The Burnt Orange Heresy

Sony Pictures Classics | Release Date: March 6, 2020

6.3	USER SCORE Generally favorable reviews based on 15 Ratings

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JLuis_001Nov 15, 2020

Unconvincing and underwhelming. Two characteristics that should not be attributed to a mystery thriller, and this one was quite a letdown. Jagger was hilarious because of how flimsy he turned out.

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KenRJun 6, 2021

This is undoubtedly a Stylish picture with good locations, performers, cinematography, and a strong, eerie music score, that actually adds more chills than some of the script elements. It’s interesting for a film about ‘art’ to quite honestlyThis is undoubtedly a Stylish picture with good locations, performers, cinematography, and a strong, eerie music score, that actually adds more chills than some of the script elements. It’s interesting for a film about ‘art’ to quite honestly expose the charlatans and shonky dealings within this sometimes overrated & overpriced, business. Being an international co-production it unfortunately, indulges in some sensationalist type sex scenes, to bring together a couple of unlikely ‘partners in crime’. The first half offers some promise and intrigue between a shady con-man art critic, an obscure artist, and a somewhat immoral art collector - with greed and deception being their catalyst.

Problems begin to overshadow any possibility of the better elements of the story remaining in the foreground when the script gives way to a particularly nasty murder, and some clumsy attempts to cover it up - leading to an ultimately unsatisfactory resolution. Thriller fans may not mind the finale but those who look for more believable outcomes could be left disappointed. The participation of rock star Mick Jagger does little to advance him as a film star - beyond being an odd interest. The rest of the cast acquit themselves well, with what they have to work with.… Expand

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hnestlyontheslyMar 6, 2020

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The Burnt Orange Heresy has easily been my favorite film of the Cinequest Film Festival so far. It’s hard to talk about this film without revealing any spoilers, so this might be better for a retrospective after you’ve finished it. Elizabeth Debicki lounges by pools, flirts with men, and plays the “Cool Girl” in the same vein as Amy Dunne in Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl. Claes Bang plays an imperfect copy of a copy of Pierce Brosnan, slimy, charming enough, constantly impressed by his own cleverness. The two have a coyly fatalistic chemistry.

Early in the movie, the morning after their first night together, Bernice (Debicki) slyly asks, “Do you ever start wondering how something that’s beginning will end?” and the two muse over alternate doomsday scenarios, James (Bang) predicting his jealousy will get the better of him, Bernice foreseeing herself “whored out” at art gala receptions, before James gamely proposes a sort of art gala reception weekend together. Their predictions are both half true, which goes well with so many of the other multivalent moments in this movie: James’s questioning of Bernice’s real name, his suspicion of her accent, the way James tries to hold Bernice accountable for her betrayal in his dream, the provenance of the Debney painting at the end. Neither Bernice or James are anchored firmly in the facts, as displayed by James’s opening monologue, the speech he gives about being an art critic, and by Bernice’s insistence to Debney that she is a rock, not an egg. (“The saddest kind of egg is the one that thinks it’s a rock,” says Debney.)

When the scene cuts to their roadtrip, we hear in the voice over, a message being left on voicemail for Bernice, informing her that her check for a thousand dollars hasn’t cleared. This is our first indication that Bernice may not be all she says she is. What is the overdraft check for? Is it for the abortion we hear about later when she’s removing her “mask” for the elusive Southern painter, Jerome Debney? Even Bernice’s work has created a fiction for her leave of absence: “Officially, I’m on leave to have a cyst removed,” a neat little turn of phrase for a Catholic school teacher’s operation. In which case, Bernice reveals to Debney an incomplete truth. She tells him about the abortion and her sudden impulse to extend her trip through Europe, but not about the way she has dodged paying for her operation. Why does she withhold that information? Is her omission the reason why we get the shot of her footsteps unsettling swarms of flies as they leave the beach, or is that simply foreshadowing her return to the beach later in the film? On that point, who are the flies for? When Debney is questioned about the symbolism of the flies in an artist’s work, he scoffs, suggests the story of the portraits themselves is a myth, which is significant because it mirrors his own story and he’s the first to suggest it as a possibility. Man and his wife I was talking to afterwards said that the movie’s symbols felt crowded and unstable and didn’t really follow through, which makes me think more about the motif of the flies and the way that they interact with James and Bernice.

