Orpheus Movie Review

Orpheus (Orphee) is a 1950 French fantasy film directed by Jean Cocteau and starring Jean Marais. It’s a memorable, but not as strong sequel.

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“Not drinking doesn’t suit you“

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A poet follows his dead wife into the underworld, only to fall in love with Death. Orpheus is a sequel to ‘The Blood of a Poet’, but this is one of those trilogies that are in entries connected only in themes and visuals, but not in plot and characters. This is what happened here – everything is different, but the mythological and fantastical elements are still there.

However, while the previous movie was so striking in its imagery and so fascinating even in some of its unforgettable fantasy sequences, this one lacks that as only a couple of moments are as memorable, in particular everything with the mirrors was so great, especially the theme of mirrors representing mortality and the passage of time more potently than anything else.

The movie is intricately plotted, but maybe to its detriment as the Greek mythology stuff here is intriguing, but overplayed at times with too many twists and turns. I personally would have relied less on tradition and more on new plot elements, but still the characters are solid and in particular Jean Marais and Francois Perier are so memorable together.

Marais was so clearly Cocteau’s muse in real life as this film focuses on his aesthetic quite a lot. Thus, this is another highly homoerotic film from an openly gay director, which again made for an interesting watch.

So many characters and dramatic elements made Orpheus more contemporary, but the mythological elements contrasted them quite well, though again sometimes those overstayed their welcome. I also liked the dialogue, but the acting itself is overly pronounced.

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Orpheus is above all else a technical treat, which is to be expected from an artist that is most certainly Cocteau. The cinematography is once again fabulous as are the movie’s very memorable sets and some of the imagery too. The direction is great as well, but the pacing is overly slow without a doubt. It just lacked momentum in certain segments.

Orpheus is overwritten in terms of dialogue and plot. It’s also slowly paced. Still, the cinematography is per usual terrific, the movie is artistic and the themes are well explored. Some scenes here are striking, but for the most part it’s a less effective, less memorable film than ‘The Blood of a Poet’.