. Bonuses: Archival interviews with Camus and actress Marpessa Dawn; Interviews with Brazilian cinema scholar Robert Stam, jazz historian Gary Giddins, and Brazilian author Ruy Castro; Documentary on the film; Trailer. Full screen. Dolby 1.0 mono.
The Last Song (Touchstone) Sentimental adaptation of Nicholas Sparks’ (by Sparks and Jeff Van Wie) sentimental novel about a father and daughter attempting to repair their damaged relationship. Greg Kinnear, as the dad in question, comes off best, while tween sensation Miley Cyrus...
By
Allen Gardner
Black Orpheus (Criterion) Winner of the 1959 Best Foreign Film Oscar and that same year’s Palme d’Or at Cannes, Black Orpheus is a modern-day update of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice reset in 20th century Brazil during Carnival in Rio. Director Marcel Camus offers up a visual feast with some of the decade’s most ravishing color cinematography. A classic. Also available on Blu-ray disc. Bonuses: Archival interviews with Camus and actress Marpessa Dawn; Interviews with Brazilian cinema scholar Robert Stam, jazz historian Gary Giddins, and Brazilian author Ruy Castro; Documentary on the film; Trailer. Full screen. Dolby 1.0 mono.
The Last Song (Touchstone) Sentimental adaptation of Nicholas Sparks’ (by Sparks and Jeff Van Wie) sentimental novel about a father and daughter attempting to repair their damaged relationship. Greg Kinnear, as the dad in question, comes off best, while tween sensation Miley Cyrus...
- 8/29/2010
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
A look at what's new on DVD today:
"The Assassin Next Door" (2009)
Directed by Danny Lerner
Released by First Look Studios
Retitled since its premiere at last year's Toronto Film Festival as "Kirot," Bond girl Olga Kurylenko is the one handling the gun in this thriller about two women -- an assassin and a grocery clerk -- desperate to leave their lot in life who hatch a plan to improve their situation and decidedly won't do the same for the men who stand in their way.
"Black Orpheus" (1959)
Directed by Marcel Camus
Released by Criterion Collection
Marcel Camus' Palme d'Or-winning Brazilian-set retelling of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurdice is reissued by Criterion Collection on Blu-ray and DVD with a completely new set of extras including the French documentary "Looking for 'Black Orpheus'" about the film's legacy and archival interviews with Camus and actress Marpessa Dawn.
"Burning Bright...
"The Assassin Next Door" (2009)
Directed by Danny Lerner
Released by First Look Studios
Retitled since its premiere at last year's Toronto Film Festival as "Kirot," Bond girl Olga Kurylenko is the one handling the gun in this thriller about two women -- an assassin and a grocery clerk -- desperate to leave their lot in life who hatch a plan to improve their situation and decidedly won't do the same for the men who stand in their way.
"Black Orpheus" (1959)
Directed by Marcel Camus
Released by Criterion Collection
Marcel Camus' Palme d'Or-winning Brazilian-set retelling of the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurdice is reissued by Criterion Collection on Blu-ray and DVD with a completely new set of extras including the French documentary "Looking for 'Black Orpheus'" about the film's legacy and archival interviews with Camus and actress Marpessa Dawn.
"Burning Bright...
- 8/17/2010
- by Stephen Saito
- ifc.com
The 1959 Marcel Camus classic Black Orpheus (Winner of both the 1960 Academy Award for best foreign-language film, and the 1959 Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or) has already been honored with the Criterion Collection treatment (in 1999); however, those who own the a copy will know just how bare it is – 1 disc with virtually no extra features; just an extended cut of the film.
Realizing their “error,” the Criterion group has just released a new and improved Black Orpheus on DVD (and Blu-Ray), loaded with several items that should both edify and entertain. The new Black Orpheus Criterion Collection release comes with 2 discs (unlike its predecessor), with special features that include, a new, restored high-definition digital transfer, archival interviews with director Marcel Camus and star actress Marpessa Dawn; new video interviews with film critics Robert Stam, Gary Giddins, and Brazilian journalist Ruy Castro; a feature-length documentary on the making of the film,...
Realizing their “error,” the Criterion group has just released a new and improved Black Orpheus on DVD (and Blu-Ray), loaded with several items that should both edify and entertain. The new Black Orpheus Criterion Collection release comes with 2 discs (unlike its predecessor), with special features that include, a new, restored high-definition digital transfer, archival interviews with director Marcel Camus and star actress Marpessa Dawn; new video interviews with film critics Robert Stam, Gary Giddins, and Brazilian journalist Ruy Castro; a feature-length documentary on the making of the film,...
- 8/17/2010
- by Tambay
- ShadowAndAct
As much as Criterion seems to love their austere period dramas, their extreme genre pushing pieces, and their black and white French coming of age films, every so often, they release, or in the case of Black Orpheus, re-release a film that takes the collection to a completely different place.
When looking at the collection as a whole, very few releases are as stand out as the 1959 Marcel Camus directed love letter to Brazil and it’s then ever growing art scene, Black Orpheus. Based on the legendary Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, takes the story, and plants it in the heart of a favela in Rio de Janeiro, during the then rarely filmed Carnaval, and follows Orfeo, a trolley conductor and aspiring musician, who is engaged to the lively and utterly breathtaking Mira. However, during Carnaval, after being chased from her home by a mysterious stalker dressed in a skeleton costume,...
