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Poster for Orpheus

Orpheus

1950 · 1h 35m · Not Rated Drama, Fantasy, Romance
Directed by Jean Cocteau

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Overview

A famous poet in postwar Paris, scorned by the Left Bank youth, is in love with both his wife Eurydice and a mysterious princess. Seeking inspiration, the poet becomes obsessed and follows the princess from the world of the living to the land of the dead.

Director and cast

Critics on Rotten Tomatoes

Top critics, in their words

All reviews
97%
Tomatometer
Fresh

Jean Cocteau's scripting and directing give the film its proper key of unworldliness.

Variety Staff, Variety
Rotten

Somnambulistic symbolism may be art for art's sake. Maybe not. This writer finds it slightly tiresome.

Bosley Crowther, New York Times
Fresh

Its tight cross-lacing of paranoid dreaming and poetic realism grips like a bondage corset.

Raymond Durgnat, Time Out
Fresh

Cocteau's film technique is as eccentrically sui generis as ever -- his apparent mistakes are often among his most expressive moments.

Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader
Fresh

Seeing Orpheus today is like glimpsing a cinematic realm that has passed completely from the scene.

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

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