Friday evening features a screening of Jean Cocteau’s Orpheus. The 1950s update of the Greek myth depicts Orpheus as a poet seeking inspiration and scorned by the Parisian Left Bank youth. Orpheus is in love with both his wife, Eurydice, and a mysterious princess who is Death personified. The poet follows the princess into the underworld, leading us into an enchanting tale of love and death. Orpheus’ peerless visual poetry and dreamlike storytelling represent the legendary Cocteau at the height of his powers.
On Saturday evening, Marcel Camus’s award-winning Orfeu Negro (Black Orpheus) (1959) brings the ancient Greek myth to the 20th-century madness of Carnival in Rio de Janeiro. Winner of both the Academy Award for best foreign language film and the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or, the film is a stunning visual and auditory masterpiece with its eye-popping photography and ravishing sound track by Antonio Carlos Jobim and Luis Bonfa. Black Orpheus was an international cultural event, and it kicked off the bossa nova craze that set hi-fis spinning across America.
While viewing these films, visitors will be able to enjoy specialty cocktails and a delicious selection of culinary offerings, including gourmet boxed meals and fresh-popped popcorn, at the Getty Villa Café. On Friday evening, a Kir Royal cocktail will be offered as the perfect pairing for Cocteau’s French-tinged retelling of Orpheus. On Saturday evening, the café will offer a refreshing Mint-Infused Lime Agua Fresca rum cocktail, which evokes the sultry essence of Camus’s Rio de Janeiro.
Tickets are $7.