There are certain movies which only exist because someone has needed to make them. They are too weird to be mainstream and too proud of their unusual style to truly be weird. This is by no means a complaint. When people lean very hard into style over substance it is always, always worth a look, especially in the modern moment. We are so used to movies and TV shows made with no elegance whatsoever that Orfeo is a huge treat. Something trying to tell a story with wit and originality, even if is not quite matched by the talents involved, is still incredible to see, and there’s enough beauty within Orfeo to make it a riveting watch.
Orfeo (Luca Vergoni) is a pianist in a heavily stylised Milanese nightclub where ballerina Eura (Giulia Maenza) likes to come listen to him. They walk around the heavily stylised city and as Orfeo falls in love he starts to think they might have a future together. But Eura is disappeared into the heavily stylised underworld, and poor bereft Orfeo is compelled to follow. Perhaps to rescue her, perhaps to learn about himself. The journey is told with a mix of live-action and animation, sometimes within the same frame, and with Orfeo’s piano music echoing constantly as he searches. The splendid costumes by Sara Costantini (who has clearly paid close attention to the work of Eiko Ishioka, always a good idea) make sure we always have something extraordinary to look at even if the quest itself is not new. And yet this legend about the fickle nature of love, how difficult it is to trust and how overwhelming a relief it can be to give yourself over to darkness hasn’t aged a minute.
Production designers Riccardo Carelli and Federica Locatelli excelled themselves, providing an Art Nouveau representation of all the trouble in which young Orfeo finds himself so seriously out of his depth. There are a great many speeches about love and fortune but we know the story. Where Orfeo truly delivers is how it makes this young man’s suffering mix into his artistic skill, as it becomes clear his talent and his quest are inescapably intertwined. Beautiful Eura, who is not quite prepared for the depth of his attraction, can be pleasantly surprised. Director Virgilio Villoresi, who also edited and adapted the graphic novel by Dino Buzzati with Alberto Fornari and Marco Missiroli, is clearly on a mission here, and this is only to be encouraged. Art is about feelings which must be expressed, and when they are expressed with such unusual beauty and tender care all cinephiles should pay attention.
Orfeo recently played at the Venice International Film Festival.
Learn more about the film at the official Venice site for the title.
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