ORFEU, from Brazilian director Carlos Diegues, is a new interpretation of the Orpheus myth about a musician who abandons his lover to follow the flow of the Rio de Janeiro Carnival. The film is an adaptation of the play by Vinicius de Moraes. With a wonderfully melodic musical score by reknowned Brazilian musician Caetano Veloso, the sounds of the bassa nova express Brazil's combined lonliness and festiveness, consistent with the story of Orfeu and Euridice.
Orfeu (Toni Garrido), is a charismatic samba composer and performer living in the Carioca Hill district of Rio de Janeiro. His best friend, Lucinho (Murilo Benicio) is a tough street hustler, mixed up with drugs and a bad crowd. Euridice (Patricia Franca), is sultry and beautiful, as an out-of-town visitor who falls in love with Orfeu. But the film is not all carnival mystique. With a contemporary bent, focusing on the slums of Rio where rappers and drug pushers cohabitate, ORFEU gives a serious and sometimes disturbing look at the racial prejudices and gang violence that exists in those slums. Yet, the seductive, creative, beautiful atmosphere that Diegues makes of this area of Rio is undeniably real, and the reason that ORFEU succeeds.
IN THEATRES: AUGUST 25, 2000 (NY)
In 1956, wildly enthusiastic crowds flooded theaters in Rio de Janeiro to see Vinicius De Moraes's play, "Orfeu da Conceicao" starring an all-black cast. The play was the first suggestion of the the huge popularity that would soon surround samba music, and which later formed the bossa nova.
In 1959, Marcel Camus directed BLACK ORPHEUS, the movie that was based on the play by Moraes. The movie won the Palme d'Or at Cannes and Best Foreign Film at the Oscars. However, the film was seen as distasteful by Brazilians, as they saw themselves depicted as "exotics," almost as if the film laughed at them.
ORFEU, from director Carlos Diegues, is the first rendition of Moraes's play to be entirely produced and acted by Brazilians.
DVD Features:
Region 1
Keep Case
Single Side - Dual Layer
Anamorphic Widescreen - 1.85
Full Frame - 1.33
Additional Release Material:
Trailers
Music Video: "Sou Voce"
Text/Photo Galleries:
Filmographies:
1. Cast
2. Director
Biographies:
1. Cast
2. Director
Source Writer
Vinicius de Moraes: ORFEU, author of "Orfeu da Conceicao"
Director of Photography
Affonso Beato:
Review 1:
"...Mr. Garrido [is] gorgeous and effortlessly charismatic..."
Source: New York Times
p.E10 08/25/2000
Review 2:
"...[The film] certainly has its poetic moments, visually and aurally, courtesy of lyrical dialogue...not to mention those infectious samba-infused rhythms..."
Source: Hollywood Reporter
p.27-8 08/15/2001
Review 3:
"...A vibrant atmosphere..."
Source: Box Office
p.161 11/01/1999
Review 4:
"...A fresh and inspired merging of romantic tragedy and social consciousness..."
Source: Los Angeles Times
p.F15 02/10/2000
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