Orphee (Orpheus) (1950) // Review / Buy UK Dvd

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Orphée
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We are based in South London near Croydon, UK, and if preferred this item can be picked up by appointment. Just e-mail here. I also welcome the old fashioned cheque and po as it is cheaper to process and all orders are sent off same day as cheque received.

Actors: Jean Marais, Maria Casares, Francois Perier, Juliette Greco, Maria Dea
Director: Jean Cocteau
Format: Black & White, PAL
Language: French
Subtitles: English
Region: Region 2 (UK & Europe)
Aspect Ratio: 4:3 - 1.33:1
Number of Discs: 1

Classification: PG
Studio: Bfi Video
DVD Release Date: 27 Oct 2008
Run Time: 91 minutes

'A hauntingly beautiful piece of cinema' The Times

Poet, playwright, artist and filmmaker, Jean Cocteau was one of the most significant artists of the twentieth century and Orphee his finest work of cinema.

This magical retelling of the Orpheus myth turns the lyre-playing singer of Greek legend into a famous left-bank poet in post-war Paris. Fallen out of favour and lost for poetic inspiration, Orphee becomes obsessed with a mysterious black-clad princess who first claims the life of a rival poet, and then Eurydice, his wife.

With its unforgettable imagery - the dissolving mirror through which characters pass into the next world, the leather-clad, death-dealing motorcyclists, and Cocteau's magical special effects - Orphee is a work of haunting beauty that follows the poetic logic of a dream.

Cocteau's luminous adaptation of the famous Greek myth, set in post-occupation Paris, remains one of the most stunning achievements of the auteur's career. Orphee (the iconic Jean Marais) is a successful Parisian poet, whom--despite popular acclaim--feels isolated and uninspired. When his wife Eurydice (Marie Dea) is stricken down by leather-clad bikers, he pursues them into the underworld, where he falls into a romantic entanglement with the dark-haired beauty Death (Casares). Stunning cinematography and surrealist flairs punctuate this beautiful, hypnotic masterpiece.