Fresh
Jean Cocteau's scripting and directing give the film its proper key of unworldliness.
Variety Staff, Variety
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Orpheus
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
97%
Tomatometer
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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