The Way It Is (film)

Last updated
The Way It Is or Eurydice in the Avenues
Directed by Eric Mitchell
Written byEric Mitchell
Starring Steve Buscemi
Vincent Gallo
Mark Boone Junior
Rockets Redglare
Release date
1985
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

The Way It Is (also known as The Way It Is or Eurydice in the Avenues) is a 1985 American film directed by Eric Mitchell. It marked Steve Buscemi and Vincent Gallo's film debuts. [1]

Contents

Premise

A group of actors are rehearsing for a play when the lead actress in the play turns up dead.

Related Research Articles

<i>Orpheus in the Underworld</i> Opéra bouffon by Jacques Offenbach

Orpheus in the Underworld and Orpheus in Hell are English names for Orphée aux enfers, a comic opera with music by Jacques Offenbach and words by Hector Crémieux and Ludovic Halévy. It was first performed as a two-act "opéra bouffon" at the Théâtre des Bouffes-Parisiens, Paris, on 21 October 1858, and was extensively revised and expanded in a four-act "opéra féerie" version, presented at the Théâtre de la Gaîté, Paris, on 7 February 1874.

<i>Orpheus</i> (film) 1950 French film

Orpheus is a 1950 French film directed by Jean Cocteau and starring Jean Marais. It is the central part of Cocteau's Orphic Trilogy, which consists of The Blood of a Poet (1930), Orpheus (1950), and Testament of Orpheus (1960).

The Auloniads were nymphs who were found in mountain pastures and vales, often in the company of Pan, the god of nature.

Eurydice is a 2003 play by Sarah Ruhl which retells the myth of Orpheus from the perspective of Eurydice, his wife. The story focuses on Eurydice's choice to return to Earth with Orpheus or to stay in the underworld with her father. Ruhl made several changes to the original myth's story-line. The most noticeable of these changes was that in the myth Orpheus succumbs to his desires and looks back at Eurydice, while in Ruhl's version Eurydice calls out to Orpheus perhaps in part because of her fear of reentering the world of the living and perhaps as a result of her desire to remain in the land of the dead with her father. Ruhl's script has been explicitly written so as to be a playground for the designer of the sets.

<i>Black Orpheus</i> 1959 film by Marcel Camus

Black Orpheus is a 1959 romantic tragedy film directed by French filmmaker Marcel Camus, and starring Marpessa Dawn and Breno Mello. It is based on the play Orfeu da Conceição by Vinicius de Moraes, which set the Greek legend of Orpheus and Eurydice in a contemporary favela in Rio de Janeiro during Carnaval. The film was an international co-production among companies in Brazil, France and Italy.

Cynane was half-sister to Alexander the Great, and daughter of Philip II by Audata, an Illyrian princess. She is estimated to have been born in 357 BC.

<i>Orfeu</i> 1999 film directed by Carlos Diegues

Orfeu is a 1999 Brazilian romantic drama film directed by Carlos Diegues, and starring Toni Garrido, Patrícia França and Murilo Benício. Based on the play Orfeu da Conceição by Vinicius de Moraes, the film retells the Greek legend of Orpheus and Eurydice, setting it in the modern context of Rio de Janeiro during Carnival.

HMS <i>Eurydice</i> (1843)

HMSEurydice was a 26-gun Royal Navy corvette which was the victim of one of Britain's worst peacetime naval disasters when she sank in 1878.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orpheus and Eurydice</span> Ancient Greek legend

The ancient legend of Orpheus and Eurydice concerns the fateful love of Orpheus of Thrace for the beautiful Eurydice. Orpheus was the son of Oeagrus and the muse Calliope. It may be a late addition to the Orpheus myths, as the latter cult-title suggests those attached to Persephone. The subject is among the most frequently retold of all Greek myths, being featured in numerous works of literature, operas, ballets, paintings, plays, musicals, and more recently, films and video games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orpheus</span> Legendary musician, poet, and prophet in Greek mythology

In Greek mythology, Orpheus was a Thracian bard, legendary musician and prophet. He was also a renowned poet and, according to the legend, travelled with Jason and the Argonauts in search of the Golden Fleece, and even descended into the underworld of Hades, to recover his lost wife Eurydice.

