Orfeu Negro (1959)

Directed by Marcel Camus. Starring Breno Mello, Marpessa Dawn, Lourdes de Oliveira, Léa Garcia, Waldemar De Souza, Alexandro Constantino, Adhemar da Silva.

Eurydice (Dawn) goes to stay with her cousin (Garcia) in a Rio de Janeiro favela during Carnaval, meets and falls in love with a trolley driver named Orfeu (Mello), who has just entered into a dispassionate marriage with the cousin’s neighbor (de Oliveira). Based on a Vinicius de Moraes play—itself an update on the Greek story of Orpheus and Eurydice—this is a simple story unconcerned with intellectual shape or depth of persona, but its vivid colors, sensual aroma, exotic spice, and invigorating music make it a significant, throbbing experience. The engine of mythic tragedy and vagrant symbolism weakens its emotional pull; even if the performances were better, the relationships have a “foretold” inevitability that emphasizes grandness over humanity, to say nothing for the ineffable fear of oblivion. Brazilian rhythms courtesy of Antônio Carlos Jobim and Luiz Bonfá. Winner of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, as well as the Cannes Palme d’Or.

78/100