saquigley@watdaisy.UUCP (Sophie Quigley) (01/16/84)
To all of you who answered my request, thank you very much. The movie I was thinking about was "Orphee" retelling the ancient myth of Orpheus going down to Hades to get his wife back Here are a few descriptions of this movie: "Orpheus (1949-French) 86 minutes *** Director: Jean Cocteau. Starring: Jean Marais, Francois Perier, Maria Casares, Marie Dea. Compelling, cinematic allegory set in modern times with poet Marais encountering Princess of Death, exploring their mutual fascination." 'Movies on TV' (Steven Scheuer) says: Orpheus (France, 1949) **** Jean Marais, Maria Casares, Francois Perier, Juliette Greco with the Maenads on motorcycles. Directory Jean Cocteau creates his own mythology for his own purposes. Marais is a poet, besieged by admirers, who hears voices from other worlds over the radio and meets Death, black-gloved, when she comes through the mirror. Defies comparison with anything else in cinema. A magical work. (95 mins.) I would agree with this last description of the movie. It is magical, and I recommend it very strongly. I was reminded that Jean Marais starred in other Cocteau films, namely La Belle et la Bete and I would like to add the following piece of trivia for anybody interested: Jean Marais was Cocteau's lover. Other people pointed me to another movie on the same theme, which I haven't seen but I heard is also excellent. It is called Black Orpheus and is set in Rio de Janeiro during the carnival. Last but not least, I was also reminded that Persephone didn't go down to Hell voluntarily. She was kidnapped by Hades. (and I thought Hades was the another name for hell)