At the beginning of Black Orpheus, a sense of unity and community is established as everyone recognizes and acknowledges each other while walking down the streets. Following this, there is a clip of a little boy flying a kite. The kite begins to fly beyond his control and there is a minor struggle. Introductions are typically very important in revealing themes in films so it made me wonder if it was a metaphor. However, with lack of context in the first few minutes it would be hard to decipher the meaning and symbolism of this ‘potential’ metaphor. 

Then, a woman – the main character, I am guessing – is called a ‘caged bird’ by a man on the street. This is a commonly used term and is similar to the saying ‘a damsel in distress’. I predict that this will be important because, immediately after, there is a clip of a woman being trapped in a crowd of men, looking lost and anxious. 

Something important to note was the flamboyancy of the crowd. There was a lot of dancing, singing, and drums in the streets which is a stereotype of Latin American culture. These scenes, loud in more than one way, juxtapose clips of silent, empty streets. This had me wondering if this was intended to represent some sort of dichotomy or rather to put emphasis on the potential metaphor of the ‘caged bird’.

My question is: how do stereotypes in representation aid and affect a culture?