Black Orpheus

Shot in Rio de Janeiro by French director Marcel Camus with a largely Brazilian cast and a nonstop samba and bossa nova beat, 1959's Black Orpheus is based on the musical play Orfeu da Conceição by Vinicius de Moraes, which transposes the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice to Rio's impoverished favelas but still exudes the joyous energy of Carnival. The charming Breno Mello is Orfeu, a streetcar conductor who has a vain girlfriend named Mira (Lourdes de Oliveira) but falls madly in love with innocent country lass Eurydice (Marpessa Dawn), who's come to the city to flee a mysterious stranger (Adhemar Da Silva, as Death). As in the original tale, Eurydice's eventual demise leads Orfeu on a trip through the underworld, but here it's a journey through hospitals, police stations, and strange native churches. Although Black Orpheus was criticized as a romanticized portrait of life in the Brazilian slums, its vibrant costumes and settings, coupled with the irresistible music of Antônio Carlos Jobim and Luiz Bonfá, create an intoxicating atmosphere. Winning both the Palme d'Or and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, it also quickly became a popular classic. Criterion's beautifully remastered edition for DVD and Blu-ray features the 2005 French documentary “Looking for ‘Black Orpheus'”; new interviews with jazz historian Gary Giddens, Brazilian author Ruy Castro, and film historian Robert Stam; brief archival interviews with Camus and Dawn; and a booklet featuring an essay by film critic Michael Atkinson. Highly recommended. (S. Axmaker)