Word: orpheus
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...introduction to the movie script of Orpheus, Jean Cocteau says, "in this film there is neither symbol nor thesis... It is a realistic film which, through the camera, puts into the work more truth than truth; that truth which Goethe contrasts to reality." As the title hints, the plot--if one can say there is one--draws from the Orpheus and Eurydice myth. Cocteau, however, skillfully shrouds this legend with the story of a poet's struggle to become immortal...
Back in the 70th century, when the great Castilian dramatist CalderÓon de la Barca wrote the most sumptuous of all the autos sacramentales (Belshazzar's Feast, The Divine Orpheus), these religious dramatizations, similar to the earlier English mystery plays, reached their peak popularity. After that, their appeal dwindled and they all but disappeared from the holy-days celebrations outside the churches of the Spanish-speaking world. But in remote Oruro, 12,000 ft. up in the Bolivian Andes, the auto still flourishes with strong Indian overtones, and last week, as usual at carnival time, the show...
...Jeune Homme et La Mort a Boston, premiere, is a Jean Cocteau creation based on the Orpheus and Eurydice myth. Earthy and passionate, Jean Babilee and Nathalic Philippart conveyed well the brutality, horror, and the final beauty of this modern ballet. The acrobatic elements in the choreography, however, tended to detract from the symbolic force of the legend...
Legend of Lovers (adapted by Kitty Black from the French of Jean Anouilh) is provocative, but at a very high price. On a mythological foundation, Playwright Anouilh has reared a modern fantasy thick with symbolic scrollwork, ironic turrets, philosophic staircases, mystical passageways. Instead of reanimating the Orpheus & Eurydice legend with new poignancy, the play ends by crushing it to death...
Hugh Amory's "Orpheus" almost reached the necessary blend between good poetry and good theatre. This was due mainly to the concessions Amory made to the latter. The story is set in modern Boston, which perhaps adds to its credulity. A young man, spoken somewhat inaudibley by Amory over a loudspeaker, rejects society's values and affirms that the only truth is found within oneself. He tries to force his personal viewpoint on society as the absolute, being too much a moral coward to live alone with his idea. He is finally killed by a thug who wants...