- LULU / PANDORA'S BOX
- DAPHNIS AND CHLOE
- FEDRA
- THE FUGITIVE KIND
- THE TESTAMENT OF ORPHEUS
- PHAEDRA
- HERCULES CONQUERS ATLANTIS
- YOUNG APHRODITES
- CONTEMPT
- PROMETHEUS FROM THE VISEVICE ISLAND
- SANDRA OF A THOUSAND DELIGHTS
- THE GOLDEN THING
- THE TRAVELLING PLAYERS
- EURIDICE BA 2037
- IPHIGENIA
- A DREAM OF PASSION
- CLASH OF THE TITANS
- THE YEARS OF THE BIG HEAT
- ENIOCHUS - THE CHARIOTEER
- ANTIGONE
- EDIPO ALCADE
- THAT'S LIFE
- BLADE RUNNER
- VERTIGO
- MOURNING BECOMES ELECTRA
- ORPHEUS
- PANDORA AND THE FLYING DUTCHMAN
- ULYSSES
- HERACLES AND THE QUEEN OF LYDIA
- BLACK ORPHEUS
- ANTIGONE
- ELECTRA
- JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS
- ÔÇÅ GORGON
- OEDIPUS REX
- ÔÇÅ ILLIAC PASSION
- THE CANNIBALS
- ÌEDEA
- NOTES FOR AN AFRICAN ORESTEIA
- FOR ELECTRA
- PROMETHEUS IN THE SECOND PERSON
- VOYAGE TO CYTHERA
- ULYSSES' GAZE
- ÔÇÅ MATRIX
- O BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU?

BLACK ORPHEUS
ORFEU NEGRO
Brazil – France, 1959

Directed by: Marcel Camus. Screenplay: Marcel Camus, Jacques Viot, based on the short story "Orfeu de Conceiçao" by Vinicius de Moraes. Director of Photography: Jean Bourgoin. Music: Antonio Carlos Jobim, Luiz Bonfa. Film Editor: André Feix. Cast: Breno Mello (Orfeu), Marpessa Dawn (Eurydice), Lourdes de Oliveira (Fate), Lea Garcia (Serafina), Adhemar da Silva (Death), Alexandro Constantino (Hermes), Waldetar de Souza (Chico), Jorge dos Santos (Benedito). Production: Sacha Gordine for Dispartfilm/Cinematografica Vera Cruz. Length: 105 min. Colour. Palme d’Or at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival. Academy Award for Best Foreign Film.

Orpheu, a charismatic trolley car conductor and star of one of the Carnival’s Samba schools, is betrothed to the wonderfully brassy Mira but in love with Eurydice. Pursued by Death and the vengeful Mira, the doomed lovers weave their way through a carnival-mad Rio that seethes and strains towards the sweaty release of Carnival night...

A cyclone of a film
[...]Inspired by the story of the Brazilian poet Vinicius de Moraes, Marcel Camus deploys simpler symbols that Jean Cocteau’s Orfée. Before plunging into the plain and pure poetry, he firsts grounds the film in reality using a social fantasy. Indeed, the Rio carnival, with its undulating flow rhythm and hysteria, its rousing passion for life, the vast sense of liberation that provides for escape is a spectacular topic for a news reportage. First and foremost, Orfeu Negro is a wondrous documentary.
From this deafening maelstrom, however, the central characters start to stand out. They escape the documentary to discreetly enter a story, which, though seemingly real, is announced as something special. Then, they imperceptibly penetrate the myth and the poetic reality. From this moment on, they behave like lead dancers in a ballet, while the decor seems more stylized. The crowning moment is when Eurydice is pursued by Death in the tram station, where she is electrocuted.
The descent to Hades is filmed at times in a raw, realistic manner (the police assault on the orgy at the close of the Carnival and the visit to the morgue) and at other times totally surrealistically (the search at the Missing Persons Bureau, the game...

Marcel Huret
"Radio Cinéma Télévision", 26.6.1959