ORPHEE

I saw this 1950 Jean Cocteau film some 40-plus years ago, and it made a huge impact on me, so much so that for all the time since it has sat somewhere in my list of Top Ten Faves.  

Therefore it was with some trepidation that I rewatched this modern retelling of the Greek legend, given how likely it was that I would be a disappointed.

Besides Orpheus, who is now a feted poet who may be past his best, and Eurydice, his wife, there are two other main characters.  These are an elegant and forbidding woman, referred to as the Princess, and her chauffeur Heurtebise.  

In the very first scene, at the Café des Poètes, a young poet is knocked down by a couple of sinister motorcyclists.  Once his body is placed in her Rolls-Royce the Princess orders Orpheus to come with them, presumably to the hospital.

However things immediately get weird.  The young poet is dead, but instead of going to the hospital the car heads into the country, accompanied by the two motorcyclists, who seem to work for the Princess.  Abstract poetry plays on the car radio, like messages from another world, and at one point the outside world appears as though a negative of a photograph.

Once they arrive at a ruined chateau, the Princess reanimates the young poet into a zombie-like state, and, in an unforgettable image, they and the motorcycle riders disappear into a mirror. 

The Princess is Death, and beyond the mirror is the Underworld.  

From this moment on Orpheus is obsessed with Death, and with the snippets of poetry he writes down from the car's radio, which ends up stored at his house.

Sadly this means that Eurydice has a rough time of it, neglected by Orpheus even when she tries to tell him she is pregnant.  The fact that Heurtebise falls in love with her is scant compensation, especially since he of course is dead. 

There are several journeys to the Underworld, as first Eurydice is killed, and then has to be  saved.  Thankfully there is a happy ending for two of the four main characters at least.

I find it impossible to do justice to this magical film which is both haunting and at times funny in the way it combines the supernatural with the mundane.

If I'm totally honest it didn't quite knock me over in the same way as when I was younger and more impressionable.

But I still think it is a timeless and exquisite piece of cinema.