Orpheus 1950

Orpheus [Jean Marais] attempts to read a message tapped out by the horse that looms in their Thracian home—a strange communication that captivates him far more than ordinary poetry. Beside him, Eurydice [Marie Déa] grows jealous of the supernatural creature that steals her husband’s attention from daily life, even as the scene is framed by a mirror on the left wall and a white horse that seems to emerge from a niche at the back. The scene unfolds with a calm, almost ritual intensity as Orpheus explains that the horse is delivering him phrases from the unknown, phrases more astonishing than all the poems in the world. The horse taps out a line that hardens into a fateful message:

Madame Eurydice Reviendra Des Enfers

In a contest, Orpheus attempts to place the poem before the judges, but they are furious when they discover that the initial letters of the words spell MERDE, a crude acrostic that shocks the point of the competition and underscores the film’s defiant, dreamlike humor.

While Orpheus is absorbed in the contest, Eurydice is murdered by her ex-friends, the Bacchantes. Upon his return, he resolves to rescue her from death itself, guided by the angel Heurtebise, Heurtebise [François Périer]. This guide helps him pass through the mirror and complete the perilous journey to bring Eurydice back to life, though their life together is doomed by a rule: he must not look upon her.

The Bacchantes reappear to torment him, accusing him of submitting an obscene poem. In the climactic reversal, Orpheus is decapitated, and Eurydice leads him back through the mirror. The angel places the severed head on a pedestal, where, in response to questions from the police, it declares it is Jean Cocteau and then supplies Cocteau’s address: 10 rue d’Anjou.