<i>Eurydice</i> (Anouilh play)

Eurydice is a play by French writer Jean Anouilh, written in 1941. The story is set in the 1930s, among a troupe of travelling performers. It combines skepticism about romance in general and the intensity of the relationship between Orpheus and Eurydice with an other-worldly mysticism. The result is a heavily ironic modern retelling of the classical Orpheus myth. The play has also been performed under the title Point of Departure, a translation by Kitty Black, and on Broadway as Legend of Lovers, in a 1951 production by the Theatre Guild.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eurydice</span> Figure in Greek mythology

Eurydice was a character in Greek mythology and the Auloniad wife of Orpheus, whom Orpheus tried to bring back from the dead with his enchanting music.

<i>Hadestown</i> (album) 2010 studio album by Anaïs Mitchell

Hadestown is the fourth studio album by American folk singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell, and was released by Righteous Babe Records on March 9, 2010. The concept album, which became the basis for the stage musical of the same name, follows a variation on the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, where Orpheus must embark on a quest to rescue his wife Eurydice from the underworld. It has been advertised as a "folk opera". Several of the songs feature singers other than Mitchell, including Justin Vernon, Ani DiFranco, Greg Brown, Ben Knox Miller and Tanya, Petra and Rachel Haden.

Eurydice, often referred to as Adea Eurydice, was the Queen consort of Macedon, wife of Philip III and daughter of Amyntas IV and Cynane.

<i>Parking</i> (1985 film) 1985 French film

Parking is a French fantasy and musical film from 1985. It was directed and written by Jacques Demy, starring Francis Huster, Laurent Malet, and Jean Marais.

<i>You Aint Seen Nothin Yet</i> (film) 2012 film by Alain Resnais

You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet! is a 2012 French-German film directed by Alain Resnais, and loosely based on two plays by Jean Anouilh. The film was shown in competition for the Palme d'Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.

Eric Mitchell is a French born writer, director, and actor who moved to downtown New York City in the early 1970s. He has acted in many No Wave films such as Permanent Vacation (1980) by Jim Jarmusch, but is best known for his own films that are usually written and directed by him: Kidnapped, Red Italy, Underground U.S.A. and The Way It Is or Eurydice in the Avenues, starring Steve Buscemi, Vincent Gallo, Mark Boone Junior and Rockets Redglare. Mitchell worked out of New York City's sordid East Village area in conjunction with Colab and other performance artists and noise musicians. There he created a series of scruffy, deeply personal, short Super 8mm and 16mm films in which he combined darkly sinister images to explore the manner in which the individual is constrained by society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">A Couple of Swells</span> Song by Judy Garland and Fred Astaire

"We're a Couple of Swells" is an American comedy duet song performed by Judy Garland and Fred Astaire in the film Easter Parade (1948). It was written by Irving Berlin. Berlin originally wrote the song "Let's Take an Old-Fashioned Walk" for the scene, but the film's producer, Arthur Freed, persuaded Berlin to change this for a song that would highlight Garland's comedic talent. Berlin wrote the song in about an hour drawing on his experience as a Tin Pan Alley popular songwriter.

<i>Hadestown</i> 2006 musical by Anaïs Mitchell

Hadestown is a sung-through musical with music, lyrics, and book by Anaïs Mitchell. It tells a version of the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Eurydice, a young girl looking for something to eat, goes to work in a hellish industrial version of the Greek underworld to escape poverty and the cold, and her poor singer-songwriter lover Orpheus comes to rescue her.

Orpheus, original title Orphée, is a stage play written by Jean Cocteau, produced in Paris 1926 by Georges Pitoëff and Ludmilla Pitoëff, with decors by Jean Hugo and costumes by Coco Chanel.

References

  1. Goodman, Walter (April 4, 1986). "The Way It Is or Eurydice in the Avenues (1984) SCREEN: 'THE WAY IT IS'". The New York Times .