Orpheus

Orpheus
  • Release date: 29 Nov 1950
  • Release year: 1950
  • Runtime: 112 minutes
  • Country: France
  • Keywords: poet, underworld, mirror, death, greek mythology, character name as title, orpheus character, eurydice character, morse code, rolls royce phantom
Plot:
The poet Orphee is popular among the general public but detested by the avant-garde at the Cafe des Poetes. A young poet is killed by two motorbikes just outside the cafe. His patroness, called The Princess, brings the body to her car, and asks Orphee to come along as a witness. From the car radio a monotonous voice is reciting meaningless lines, which Orphee conceives as the fresh inspiration he has been looking for to renew his writing. In a deserted house he witnesses how The Princess revives the dead poet and disappears with him into a mirror. The chauffeur Heurtebis takes Orphee back home, where Eurydice is longing to tell him that she is pregnant. Orphee ignores her, and sneaks out to the garage, to listen to the captivating voice in the car radio. When Eurydice leaves the house, the two motorbikes kill her on the road. Heurtebis shows the remorseful Orphee how to follow Eurydice through a mirror. When Orphee finds Eurydice in the other world, a court allows them to return to life under the condition that he never looks at her. Orphee is tormented by conflicting feelings, because he is also in love with The Princess, his personal Death.
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