When looking at the collection as a whole, very few releases are as stand out as the 1959 Marcel Camus directed love letter to Brazil and it’s then ever growing art scene, Black Orpheus. Based on the legendary Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, takes the story, and plants it in the heart of a favela in Rio de Janeiro, during the then rarely filmed Carnaval, and follows Orfeo, a trolley conductor and aspiring musician, who is engaged to the lively and utterly breathtaking Mira. However, during Carnaval, after being chased from her home by a mysterious stalker dressed in a skeleton costume,...
- 8/17/2010
- by Joshua Brunsting
- CriterionCast
In 1959, a little French-Brazilian film called "Black Orpheus" captured the imagination of the world, won numerous awards (including the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film and the Palme d'Or at Cannes), and launched the career of a gorgeous Black American actress, Marpessa Dawn... Here's what you had to say: Briah: "I loved 'Black Orpheus.' I remember as a little girl thinking that Marpessa Dawn was one of the most beautiful women ever!"...
- 7/29/2010
- Essence
The great 1959 Brazilian film Black Orpheus, which I recently wrote about on S & A which you can read Here is coming out in a brand spanking new restoration on Criterion in both standard and Blu-ray versions on Aug. 17.
Among the extras will be archival interviews with the director Marcel Camus and the film’s lead actress Marpessa Dawn, who was actually a native of Pittsburgh and who passed away in 2008, and new video interviews with Brazilian cinema scholar Robert Stam, jazz historian Gary Giddins and Brazilian author Ruy Castro. (Trivia: In a strange coincidence the lead actor of the film Breno Mello died only a month and a half before Dawn)...
Among the extras will be archival interviews with the director Marcel Camus and the film’s lead actress Marpessa Dawn, who was actually a native of Pittsburgh and who passed away in 2008, and new video interviews with Brazilian cinema scholar Robert Stam, jazz historian Gary Giddins and Brazilian author Ruy Castro. (Trivia: In a strange coincidence the lead actor of the film Breno Mello died only a month and a half before Dawn)...
- 5/19/2010
- by Sergio
- ShadowAndAct
Well here we are, another mid-month Criterion Collection New Release announcement extravaganza. A few titles that we suspected, due to rumors and various clues, and new addition to Maurice Pilat’s section of the Criterion Collection.
First off, we’re getting a re-release of a Criterion classic, Marcel Camus’ Black Orpheus. This is Criterion #48, so they are keeping in line with their re-releasing older titles, with new features, transfers, and absolutely gorgeous cover art. This Black Orpheus painting is one that I would certainly buy a print of, to hang on my wall. Black Orpheus will be released on August 17th on DVD and Blu-ray
A few weeks back, we told you about how the New York Times, in their Summer DVD column, let loose the idea that Criterion was working on a collection of Josef Von Sternberg titles, and we now have a complete list of the films, along with supplemental materials and artwork.
First off, we’re getting a re-release of a Criterion classic, Marcel Camus’ Black Orpheus. This is Criterion #48, so they are keeping in line with their re-releasing older titles, with new features, transfers, and absolutely gorgeous cover art. This Black Orpheus painting is one that I would certainly buy a print of, to hang on my wall. Black Orpheus will be released on August 17th on DVD and Blu-ray
A few weeks back, we told you about how the New York Times, in their Summer DVD column, let loose the idea that Criterion was working on a collection of Josef Von Sternberg titles, and we now have a complete list of the films, along with supplemental materials and artwork.
- 5/14/2010
- by Ryan Gallagher
- CriterionCast
In the 2008 TCM Remembers clip above, you’ll find a collection of film personalities, from Ingmar Bergman star Eva Dahlbeck to Jaws‘ Roy Scheider, from Rear Window screenwriter John Michael Hayes to Il Sorpasso director Dino Risi, from silent film actress Anita Page (seen with Joan Crawford) to Black Orpheus‘ Breno Mello and Marpessa Dawn, from Oscar winner Paul Scofield to schlock goddess Vampira. I dare you not to get choked up even if you don’t recognize most of them.
- 3/9/2010
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Actress Marpessa Dawn, the star of 1960's Best Foreign Film Oscar Orfeu Negro (Black Orpheus), has died at her home near Paris, France.
The American-born actress, who played Eurydice in the classic Brazilian movie, suffered a heart attack.
Ironically, Breno Mello, her co-star in the Marcel Camus film, which also claimed the Palme d'Or at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival in France, died in July.
Dawn, born Gypsy Marpessa Dawn Menor, worked as an actress in England before landing her role in Orfeu Negro. Her film career flopped after the Camus movie and she moved to France, where she became a nightclub singer and a governess.
The American-born actress, who played Eurydice in the classic Brazilian movie, suffered a heart attack.
Ironically, Breno Mello, her co-star in the Marcel Camus film, which also claimed the Palme d'Or at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival in France, died in July.
Dawn, born Gypsy Marpessa Dawn Menor, worked as an actress in England before landing her role in Orfeu Negro. Her film career flopped after the Camus movie and she moved to France, where she became a nightclub singer and a governess.
- 9/29/2008
- WENN
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