‘Black Orpheus’: The controversial movie Morgan Freeman called his all-time favourite
Morgan Freeman has been in the business long enough to speak his mind when he feels like it. For six decades, the Oscar winner has been a quiet force to be reckoned with on stage and screen, earning his spot as one of Hollywood’s most familiar and respected stars. With his deep, velvety voice, he’s often been cast in roles of mentors, presidents, and deities – a wise elder who brings the other characters down to earth when they most need it. His characters have often veered well into the trope Spike Lee called the “Magical Negro” stereotype, but Freeman is such an indelible presence on screen that he has become his own category over the years.
In interviews, he often strikes a similarly sage tone to his characters. He isn’t an outgoing subject likely to regale his interviewer with showbiz yarns. Still, he will drop some unfiltered opinions and pearls of wisdom that take the conversation in a new direction. “What month is white history month?” He politely asked a journalist when the topic of Black History Month came up. Not surprisingly, the white interviewer struggled to find a response.
During a 2003 interview with The Guardian, he pulled his usual knack for surprise when he was asked to name his favourite movie of all time. “Orfeu Negro,” he responded without hesitation. When the interviewer admitted to never having heard of it, the actor was gleeful. “Aha!” He said. “Look it up.”
Otherwise known as Black Orpheus, the 1959 film was directed by French filmmaker Marcel Camus and set the Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice in a favela in Rio de Janeiro during Carnaval. Featuring an all-Black cast, the movie was a remake of a hit stage play written by Brazilian playwright Vinicius de Moraes, which helped usher in the new style of samba called bossa nova. It was a groundbreaking play in Brazil but became controversial there when it was adapted into a film.
The story follows the fateful love affair between a musician and a young woman who are torn apart and must fight Death. Its hyper-stylised costumes, bossa nova score from pioneering musicians Antônio Carlos Jobim and Luiz Bonfá, and dazzling production line made it a hit internationally. It won the Academy Award for ‘Best Foreign Language Film’ in 1960 and the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival and was met with rapturous reviews.
In Brazil, however, it received a cool reception and was heavily criticised for stereotyping and exoticising the country and Black people more broadly. It didn’t help matters that Marpessa Dawn, who played Eurydice, was from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, rather than Brazil. As international audiences swooned, Brazilians all but disowned the entire story.
Black Orpheus is still considered a classic and is revered for its music and visual style, but over the decades, its portrayal of its subjects has been condemned outside of Brazil as just another example of the exoticising of Black characters in popular culture. In 1999, Brazilian filmmaker Carlos Diegues made his own adaptation of Moraes’ play in an attempt to reclaim the story, but while it was the country’s selection for ‘Best Foreign Film’ at the Oscars, it wasn’t nominated.
