Orfeu Negro = Black Orpheus

France, 1959

Film
Please note

Sorry, we don't have images or video for this item.

Orfeu Negro is an transposition of the story of Orpheus and Euridyce to the modern city of Rio da Janeiro during the Carnival. It is interpreted by a cast of non-professional actors. Perhaps it was their amateur enthusiasm, the exoticism of the location, or the eventual freedom which Camus was granted to make the film he wanted, but somehow he managed to capture on film the frenetic, pulsating atmosphere of Carnival while telling the moving and poignant story of these doomed lovers. Awards: Cannes Film Festival 1959 - Palme d’or ; Academy Awards 1959 - Best Foreign Film. Best print: X0196.

Credits: Producer, Sacha Gordine ; director, Marcel Camus ; writer, Marcel Camus, Jacques Viot ; photography, Jean Bourgoin ; music, Luis Bonfa, Antonio Carlos Jobim.
Cast: Breno Higeno-Mello, Marpessa Dawn, Lourdes de Oliveira, Lea Garcia, Alexandro Constantino, Waldemar da Souza, Jorge Dos Santos, Aurino Cassanio.

Content notification

Our collection comprises over 40,000 moving image works, acquired and catalogued between the 1940s and early 2000s. As a result, some items may reflect outdated, offensive and possibly harmful views and opinions. ACMI is working to identify and redress such usages.

Learn more about our collection and our collection policy here. If you come across harmful content on our website that you would like to report, let us know.

How to watch

This work has not been digitised and is currently unavailable to view online. It may be possible for approved reseachers to view onsite at ACMI.

Learn more about accessing our collection

Collection

In ACMI's collection

Credits

director

Marcel Camus

producer

Sacha Gordine

Duration

01:45:00:00

Production places
France
Production dates
1959

Collection metadata

ACMI Identifier

X000114

Languages

English

French

Subject category

Foreign language films

Sound/audio

Sound

Colour

Colour

Holdings

16mm film; Limited Access Print (Section 2)

Wikidata

Q538266

Please note: this archive is an ongoing body of work. Sometimes the credit information (director, year etc) isn’t available so these fields may be left blank; we are progressively filling these in with further research.

Cite this work on Wikipedia

If you would like to cite this item, please use the following template: {{cite web |url=https://acmi.net.au/works/115950/ |title=Orfeu Negro = Black Orpheus |author=Australian Centre for the Moving Image |access-date=5 May 2024 |publisher=Australian Centre for the Moving Image}}