• Black Orpheus (1959)

    Young lovers Orfeu (Breno Mello) and Eurydice (Marpessa Dawn) run through the favelas of Rio during Carnaval, on the lam from a hitman dressed like Death (Ademar Da Silva) and Orfeu's vengeful fiancée Mira (Lourdes de Oliveira) and passing between moments of fantasy and stark reality. This impressionistic retelling of the Greek legend of Orpheus and Eurydice introduced bossa nova...

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Black Orpheus
81
metacriticBased on 8 Critics
77
Based on 16 Users

Release Date: December 21st, 1959

DVD Release Date: June 8th, 1999

PG |1 hr 40 min

Plot Summary

Young lovers Orfeu (Breno Mello) and Eurydice (Marpessa Dawn) run through the favelas of Rio during Carnaval, on the lam from a hitman dressed like Death (Ademar Da Silva) and Orfeu's vengeful fiancée Mira (Lourdes de Oliveira) and passing between moments of fantasy and stark reality. This impressionistic retelling of the Greek legend of Orpheus and Eurydice introduced bossa nova to the world with its soundtrack by young Brazilian composers Luiz Bonfá and Antonio Carlos Jobim.

Cast: Breno Mello, Marpessa Dawn, Lourdes de Oliveira, Léa Garcia, Ademar Da Silva, Alexandro Constantino, Waldemar De Souza, Jorge Dos Santos

Director: Marcel Camus

Genres: Drama

Production Co: Gemma, Tupan Filmes, Dispat Films

Keywords: Forbidden love, Love, Friend, Death, Transformation, Creative, Marriage, 1950s

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Ratings & Reviews

  • 88
    TV Guide Magazine

    Besides its exhilarating style, the well-acted film works as an effective translation of the classic Greek myth into a Brazilian romance. (Review of Original Release) show more

  • 88
    Michael WilmingtonChicago Tribune

    A film that art-house audiences in 1959 loved madly. And who can blame them? A buoyant, searingly colorful retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice myth set in Rio de Janiero, writer-director's Marcel Camus' movie is a romance heightened by its backdrop. show more

  • 75
    Wesley MorrisBoston Globe

    This is a movie about the marriage between sound and image, and the sound is wearing the pants in the relationship. show more

See all critic reviews on metacritic.com

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Awards

Nominated Samuel Goldwyn International Award
Golden Globes (1960)
Winner Foreign Language Film
Oscars Academy Awards (1959)
Nominated Film and British Film
British Academy of Film & Television Arts (1961)