Black Orpheus (1959/Criterion Collection Blu-ray)

 

Picture: B     Sound: C+     Extras: B     Film: B

 

 

Some films have such an energy and joy when they arrive that they cause an international sensation.  Marcel Camus’ highly influential Black Orpheus (1959) set the Eurydice/Orpheus story at Rio de Janeiro’s famed Carnival and did it very well, but also did so accompanied by Bossa Nova music, launching the music genre worldwide.  The film and music became so successful, that there were those who thought Bossa Nova would be the next big thing after Rock Music when many thought that genre was over by 1959.

 

Breno Mello is Orfeo and Marpessa Dawn is Eurydice in this second of the two greatest films made on the mythology to date.  The other is Jean Cocteau’s remarkable Orpheus (1950) with both films bookending their decade.  I always thought it was interesting that Camus (in his second-ever film, his most successful) with ease as Orfeo seduces Eurydice with his guitar playing and with Carnival on the way, you know something is going to happen, even if you do not know the story.

 

Camus and Jacques Viot adapted their screenplay in part from Vinicius de Moraes’ play Orfeu Da Conceicao, but run with it in ways the printed page and limited world of the stage could not, though de Morales did music too that is here and inspired musicians to take the Bossa Nova genre on, later having a huge international hit with The Girl From Ipanema.  Like Perry Henzell’s The Harder They Come (1972, reviewed elsewhere on this site) would later launch Reggae worldwide, Black Orpheus would be a classic alone just on launching a key music genre.

 

However, there is more to the film.  For years, the copies have not always been great of the film, though Criterion has done its best in past formats to deliver the film in the best possible copy, they are now all obsolete as compared to this Blu-ray, which makes watching the film the an experience.  The conflict of the original story is in tact in a very palpable way, accompanied by the music, look and feel of this purely cinematic experience, though it can be a little uneven in a few places, those moments are overridden by how distinct this one-of-a-kind film is.  From other music films, to other art films, to even commercial films like the James Bond film Thunderball (1965) and its imitators, Black Orpheus still delivers over a half-century later and now that it has been saved, it can speak for itself.

 

 

The 1080p 1.33 X 1 digital High Definition image is a new High Definition master from a 35mm Interpositive that brings back the full glory of its superior color palette in EastmanColor.  Director of Photography Jean Bourgoin (La Marseillaise, Mr. Arkadin, Mon Oncle, The Longest Day) delivered an amazing color film that helped establish EastmanColor as a format with narrative credibility, finally challenging dye-transfer Technicolor, if not surpassing it.  The restoration here is amazing, though you can see the age of the print in more than a few places, reminding me of similar issues on The Red Balloon Blu-ray (reviewed elsewhere on this site), but you also get depth and detail that have not been seen in a very long time and the result is yet another key Blu-ray from Criterion all serious film fans will want to get.

 

The PCM Portuguese 1.0 Mono will show up on home theater systems as a center-channel-only track and it sounds good for its age and not bad here, though this might be a little lower in volume than expected.  The lack of background noise is a plus and this is clean for its age coming from original optical elements.  It is a little more compressed than I would have liked and almost gave it a lower rating, but it is also a soundtrack made in its time with technological and budgetary restrictions, so this is closer to what it would sound like.  An English Dolby Digital Mono alternate track is also included, but it is not as good.  At one point, this supposedly had a 70mm blow-up of some kind with multi-channel sound, but that mix (if it was any good) is not here.  Too bad this was not a stereophonic film, but the original score by Luiz Bonfá, Antonio Carlos Jobim and play writer de Morales is inarguably one of the best (and lately) most underrated combining of music and image in film history.

 

Extras include a booklet with tech information, illustrations, and a fine essay on the film by Michael Atkinson, while the Blu-ray has new video interviews piece with Brazilian film scholar Robert Stam, jazz historian Gary Goddins & Brazilian author Roy Castro, archival interviews with Camus & Dawn, the French documentary Looking For Black Orpheus and the original theatrical trailer.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo