April 21 - Marcel Camus

Happy Birthday, Marcel Camus! Born today in 1912, this French film director, among his credits, is best known for his second feature. 

  

This was for co-writing and directing the 1959 Brazilian/French/Italian drama/romance tragedy film 'Orfeu Negro' ('Black Orpheus'). Afterwards, he won international acclaim. 

  

Shot in vivid Eastmancolor, the film follows young lovers Orfeu (Breno Mello) and Eurydice (Marpessa Dawn) as they run through the favelas of Rio during Carnaval, on the lam from a hitman dressed like Death (Ademar Da Silva) and Orfeu's vengeful fiancée Mira (Lourdes de Oliveira).  

  

Passing between moments of fantasy and stark reality, this impressionistic retelling of the Greek legend of Orpheus and Eurydice introduced bossa nova to the world with its soundtrack by young Brazilian musicians. 

  

These were Brazilian guitarist and composer Luiz Bonfá and Brazilian composer, pianist, songwriter, arranger and singer Antonio Carlos Jobim. 

  

'Black Orpheus' truly brings the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice to the twentieth-century madness of Carnival in Rio de Janeiro.  

  

With its eye-popping photography by French cinematographer Jean Bourgoin and a ravishing, epochal soundtrack, 'Black Orpheus' was an international cultural event, kicking off the bossa nova craze that set hi-fis across America spinning. 

  

The film is a retelling of Brazilian poet, lyricist, essayist, and playwright Vinicius de Moraes' 1956 three-act stage play Orfeu da Conceição. However, Moraes denounced the film for not adhering to his work. 

  

'Black Orpheus' later won the Palme d'Or at the 12th Cannes Film Festival that same year. The following year, it won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film at the 32nd Academy Awards in early April 1960. 

  

Camus later married one of the stars of 'Black Orpheus', that being Marpessa Dawn. 

  

Camus had been active from 1957–1982. 

  

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