Orpheus (Orphée)

French poet Jean Cocteau wrote and directed Orpheus (French title Orphée), a black-and-white fantasy drama from 1950. It retells the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice in Cocteau's surreal manner. Partly drawn from his 1926 play of the same name, it is the middle film of the Orphic Trilogy. It was first shown at the Cannes Film Festival on March 1, 1950, and was BAFTA-nominated for Best Film in 1951. Turkey first saw it in April 2000 at the Istanbul Film Festival.

The story is moved to the Paris of the 1950s. Orphée (Jean Marais), a middle-aged poet who feels out of favour, sits in the Café des Poètes. There a young poet, Cégéste, picks a fight beside a Princess and dies in an accident. The Princess, who embodies Death (Maria Casarès), takes Orphée along. When his neglected wife Eurydice (Marie Déa) dies in a similar accident, Orphée goes down to the dead to bring her back. François Périer plays the chauffeur Heurtebise. Mirrors are the passage to the other world.

Nicolas Hayer shot it and Georges Auric, Cocteau's regular composer, wrote the score. Some read Orphée as Cocteau himself; Jean Marais, who plays him, was the director's partner.