• 177.899 movies
  • 12.202 shows
  • 33.970 seasons
  • 646.886 actors
  • 9.369.987 votes
Avatar
Profile
 
banner banner

Orfeu Negro (1959)

Drama | 107 minutes
3,33 135 votes

Genre: Drama / Music

Duration: 107 minuten

Alternative title: Black Orpheus

Country: Brazil / France / Italy

Directed by: Marcel Camus

Stars: Breno Mello, Marpessa Dawn and Lourdes de Oliveira

IMDb score: 7,4 (13.282)

Releasedate: 12 June 1959

US
UK
JustWatch

Orfeu Negro plot

"The film that introduced Bossa Nova to the world..."

Film adaptation of the mythological story of Orpheus and Eurydice, set in Brazil at the end of the fifties. The beautiful young Eurydice has fled from her village to the city of Rio de Janeiro and wants to take shelter with her niece Serafina, because a man wants to kill her for unknown reasons. She arrives by boat and immediately has to struggle through the festivities, because it is carnival. She meets the tram driver Orpheus and it clicks immediately. However, Orpheus has betrothed to the possessive Mira just that day, and it is not only she who has a crush on him. Yet Orpheus and Eurydice can't get around each other...

logo tmdbimagelogo tmdbimagelogo tmdbimagelogo tmdbimage
All Media

Trailer & other videos

Reviews & comments


avatar

Guest

  • messages
  • votes

Let op: In verband met copyright is het op MovieMeter.nl niet toegestaan om de inhoud van externe websites over te nemen, ook niet met bronvermelding. Je mag natuurlijk wel een link naar een externe pagina plaatsen, samen met je eigen beschrijving of eventueel de eerste alinea van de tekst. Je krijgt deze waarschuwing omdat het er op lijkt dat je een lange tekst hebt geplakt in je bericht.

* denotes required fields.

Pay attention! You cannot change your username afterwards.

* denotes required fields.
avatar van Spetie

Spetie

  • 38871 messages
  • 8145 votes

The story of Orpheus, known to me, is sketched here, in a very exotic environment. A nice idea in itself. The Brazilian atmosphere is in any case good from the start. Lots of cheerful carnival music, with matching decoration, which makes it pretty good in terms of atmosphere. Still, it ended up being quite a long one, because unfortunately there are more minuses than pluses.

Of course the story is predictable, if you're familiar with it like I am, but that in itself doesn't even have to be such a big problem. First of all, it is the actors who are disappointing and often do little of it. Especially Breno Mello, who plays the role of Orpheus, is really dramatically bad at times, and very annoying. In any case, there is not a single character in it that managed to hit or grab me. The characters are all quite caricatured too, which doesn't really help either.

The directing isn't particularly good either. Camus does little with the camera and does not manage to get the most out of the beautiful location. The only thing that keeps you watching is the cheerful atmosphere and the nice decoration. Yet that is far too little to convince in its entirety. All in all, this fable turns out not to be an exotic surprise, but a minor mythological setback.

2.0*

dutch flagTranslated from Dutch · View original

avatar van Zeriel

Zeriel

  • 1395 messages
  • 2631 votes

Great Brazilian atmosphere. Setting and decoration make the film worthwhile.

The story itself is wafer thin and already familiar, and failed to hold my attention. Especially the chase with "the killer" was without any tension, rather laughable.

dutch flagTranslated from Dutch · View original

avatar van Baboesjka

Baboesjka

  • 891 messages
  • 1919 votes

A reasonable movie. The acting isn't very good and the story didn't really captivate me, but it was entertaining for once, and the atmosphere has something to do with it. A small enough. 3*

dutch flagTranslated from Dutch · View original