Orphee

 The 1950 Jean Cocteau film "Orphée" is a modern retelling of the Orpheus myth, of course, but has more to say. There are marital issues; the role of the artist; fame and its attendant arrogance; poetry and its inspiration; enchantment with Death. Death is a mesmerizing character, a beautiful and strange woman whose car radio receives strange, surreal poetry. Orpheus is a famous poet (this was surely possible in 1950s France) and his patient, pregnant wife is worried about his obsession with the radio. Heurtebise is a ghost chauffeur and has always been by far my favorite character. In fact, if you're going for a Cocteau Orphic trilogy film, "Blood of a Poet" is probably the best and strangest, but it has a significant lack of endearing ghost chauffeur. 

Orpheus is manages to be simultaneously simple and complex, one of my favorite tricks. Any person interested in movies should see it. I love some of the wonderful, practical special effects. Here is another case of making interesting things happen on screen through sheer human creativity, no computer required.

My fun fact for this film is that Death (Maria Casares) had a years-long affair with Albert Camus, the Heurtebise of existentialism.

Best Boy Heurtebise (François Périer), proud of no longer being alive