I fell in love with "Beauty and the Beast" (1947) and decided that there must be more films like this out there. So I ran across the Criterion version of "Jean Cocteau's Orphic Trilogy". I watched this before I saw any of the reviews so I wasn't sure what I was getting ready to see. The first DVD contains a film called "Blood of the Poet". This was a hodgepodge of French avant-garde experiments, with a loosely tied story. I could not wait for it to end. There is some redeeming value in a documentary by Edgardo Cozarinsky which could have some value for film historians.
After watching the first DVD I decided to skip the others as I had all I could take. Then on second though there just could not be another disk full of experiments. Whoa I was really taken back. This disk includes the film "Orpheus" (1950). It starts out telling the story of Orpheus. They show how a timeless story can be applied to any time and place. I will now always think of this film when I think Orpheus. I had to use the subtitles but by the end of the film I felt that they borrowed a lot of colloquial English to make the French langrage. Either that or I could almost follow the film without subtitles. Maybe because I am not familiar with the actors of the time, I though just the right actor was picked for each part and did not replace the character with their own personality.
"Orpheus" was slightly adjusted but this actually adds to the experience. Orphée (Jean Marais) being a poet is fascinated with The Princess - Death (María Casares). So The Princess with the decides to bump off Orphée's wife Eurydice (Marie Déa) so she can have her way with Orphée. In the process the princess' chauffer Heurtebise (François Périer) falls in love with María. Where will all this lead?
We then come to "Testament of Orpheus or Do Not Ask Why"
"It is the unique power of cinema to allow a great many people to dream the same dream together and to present illusion to us as if it were strict reality." This third part has a lot of the same characters but spends too much time of philosophy and card tricks. It is interesting in its self but misses the emotionalism of "Orpheus."
