Acceptable Desire - Orpheus
I really enjoyed this movie, especially how it adapts the Greek myth of Orpheus. For context, the Greek myth tells the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, Orpheus being an astounding musician/poet and Eurydice his wife. When Eurydice dies, Orpheus travels to the underworld in hopes of bringing her back from the dead. Hades, the god of death, makes an agreement that she may follow him out, as long as he leaves the underworld without looking back to her. At the very last stretch, Orpheus fails when he turns around to look at Eurydice, and Eurydice is trapped forever in the underworld. The movie takes this and transfers it into a pretty striking story of what love/desire is accepted vs. what isn't.
The movie has two love interests in the form of both Eurydice and “Princess” or Death, with the difference between the two being Eurydice as the acceptable form of love and desire, and Death representing the unacceptable. While Orpheus is in love with both Death and Eurydice, in the end only one of those relationships is “allowed” and the end of the movie reflects this, with death allowing herself to be “arrested” so that Orpheus may live a normal life with his normal love, Eurydice. Another thing that is interesting to me about this is that once Orpheus encounters Death he is immediately engulfed in thoughts of her (through the radio) and when they meet again in the underworld and Eurydice is brought back, he lives out a limited marriage with Eurydice and only dreams about death, who watches over him as he sleeps. Using these interesting dynamics we can compare the relationship between death and Orpheus to the relationships the director of the movie experienced in his real life, making the Orpheus & Death romance resemble a homosexual one, in that it was forbidden.
I really enjoyed your comments and thoughts about this movie. I think its interesting to look at the fact that death was supposedly another love interest. I think its cool that you dove into thinking about how the directors life love was forbidden and that he incorporated it in his movie in a way that was acceptable to the audience at the time.
ReplyDeleteWow, you just totally cracked my brain open with this post. That bit you have at the end there, talking about how the relationship between Orpheus & Death resembles a homosexual one because of it's forbidden nature. I never would have thought of that, that is so smart. Because, like you said about the relationships the Director had in the passed. It all kind of starts to make way better sense once you look at it from this perspective. Super awesome post, thanks again for literally helping me see the bigger picture!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment! Super happy that I helped ya unlock a new perspective on things. It all just makes me really wonder if Death was meant to be a woman at all.....?
DeleteShawn, thank you! I struggled to find the queer undertones in this film outside of the costumes but when I started reading your thoughts it all started to piece together. Eurydice's representation of something comfortable and acceptable in society wasn't enough for Orpheus and he was encapsulated by the Princess. I hadn't looked at Death as a representation of something queer because she was the textbook definition of Femme Fatale but the forbidden nature of her love with Orpheus does speak volumes. Thanks again for this perspective!
ReplyDeleteShawn, can you edit your profile so your name shows up on your post? I'm not seeing it and I wouldn't have known it was you if you hadn't responded to Donovan's comment.
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