UNC-CH and Duke Consortium in Latin American and Caribbean Studies

Video Collection/Outreach Office

Contact Information: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

3200 FedEx Global Education Center

Phone: (919) 843-8888 Fax: (919) 962-0398

Email: LA_films@unc.edu

ORFEU NEGRO

(Black Orpheus)

103 minutes

Directed by: Marcel Camus

Overview:

Based on a major work of Brazilian literature, Orfeu da conceição by Vinicius de Morales, this film is a classic of Brazilian cinema in the 1950s and an example of internationalist interest in Brazil. French director Marcel Camus reworks the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, setting it in mid-twentieth-century Rio de Janeiro during Carnival. The story concerns the ill-fated love of a streetcar conductor (Orfeu) for a young woman from the countryside (Eurydice) who flees to the city hoping to elude a masked pursuer (Death). The film features visually stunning scenes of Rio and Carnival, along with the music of Antonio Carlos Jobim and Luis Bonfa. The most powerful sequence occurs during Orfeu’s visit to a spiritualist church service. Here viewers witness a practitioner possessed by a spirit and Orfeu’s desperate attempts to communicate with his dead lover, Eurydice.

Strengths and Weaknesses:

This is a novel presentation of a classic story. The superb photography and music are definite strengths. The nonstop samba (music and dance) keeps the pace lively, and viewers get a good look at the extravagant costumes and floats of Carnival, as well as the mesmerizing intensity of a Macumba ritual. The film also provides a view of life in Brazilian favelas (slums), albeit jazzed up for Carnival and the film. The spoken Portuguese is not too idiomatic for class use.

Evaluators pointed out the film’s sentimentalization of Brazilian culture, especially its condescending primitivist view of black culture. Some of the characters are stereotypes. One evaluator felt that the story development and acting were weak and the Carnival footage overdone.

Introducing the Tape:

Viewers could use a brief explanation of the psychological and social significance of Carnival and the role of syncretism in religious ritual.

How to Borrow this Video:

The videos owned by the UNC-Duke Consortium in Latin American and Caribbean Studies are housed in the Outreach Office of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. They are lent free of charge. For information on films and reservations, please visit http://isa.unc.edu/film/films_main.asp.

References:

Ranucci, Karen, ed. A Guide to Latin American, Caribbean, and U.S. Latino-Made Film and Video. Lanham, MD. Scarecrow Press. 1998.