Summaries

A poet in love with Death follows his unhappy wife into the underworld.

Orphee is a poet who becomes obsessed with Death (the Princess). They fall in love. Orphee's wife, Eurydice, is killed by the Princess' henchmen and Orphee goes after her into the Underworld. Although they have become dangerously entangled, the Princess sends Orphee back out of the Underworld, to carry on his life with Eurydice.—<[email protected]>

The poet Orphée is popular among the general public but detested by the avant-garde at the Café des Poètes. A young poet is killed by two motorbikes just outside the café. His patroness, called The Princess, brings the body to her car, and asks Orphée to come along as a witness. From the car radio a monotonous voice is reciting meaningless lines, which Orphée conceives as the fresh inspiration he has been looking for to renew his writing. In a deserted house he witnesses how The Princess revives the dead poet and disappears with him into a mirror. The chauffeur Heurtebis takes Orphée back home, where Eurydice is longing to tell him that she is pregnant. Orphée ignores her, and sneaks out to the garage, to listen to the captivating voice in the car radio. When Eurydice leaves the house, the two motorbikes kill her on the road. Heurtebis shows the remorseful Orphée how to follow Eurydice through a mirror. When Orphée finds Eurydice in the other world, a court allows them to return to life under the condition that he never looks at her. Orphée is tormented by conflicting feelings, because he is also in love with The Princess, his personal Death.—Maths Jesperson {[email protected]}

Orpheus is a well established poet who falls into the clutches of the Princess of Death. She takes him to the underworld but has broken the rules and is punished for what she has done. The princess wants him however and arranges for his wife Eurydice to die so she can have him all to herself. Orpheus has no choice but to descend into the netherworld to rescue her.—garykmcd

Mesmerised by the eerie allure of cold, implacable Death and obsessed by a strange sequence of daily cryptic messages on the radio, the effortlessly charming poet, Orpheus, catches the eye of Princess: a mysterious, raven-haired newcomer. Then, unable to put his thoughts on paper, while loathed by many, blocked Orpheus does the unthinkable, transcending the bounded planes of reality, and enters the unfathomable realm of the afterlife in the name of love. But, through the enigmatic portals of existence, time is but an illusion, sleep evokes the inevitability of mortality, and sometimes, even death may die.—Nick Riganas

Details

Keywords
  • death
  • greek mythology
  • mirror
  • underworld
  • poet
Genres
  • Fantasy
  • Drama
  • Romance
Release date Sep 28, 1950
Motion Picture Rating (MPA) Not Rated
Countries of origin France
Language French
Filming locations Vallée de Chevreuse, Yvelines, France
Production companies Andre Paulve Film Films du Palais Royal

Box office

Tech specs

Runtime 1h 52m
Color Black and White
Aspect ratio 1.37 : 1

Synopsis

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