{"id":320,"date":"2004-12-04T23:26:00","date_gmt":"2004-12-04T23:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=320"},"modified":"2004-12-04T23:26:00","modified_gmt":"2004-12-04T23:26:00","slug":"320","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=320","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

A Fistfight at the Poets’ Caf\u00e9<\/strong><\/p>\n

When I was about 15, I saw Jean Cocteau’s<\/a> Orf\u00e9e<\/em><\/a>, a film based on the Greek legend of Orpheus the poet, his wife, Eurydice, and their journeys into Hades.<\/p>\n

Most of it went right by me. I was not prepared for its intensity nor its shamanic overtones. All I really remembered were Death’s outriders on their motorcycles.<\/p>\n

I watched it again last night and was amazed. Made in 1949, it is still a compelling film. This film has the imperious logic of a dream: you don’t know exactly why things are happening as they do, but they are “right” all the same. Surrealist poetry coming from the radio of a Rolls-Royce? Of course.<\/p>\n

All of this is done in black-and-white with a minimum of special effects.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Fistfight at the Poets’ Caf\u00e9 When I was about 15, I saw Jean Cocteau’s Orf\u00e9e, a film based on the Greek legend of Orpheus the poet, his wife, Eurydice, and their journeys into Hades. Most of it went right by me. I was not prepared for its intensity nor its shamanic overtones. All I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s6xQTg-320","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":916,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=916","url_meta":{"origin":320,"position":0},"title":"The Dark is Rising . . . on Film","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"July 31, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"In the heart of the English Fen County, Pluvialis is spitting . . . . . . chips and blood. I am crackling with furious static. Any minute now, small pieces of paper, coins and pens are going to drag themselves across the tabletop, bent and pulled towards me by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"movies\"","block_context":{"text":"movies","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=movies"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12280,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=12280","url_meta":{"origin":320,"position":1},"title":"Short Film: “The Cunning Man”","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"June 10, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"So you want to be the cunning man at the edge of the village? Here is what you need to do. From Hookland to John O'Groats, British folk horror is having some kind of revival. Or maybe it's just what I am reading these days. Read more about this short\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Britain\"","block_context":{"text":"Britain","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=britain"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12885,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=12885","url_meta":{"origin":320,"position":2},"title":"Talking about Robert Eggers’ “The Northman”","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"April 27, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"In the spring of 2018, M. and I were preparing for a week in Salem, Mass., so we watched several movies about Salem, witch trials, etc. One of them was The Witch, directed by Robert Eggers. At the time, I had more to say about Three Sovereigns for Sarah, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Denmark\"","block_context":{"text":"Denmark","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=denmark"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Screenshot-2022-04-27-at-21-01-55-The-Northman-2022.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Screenshot-2022-04-27-at-21-01-55-The-Northman-2022.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/Screenshot-2022-04-27-at-21-01-55-The-Northman-2022.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":11101,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=11101","url_meta":{"origin":320,"position":3},"title":"“Pagans,” a Short Documentary Film","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 25, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"? Oooh, scary Pagans! We spend a lot of time with the curtains drawn, gazing at candles, right. We wear black robes . . .\u00a0 Seriously, there is some good stuff here: Pagans, a short documentary. To tell the story of the dramatic rise of neo-paganism in America, though, you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"American religion\"","block_context":{"text":"American religion","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=american-religion"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":371,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=371","url_meta":{"origin":320,"position":4},"title":"Helenic Paganism on DVD","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"February 2, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Contemporary followers of traditional Greek religion got some attention during the recent Athens Olympics, and a new documentary film (made before the games) should help more. (For my earlier posts, see also here and here.)I Still Worship Zeus, a recently released feature-length documentary film directed by Jamil Said, includes footage\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"Greece\"","block_context":{"text":"Greece","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=greece"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13163,"url":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?p=13163","url_meta":{"origin":320,"position":5},"title":"Peg Aloi Wraps Up Witchy, Pagan and Occult-themed Films & TV","author":"Chas S. Clifton","date":"December 18, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Pagan film critic\/professor Peg Aloi looks at 2022's offerings and concludes,\"This year was a veritable sparkly cornucopia of weird, witchy, wonderful films and TV steeped in occult and pagan imagery and storylines.\" This was number one: You Won\u2019t Be Alone (2022 Sometimes States prescription to Table to explore incentive of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"film\"","block_context":{"text":"film","link":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/?tag=film"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/You-Wont-Be-Alone-1024x683.webp?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/You-Wont-Be-Alone-1024x683.webp?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blog.chasclifton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/You-Wont-Be-Alone-1024x683.webp?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.chasclifton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}