Black Orpheus (1959)

Brazil/France/Italy | 107 minutes | NR | 35mm | Dir. Marcel Camus

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 an international cultural event, and it kicked off the bossa nova craze that set hi-fis across America spinning (Janus Films). Introduction about Carnival from UW Madison Art History Grad Student Alex Leme! Originally from Brazil, Alex Leme is a 2nd-year Art History Ph.D. student focusing on the participatory artistic proposals emerging in Brazil in the mid-1950s and early 60s.

"The Orpheus myth moves from beauty to desolation before, here at least, circling back with the reliability of the dawn. Camus gets it right, presenting a song- and sun-drenched vision of life so beautiful that death seems unthinkable. And then it inevitably arrives, leaving behind old stories, and new voices to sing about them." - Keith Phipps (The AV Club)

Watch the trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkxGkL7o9xk