Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Binding: VHS Tape EAN: 9781567302493 Format: Color, Letterboxed, Subtitled, NTSC ISBN: 1567302491 Label: New Yorker Video Manufacturer: New Yorker Video Number Of Items: 1 Publisher: New Yorker Video Release Date: April 16, 2002 Running Time: 112 minutes Studio: New Yorker Video Theatrical Release Date: 1999 Sales Rank: 33895
Amazon.com: Carlos Diegues's Orfeu brings the Orpheus myth (by way of the Vinicius De Moraes play, which also inspired Marcel Camus's gorgeous Black Orpheus) into the modern world of laptops and hip-hop, cell phones and street crime. Orfeu (Toni Garrido), Rio de Janeiro's samba king and a kind of god to his neighbors in the labyrinth of slums on Carioca Hill, is humbled by his love for Euridice (Patricia França), a sweet and stunningly beautiful girl from the provinces. Shot on location at Rio's fiery Carnaval celebrations and on a dynamic recreation of Carioca Hill's slums, Diegues's dazzling mix of musical extravaganza, romantic tragedy, and gangland crime drama drops the myth into the poverty and violence of slum life. The drama gets stifled in silly romantic entanglements, but Brazilian pop star Garrido and lovely França have charisma to burn, and the stunning canvas of exploding color is never less than enthralling. --Sean Axmaker
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Dazzling Cinematic Production with Minimal Story
Director Carlos Diegues knows how to capture atmosphere with his camera and effects and when that atmosphere is the splendid garish gaudiness of Carnival in Rio de Janeiro there is plenty to entertain ... Read More
Rating: - interesting, lively, sensual, colorful, sad
You get a decent roller coaster of sights and emotions from the film. The best part of the movie for me is how the main character is forced between his mother's pagan world view, or his father's born again ... Read More
Rating: - Ouch! What a disappointment...
Like a few other reviewers, I really wanted to like Orfeu. I am fascinated by Brazilian culture, especially the spectacle that is Carnaval. And, who could pass up listening to a soundtrack by the wonderful ... Read More
Rating: - How Can You Mend A Broken Remake?
I really wanted to like this movie. Black Orpheus is one of my favorite foreign films. First of all I liked the brilliant colors and the cinematography was spectacular. The problem I had with the film is that ... Read More
Rating: - Not as good as the original but very close...
This was a pretty well done film. Although it is not as good as the original (1959's "Orfeu Negro") it comes pretty close. I would recommend renting both this and the original to compare the two first. This version ... Read More
- Dazzling Cinematic Production with Minimal Story
- interesting, lively, sensual, colorful, sad
- Ouch! What a disappointment...
- How Can You Mend A Broken Remake?