The Myth of Orpheus and Eurydice is a 10-minute short film in four parts made to promote the Gucci Pre-Fall 2016 fashion line. Based on the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, it sets the ancient tale in modern-day New York City. Music was done by Dev Hynes of Blood Orange.
Orpheus and Eurydice are happily married and spend their days together in wedded bliss, but trouble arises when the jealous Aristaeus makes a move on Orpheus. When he rejects her advances, she kills Eurydice with a snake and sends her to the Underworld, depicted as a seedy nightclub. With his music, Orpheus petitions Hades to let Eurydice go, and he agrees on one condition: that he never look back at Eurydice, or she'll be lost forever.
The film can be seen here
.
This film contains examples of:
- Cruel Twist Ending: Unlike most versions of the story, Orpheus and Eurydice both make it out...only for him to turn and lose her after the escape, as Exact Words are in play.
- Don't Look Back: Like the myth, Hades tells Orpheus he can't look back at Eurydice during his escape. It turns out he can't look back at her at all, and doing so after they've escaped sends Eurydice back to Hades.
- Exact Words: Hades' conditions say Orpheus can never look back at Eurydice or she'll be lost to him forever. This doesn't only apply to their escape, as he turns when they're safely away and she vanishes.
- Gender Flip: Aristaeus is a man in mythology, but is a woman in the film, and her affections are shifted from Eurydice to Orpheus.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Aristaeus watches Orpheus and Eurydice kiss and inserts herself in Eurydice's place. When Orpheus rejects her, she kills Eurydice.
- If I Can't Have You…: After Orpheus rejects Aristaeus's advances in favor of his wife, she kills Eurydice out of spite towards him.
- Karma Houdini: Unlike the myth, where Aristaeus was punished for his role in Eurydice's death by losing his bees (in essence, his livelihood), this Aristaeus gets no comeuppance for tempting Orpheus and killing Eurydice.
- Magic Realism: The film is set in a dreamlike reality where Aristaeus appears to displace Eurydice during her and Orpheus's kiss and may or may not turn into the snake that kills her, while after Orpheus turns around, Eurydice vanishes into thin air.
- Match Cut: Aristaeus intruding on Orpheus is done by matching shots of Eurydice kissing him with shots of Aristaeus kissing him and switching between the two.
- Ouroboros: The Underworld's logo is a snake eating its own tail.
- Red and Black and Evil All Over: Aristaeus and Hades, the two antagonists, dress exclusively in red and black. The snake that kills Eurydice is a red-and-black coral snake, and Hades' underground nightclub is lit in harsh red and blue light that blends to look black.
- Rescued from the Underworld: After Aristaeus kills Eurydice, Orpheus heads to Hades' underworld nightclub to rescue her. They make it out, but turning back at any point makes him lose her.
- Rule of Symbolism: Orpheus and Eurydice's wedding outfits both have snake patterns, foreshadowing the latter's death by snakebite.
- Setting Update: From Ancient Greece to modern-day New York City, with modern fashions to match.
- Silence Is Golden: The only spoken words in the entire film are when Hades lays out his conditions; all the rest is in silence to let the music and visuals tell the story.
- Snakes Are Sinister: Hades' club has an Ouroboros snake as a symbol, and both he and Aristaeus are associated with the snake that bites and kills Eurydice.