Bernice and James never quite feel comfortable enough to be honest with the other, in part because Bernice doesn’t want to disrupt the fiction she’s created for herself, but also because James anticipates that his true motives will be anathema to her. Cassidy is in many ways the only person who uses truth, but only when it is to his advantage. He’s asks James if he was “used to validate a fortune” (Girl With a Red Scarf), but he also sells that fake to the TATE. When James asks him at the gallery how Debney dies, he says “heart attack or drowning, they fished him out of the pool and he was quite blue.” The truth for Cassidy is that Debney is dead. It doesn’t matter so much the details of how he is said to have died.

The metatheatricality of James and Bernice’s budding relationship is one of the most delightful parts of this movie for me. The way these two lovers dive into their “first row” by gesturing at the illusion of deeper knowledge of one another is humorous and tense: “Say something bad about my character and make it stick,” he demands. “You treat serious things as if they were trivial and trivial things as if they were serious,” she responds. And before James can yes-and the game with a showy flourish of his savagery, Bernice disarms him with a question which drips with foreshadowing, but at the time feels like an oddly deft yet sweet play on her part.… Expand

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rmurray847Aug 10, 2023

I'll admit I put on my Criterion BluRay of BLACK ORPHEUS with scant enthusiasm. I honestly knew nothing about the film and the brief description on the box didn't really sell the film to me. But I am working my way through the films ofI'll admit I put on my Criterion BluRay of BLACK ORPHEUS with scant enthusiasm. I honestly knew nothing about the film and the brief description on the box didn't really sell the film to me. But I am working my way through the films of Criterion and have an agreement with myself not to skip any just because they don't sound great. I've exposed myself to some great films with that approach; movies like THE ASCENT, which I never would have watched otherwise and which now are among my favorites.

BLACK ORPHEUS proved to be entertaining and fairly enjoyable, without really grabbing me. The Criterion bonus features were essential viewing for an uninformed viewer such as myself, so that I could understand the context of this film a little better. That it is widely considered responsible for bringing the excitement of Carnaval in Rio to the world in general is well worth knowing. That it is credited for popularizing the bossa nova is great to know. But does this background make it a great movie to view today?

Yes and no. Black Orpheus is a retelling of the tragic Greek myth of the love between Orpheus and Eurydice (although it's actually based on a play that is this retelling), set against the background of Carnaval. The characters are now citizens of the poorer outskirts of Rio, preparing to celebrate in the big city. Orfeu, his town's lead dancer in the samba school which is going to be parading during Carnaval, is unenthusiastically engaged to Mira. When the enchanting Eurydice comes to town to stay with Serafina (another dancer), Orfeu is immediately drawn to this naïve but lovely young lady. They embark on an affair, stirring up all sorts of domestic turmoil. But in addition, Eurydice is apparently being chased by a strange man she believes wants to kill her (a man dressed in a Death costume, of call things).

The plot of the movie, though neatly related to the Greek story, is really not that terribly interesting, truth be told. The character actions and motivations are often sketchy, and the "death" character is not even remotely adequately explained.

What gives this movie life is the almost constant music and the nearly as constant background of dancing. The drumbeats of the bossa nova are almost always at least in the background if not in the foreground. The villagers wear wild costumes for the festive occasion. The locale is humid and everyone sweats all the time. The atmosphere created by the film is one of frenetic forward movement. One can certainly see why the film popularized the music. It's in the blood, the DNA of the film. What would be a silly drama becomes something actually akin to myth with the addition of all this music. It heightens passions. It creates forward momentum even during introspective moments. And the dance sequences, though filmed in a stagey manner by today's standards, are prolonged and come close to drawing the viewer in to their ecstatic nature. The people in this film can't help but dance; it's palpable.

Without spoiling anything, the latter sections of the film require Orpheus to travel through the underworld of Rio, to some strange locales. These sequences are almost from another film, which is actually totally appropriate. He's gone from the happy, sensuous world of his village and the celebrations on the street to the mysterious and foreboding dark alleys of a sometimes unfriendly city.

In the end, I was very content to have seen the film. The music is sensational. There are ample moments of light and fun. But while it captured my tapping feet and my musical brain, it didn't grab my heart, at least not enough to overlook the sometimes half-baked melodrama. It's tough to recommend the film on its own merits.

Criterion has done a great job, as usual, and their version is the one to see. Allow yourself another 45 minutes or so to enjoy some of the terrific little documentaries that accompany the film.… Expand

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