The Greek myth in Afro-Brazilian cultural space (studying the film “Black Orpheus” directed by M. Camus)

Abstract

The article focuses on the study of the peculiarities of interpretation of Greek myth in the Afro-Brazilian cultural space using the material of the film “Black Orpheus” directed by M. Camus, based on the play “Orfeu da Conceição” by Vinicius de Moraes. The author traces the origins of the appeal to the image of Orpheus in the works of Camus and Moraes, and reveals the connection with the French dramatic tradition and cinema. M. Camus transforms the Greek story through the prism of the culture of the Afro-Brazilian population of Rio de Janeiro — the inhabitants of the favelas. The film brings to the fore the musical component of the myth, with the help of which the originality of the Afro-Brazilian tradition and carnival practices of Latin America are revealed. Orpheus in the film appears as a tram driver, singer and leader of a samba school. His image combines the Dionysian principle (the carnival tradition into which Orpheus is “inscribed”) and the Apollonian (expressed in lyrical songs and cultural codes of bossa nova). The carnival “building” of mythological reality allows us to touch the spiritual layers of the Brazilian tradition — the syncretic cult of Candomble. The space of the Macumba ritual symbolizes the Kingdom of Hades, in which dialogue with Eurydice is carried out through musical magic that opens doors between the worlds. The passage through the Kingdom of the Dead represents a rite of passage in which the hero dies and is reincarnated in a new form: in the finale, Orpheus “transfers” his musical gift to the boy, symbolically gaining new life in him. The interpretation of the ancient Greek plot in the space of Afro-Brazilian carnival practices helps to reveal the civilizational specificity of Latin America and Orfeus as an “eternal image” that embodies the divine gift of love, the magic of music, and eternal existence through a change of forms.

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