Marcel Camus
1912 - 1982Camus was born in Chappes, Ardennes, France and died in Paris. He studied art and intended to become an art teacher. However, World War II interrupted his plans. He spent part of the war in a German prisoner-of-war camp.
Prior to directing films, Camus assisted filmmakers in France, including Jacques Feyder, Luis Buñuel, and Jacques Becker. He directed nearly a dozen films, including Orfeu Negro (also known as Black Orpheus), which won the Palme d'Or at the 1959 Cannes Film Festival and the 1960 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
In 1960, Camus made a second Brazlilian-themed film, Os bandeirantes. Twenty years after Orfeu Negro, Camus returned to Brazilian themes for what would prove to be his last film, Bahia (also known as Otalia da Bahia and Os pastores da noite), based on a novel by Brazilian novelist Jorge Amado. These films, however, failed to recapture the success of Orfeu Negro. In 1970, Camus had a moderate success with a World War II comedy, Le Mur de l'Atlantique (The Atlantic Wall), starring the well-known French comedian Bourvil. Camus ended his career working primarily in television.
Camus married one of the stars of Orfeu Negro, Marpessa Dawn.
Camus is buried in Père Lachaise Cemetery.
Source: Article "Marcel Camus" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.
Orfeu Negro
Marcel Camus
Breno Mello, Marpessa Dawn
Young lovers Orfeu and Eurydice run through the favelas of Rio during Carnaval, on the lam from a hitman dressed like Death and Orfeu's vengeful fiancée Mira and passing between moments of fantasy and stark reality. This impressionistic retelling of the Greek legend of Orpheus and Eurydice introduced bossa nova to the world with its soundtrack by young Brazilian composers Luiz Bonfá and Antonio Carlos Jobim.
Black Orpheus
Dragon Sky
Marcel Camus
Narie Hem, Sam El
A beautiful dancer has two admirers -- one is a young worker whom she has only met by accident, and the other is an unscrupulous businessman. The worker had been training as a Buddhist monk and as his interest in the dancer and the businessman's pursuit of the woman develop, the dancer and the former monk end up at the archaeological site of Angkor.
Bird of Paradise
Otalia de Bahia
Marcel Camus
Antônio Pitanga, Mira Fonseca
The adventures of Otalia, a strangely innocent young Brazilian prostitute who has just arrived in Salvador, Bahia. Though her belongings are stolen from her shortly after arrival, Otalia swiftly meets up with a group of charming and helpful friends.
Bahia
Le Mur de l'Atlantique
Marcel Camus
Bourvil, Jean Poiret
1944. Léon Duchemin owns a restaurant with his sister. His clients are Germans, Résistance et black marketeers. Léon unwillingly joins the Résistance when a British pilot is shot down and hides in his attic and, through a series of mishaps, he accidentally steals the plans for Hitler's V1 missiles.
Atlantic Wall
