Orpheus (1950)
A famous poet in postwar Paris, scorned by the Left Bank youth, is in love with both his wife Eurydice and a mysterious princess. Seeking inspiration, the poet becomes obsessed and follows the princess from the world of the living to the land of the dead.
In Orpheus, consciousness is carried by abstract concepts — a plane of “poetic underworld”. The story fights on E8/E10 of the E0–E14 reality ladder, compressing death, poetry, memory, love, jurisdiction.
Same rung, same subject
Films fighting at the same level of reality, about the same things.
Also bends a rule of reality
Other films that change a standing rule of their world — ranked first by those bending it at the same rung.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)alters at E8 · same rung · rigorous
Ghost Town (2008)alters at E8 · same rung · loose
Enter the Void (2010)alters at E8 · same rung · loose
Ghost World (2001)alters at E8 · same rung · loose
A Ghost Story (2017)alters at E8 · same rung · loose
Queer (2024)alters at E8 · same rung · looseAlso hides consciousness here
Other films that move a human interior onto the same kind of thing.
Meet Joe Black (1998)consciousness in abstractions · personified death
Collateral Beauty (2016)consciousness in abstractions · personified abstractions
Inside Out (2015)consciousness in abstractions · inner mind
Inside Out 2 (2024)consciousness in abstractions · personified mindscape
The Seventh Seal (1957)consciousness in abstractions · medieval mortality stage
The Book of Life (2014)consciousness in abstractions · mythic afterlifeSame subject, different mask
The same preoccupations carried by a different kind of thing — grief told through the dead, an animal, a machine.
Just Like Heaven (2005)consciousness in the dead · death, love
Hello World (2019)consciousness in machines · love, memory
A Matter of Life and Death (1946)consciousness carried elsewhere · death, love
The Wraith (1986)consciousness in machines · death, memory
Coco (2017)consciousness in the dead · death, memory
Monster House (2006)consciousness in objects · death, memory
