Editor's Note
ORFEU, from Brazilian director Carlos Diegues, is a new interpretation of the Orpheus myth about a musician who abandons his lover to follow the flow of the Rio de Janeiro Carnival. The film is an adaptation of the play by Vinicius de Moraes. With a wonderfully melodic musical score by reknowned Brazilian musician Caetano Veloso, the sounds of the bassa nova express Brazil's combined lonliness and festiveness, consistent with the story of Orfeu and Euridice.Orfeu (Toni Garrido), is a charismatic samba composer and performer living in the Carioca Hill district of Rio de Janeiro. His best friend, Lucinho (Murilo Benicio) is a tough street hustler, mixed up with drugs and a bad crowd. Euridice (Patricia Franca), is sultry and beautiful, as an out-of-town visitor who falls in love with Orfeu. But the film is not all carnival mystique. With a contemporary bent, focusing on the slums of Rio where rappers and drug pushers cohabitate, ORFEU gives a serious and sometimes disturbing look at the racial prejudices and gang violence that exists in those slums. Yet, the seductive, creative, beautiful atmosphere that Diegues makes of this area of Rio is undeniably real, and the reason that ORFEU succeeds.
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