'Granite Orpheus' premieres at Colonial, first film opening in decades

"The bird sings with its fingers."

"A single glass of water lights the world."

"Silence goes faster backwards."

These phrases from Jean Cocteau’s original version of the film “Orpheus” captivated Rick Broussard after he saw the picture as a 20-year-old in a college film program. The same program later featured “Black Orpheus,” a 1959 romantic tragedy directed by filmmaker Marcel Camus, set during Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro.

Years later, the mysterious lines came back to mind for the longtime editor of New Hampshire Magazine. He and a colleague, filmmaker John Hession, started hatching an idea to create a New Hampshire-based version of the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice, with nods to both Cocteau’s and Camus’ versions, and film the movie in one weekend, during Market Days in Concord. That