Black Orpheus

The 1959 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film went to Black Orpheus, which was shot in Brazil but the award went to France (the director was Frenchman Marcel Camus). It's an engaging film, full of the charm and color of the Carnival in Rio, but I can't begin the discussion of this topic without noting that The 400 Blows, Wild Strawberries, or The World of Apu were not even nominated.

The film retells the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice during Carnival. Orpheus is a streetcar driver, and one day a beautiful young girl stays on his car to the last stop. He's entranced by her, but is engaged to the high-maintenance Mira. Orpheus is something of a playboy and, as befitting the myth, is a musician. The young boys who follow him believe that his guitar playing makes the sun rise.

The young girl is portentously named Eurydice. She has come to Rio to visit her cousin and to flee a mysterious man whom she says is trying to kill her. This all leads to the night of Carnival, when the actors are in costume. Orpheus and Eurydice consummate their love, invoking Mira's wrath, and Eurydice's stalker, dressed in a macabre costume (it looked kind of like Spider-Man's black costume) chases her. Eventually she dies, and Orpheus searches for her, but instead of going to Hades he goes to an Afro-Brazilian religious ceremony, and also befitting the Greek myth, he finds Eurydice, but loses her when he fails to observe the rule not to turn and look at her.

This is a very colorful film, and is full of music, as the characters are almost always dancing the samba. As such it makes a better travelogue than a drama. The performers are attractive and brimming with sexuality (it was a bit racy for 1959) but for some stretches of it I was bored. The 400 Blows it ain't.