Black Orpheus - Orfeu Negro (1959) (Criterion Collection)

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Interwoven with the spectacle, madness and vibrancy of the Rio de Janeiro carnival, comes the multi-award winning retelling of the classic legend of Orpheus and Eurydice. Black Orpheusis awash with intoxicating samba music, frenzied dancing and violent costumes, as French auteur Marcel Camus unfolds the melancholy tale of love and tragedy for two people who fall rapturously in love during the annual carnival. From the moment of its first appearance, at the Cannes Film Festival in 1959 - where it won the Palme d Or and went onto win an Oscar and Golden Globe - it was apparent that Black Orpheus was a very special film. Inspired by the ancient Greek myth of a youth who travels to the land of the dead to bring back the woman he loves, but set amongst the slums of modern-day Rio de Janeiro, this bittersweet romantic tragedy has charmed audiences worldwide with its sheer colour, joie de vivre and especially its music. From the opening shot of an ancient frieze of the lovers, Orpheus and Eurydice, and a guitar softly strumming the chords of the film s main musical theme to the fast-moving shots of dancers preparing for Carnival to the convulsive, infectious beat of the Latin American bossa nova beat, Black Orpheus is simply a feast of sound and vision that all movie lovers will admire.

Winner of both the Academy Award for best foreign-language film and the Cannes Film Festival`s Palme d'Or, Marcel Camus' Black Orpheus (Orfeu negro) brings the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice to the twentieth-century madness of Carnival in Rio de Janeiro. With its eye-popping photography and ravishing, epochal soundtrack, Black Orpheus was a cultural event, kicking off the bossa nova craze that set hi-fis across America spinning.