Label: Criterion

Reissued 2011, Originally released 1950

FOREIGN / DRAMA / ROMANCE - This 1950 update of the Orphic myth by Jean Cocteau (BEAUTY AND THE BEAST) depicts a famous poet (Jean Marais) scorned by the Left Bank youth, and his love for both his wife Eurydice (Marie Dia) and a mysterious princess (Maria Casarhs). Seeking inspiration, the poet follows the princess from the world of the living to the land of the dead through Cocteaus famous mirrored portal. ORPHEUS represents the legendary Cocteau at the height of his abilities for peerless visual poetry and dreamlike storytelling.