FREE ON CINEGEEK.DE Marcel Camus - Orfeu Negro

Orpheus, according to Greek legend, is a musician who descends into the underworld to get his dead wife back. Down there he enchants the gods so much with his music that they make an exception. Marcel Camus moved the plot to the Paris of his time and added something very French: A Menage A Trois. And one with death. The ancient Greeks would have been frightened! Black Orpheus is a marvel full of simple but effective effects. A magical film! Just like the mirror into the world of death. And those who want to go back to the realm of the living simply go backwards. Everything starts in a cafe. There the young poets meet, who despise the not so young Orpheus (Jean Marais). Finally, the princess (Maria Casares) appears and Orpheus takes her with her into the shadowy land. The princess asks Orpheus if he knows who she is. She answers it herself. The princess is death. A very attractive death and so it must come to complications: Orpheus loves his wife Eurydice (Marie Dea) - but also the princess. Camus stages this far removed from all common cinema formulas. He was a surrealist who gave us insights into his subconscious, but not typical cinematic narrative elements. And he didn't shy away from bizarre images! The servants of the princess appear in fetish leather jackets and she herself seems like a dominatrix. Black Orpheus looks like a greeting from a completely different time. A time when film was produced as a pure art form. His characters seem to know that they are in a Greek epic, never seem exaggerated or even affected. At some point we accept Cocteau's special effects as self-evident. This is the point when we ourselves enter his magical world.