I first saw this as a student at Yale and was mesmerized throughout the whole film. Yes, Jean Marais wasn't, perhaps, the greatest actor and if he wasn't Cocteau's lover he'd probably not have been in the film; on the other hand, his looks are an asset to the part. But Maria Casares as the Princess of Death steals every scene she's in.
Many, I suspect, have not understood the place at the end of the film where the Princess directs Huertebise to smother Orphée. But I don't think its meaning is that obscure: since he is already in the underworld, smothering him reverses the process; at that point in the film both Orphée and Huertebise walk backwards and Orphée finds himself back in his home with Eurydice. The symbolism of the mirrors also signals reversal, in this case, of images.
For me, the most striking image in the film is Heurtebise, moving but motionless, leading Orphée to the underworld looking like a dead man (which he really is.) against whom a strong wind is blowing. Again there are, in this scene, images of glass and mirrors no doubt borrowed from the Surrealists.
Many, I suspect, have not understood the place at the end of the film where the Princess directs Huertebise to smother Orphée. But I don't think its meaning is that obscure: since he is already in the underworld, smothering him reverses the process; at that point in the film both Orphée and Huertebise walk backwards and Orphée finds himself back in his home with Eurydice. The symbolism of the mirrors also signals reversal, in this case, of images.
For me, the most striking image in the film is Heurtebise, moving but motionless, leading Orphée to the underworld looking like a dead man (which he really is.) against whom a strong wind is blowing. Again there are, in this scene, images of glass and mirrors no doubt borrowed from the Surrealists.