Jean Cocteau, 1949, 95 min.
This is, without a doubt, Cocteau’s best film. Orphée is clearly based on the ancient myth in which Orpheus (Jean Marais) descends into the underworld to rescue his wife, Eurydice (Marie Déa), from death. Cocteau’s vision of the afterlife is rooted in modern realities: a bombed-out urban landscape, for example, and messages from the other side communicated through a car radio.